fashion week 2017 berlin

do you have one of these? i got a little obsessed with mine. in fact i got a little obsessed withall my stuff. have you ever wondered where all thestuff we buy, comes from and where it goeswhen we throw it out? i couldn't stop wondering about that.so i looked it up. and what the text book said,is that stuff moves through a system from extraction to productionto distribution to consumption to disposal. all together, it is called the materials economy.well, i looked into it a little bit more.

in fact, i spent 10 years traveling the world, tracking where our stuff comesfrom and where it goes. and you know what i found out?that is not the whole story. there's a lot missing fromthis explanation. for one thing,this system looks like it's fine. no problem. but the truth is it’s a system in crisis. and the reason it is in crisisis that it is a linear system and we live on a finite planet and you can not run a linear systemon a finite planet indefinitely.

every step along the way, this systemis interacting with the real world. in real life it’s not happeningon a blank white page. it’s interacting with societies, cultures,economies, the environment. and all along the way,it’s bumping up against limits. limits we don't see here becausethe diagram is incomplete. so lets go back through, let's fill insome of the blanks and see what's missing. well, one of the most important things its missingis people, yes people. people live and work all along this system. and some people in this systemmatter a little more than others;

some have a little more say.who are they? well, let’s start with the government. now my friends tell me i should usea tank to symbolize the government and that’s true in many countriesand increasingly in our own, after all more than 50% of our federal tax moneyis now going to the military, but i’m using a personto symbolize the government because i hold true to the vision and valuesthat governments should be of the people, by the people,for the people. it's the governments job to watch out for us,to take care of us. that’s their job.

then along came the corporation. now, the reason the corporationlooks bigger than the government is bigger then the government. of the 100 largest economies on earth now,51 are corporations. as the corporations have grown in size and power,we’ve seen a little change in the government where they’re a little moreconcerned in making sure everything is working outfor those guys than for us. ok, so lets see what else is missingfrom this picture. we'll start with extraction.

which is a fancy word fornatural resource exploitation which is a fancy wordfor trashing the planet. what this looks like is we chop down trees,we blow up mountains to get the metals inside, we use up all the waterand we wipe out the animals. so here we are running upagainst our first limit. we are running out of resources.we are using too much stuff. now i know this can be hard to hear,but it's the truth we’ve gotta deal with it. in the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet’s natural resourcesbase have been consumed. gone.

we are cutting and mining and haulingand trashing the place so fast that we’re undermining the planet’svery ability for people to live here. where i live, in the united states,we have less than 4% of our original forests left. forty percent of the waterwayshave become undrinkable. and our problem is not just thatwe’re using too much stuff, but we’re using more than our share.we have 5% of the world’s population but we’re consuming 30% of the world’s resourcesand creating 30% of the world’s waste. if everybody consumed at u.s. rates,we would need 3 to 5 planets. and you know what?we’ve only got one.

so, my country’s response to this limitationis simply to go take somebody else’s! this is the third world, which– some would say – is another word for our stuff that somehowgot on someone else’s land. so what does that look like?the same thing: trashing the place. 75% of global fisheries now arefished at or beyond capacity. 80% of the planet’s original forests are gone. in the amazon alone,we’re losing 2000 trees a minute. that is seven football fields a minute. and what about the people who live here?

well. according to these guys,they don’t own these resources even if they’ve been living there for generations,they don’t own the means of production and they’re not buying a lot of stuff.and in this system, if you don’t own or buy a lot of stuff,you don’t have value. so, next, the materials move to “production“and what happens there is we use energy to mix toxic chemicals in with the naturalresources to make toxic contaminated products. there are over 100,000 synthetic chemicalsin use in commerce today. only a handful of them have evenbeen tested for health impacts and none have been testedfor synergistic health impacts,

that means when they interact with all the otherchemicals we’re exposed to every day. so, we don’t know the full impact on healthand the environment of all these toxic chemicals. but we do know one thing:toxics in, toxics out. as long as we keep putting toxics intoour inudstrial production systems, we are going to keep getting toxicsin the stuff that we bring into our homes, and workplaces, and schools.and, duh, our bodies. like bfrs,brominated flame retardants. they are a chemical that make thingsmore fireproof but they are super toxic. they’re a neurotoxin–that means toxic to the brainwhat are we even doing using a chemical like this?

yet we put them in our computers, our appliances,couches, mattresses, even some pillows. in fact, we take our pillows,we douse them in a neurotoxin and then we bring them home and put our headson them for 8 hours a night to sleep. now, i don’t know, but it seems to me thatin this country with so much potential, we could think of a better way to stop our headsfrom catching on fire at night. now these toxics build up in the food chainand concentrate in our bodies. do you know what is the foodat the top of the food chain with the highest level of many toxic contaminants?human breast milk. that means that we have reached a point where thesmallest members of our societies - our babies

are getting their highest lifetime dose of toxicchemicals from breastfeeding from their mothers. is that not an incredible violation? breastfeeding must be the most fundamentalhuman act of nurturing; it should be sacred and safe.now breastfeeding is still best and mothers should definitely keep breastfeeding,but we should protect it. they should protect it. i thought they were looking out for us.and of course, the people who bear the biggestof these toxic chemicals are the factory workers,many of whom are women of reproductive age. they’re working with reproductive toxics,carcinogens and more.

now, i ask you,what kind of woman of reproductive age would work in a job exposedto reproductive toxics, except for a woman with no other option?and that is one of the “beauties” of this system? the erosion of local environmentsand economies here ensures a constant supplyof people with no other option. globally 200,000 people a dayare moving from environments that have sustained them for generations, into cities, many to live in slums, looking forwork, no matter how toxic that work may be. so, you see, it is not just resourcesthat are wasted along this system,

but people too.whole communities get wasted. yup, toxics in, toxics out. a lot of the toxicsleave the factories in products, but even more leave as by-products, or pollution.and it’s a lot of pollution. in the u.s., our industry admits to releasingover 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year and it’s probably way moresince that is only what they admit. so that’s another limit, because, yuck, who wants to look at and smell 4 billion poundsof toxic chemicals a year? so, what do they do? move the dirty factories overseaspollute someone else’s land!

but surprise, a lot of that air pollution iscoming right back at us, carried by wind currents. so, what happens after all these resourcesare turned into products? well, it moves here, for distribution. now distribution means “selling all thistoxic-contaminated junk as quickly as possible.” the goal here is to keep the prices down, keep thepeople buying, and keep the inventory moving. how do they keep the prices down?well, they don’t pay the store workers very much and they skimp on health insurance every time theycan. it’s all about externalizing the costs. what that means is the real costs of making stuffaren’t captured in the price. in other words,we aren’t paying for the stuff we buy.

i was thinking about this the other day. i was walkingand i wanted to listen to the news so i popped into a radio shackto buy a radio. i found this cute little green radiofor 4 dollars and 99 cents. i was standing there in line to buy this thingand i was thinking how could $4.99 possiblycapture the costs of making this radio and getting it into my hands?the metal was probably mined in south africa, the petroleum was probably drilled in iraq,the plastics were probably produced in china, and maybe the whole thing was assembledby some 15 year old in a maquiladora in mexico.

$4.99 wouldn’t even pay the rent forthe shelf space it occupied until i came along, let alone part of the staff guy’s salarywho helped me pick it out, or the multiple ocean cruises and truck ridespieces of this radio went on. that’s how i realized, i didn’t pay for the radio.so, who did pay? well. these people paid with the lossof their natural resource base. these people paid with the loss of their clean airwith increasing asthma and cancer rates. kids in the congo paid with their future –30% of the kids in parts of the congo now have had to drop outof school to mine coltan, a metal we need for our cheapand disposable electronics.

these people even paid, by having to covertheir own health insurance. all along this system, people pitched inso i could get this radio for $4.99. and none of these contributionsare recorded in any accounts book. that is what i mean by the company ownersexternalize the true costs of production. and that brings us to the goldenarrow of consumption. this is the heart of the system,the engine that drives it. it is so important that protecting this arrow hasbecome the top priority for both of these guys. that is why, after 9/11,when our country was in shock, and president bush could have suggestedany number of appropriate things:

to grieve, to pray, to hope. no.he said to shop. to shop?! we have become a nation of consumers. our primaryidentity has become that of being consumers, not mothers, teachers, farmers,but consumers. the primary way that our valueis measured and demonstrated is by how much we contribute to this arrow,how much we consume. and do we! we shop and shop and shop. keep the materialsflowing, and flow they do! guess what percentage of total materials flowthrough this system is still in product or use 6 months after the date of sale in north america? fifty percent? twenty? no. one percent. one!in other words, 99 percent of the stuff we harvest, mine, process, transport –99 percent of the stuff we run through this system

is trashed within 6 months.now how can we run a planet with that level of materials throughput?it wasn’t always like this. the average u.s. person now consumestwice as much as they did 50 years ago. ask your grandma. in her day, stewardshipand resourcefulness and thrift were valued. so, how did this happen?well, it didn’t just happen. it was designed. shortly after the world war 2, these guyswere figuring out how to ramp up the economy. retailing analyst victor lebowarticulated the solution that has become the normfor the whole system. he said: "our enormously productive economydemands that we make consumption our way of life,

that we convert the buying and use of goods intorituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. we need things consumed, burned up, replacedand discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.” president eisenhower's councilof economic advisors chairman said that "the american economy's ultimate purposeis to produce more consumer goods." more consumer goods? our ultimate purpose? not provide health care,or education, or safe transportation, or sustainability or justice?consumer goods? how did they get us to jump on boardthis program so enthusiastically?

well, two of their most effective strategies areplanned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence. planned obsolescence is another wordfor “designed for the dump.” it means they actually make stuffto be useless as quickly as possible so we will chuck it and buy a new one. it’s obvious with things like plastic bagsand coffee cups, but now it’s even big stuff: mops, dvds, cameras, barbeques even,everything! even computers. have you noticed thatwhen you buy a computer now, the technology is changing so fastthat in just a couple years, it’s actually an impediment to communication?i was curious about this

so i opened up a big desktop computerto see what was inside. and i found out that the piece that changes each yearis just a tiny little piece in the corner. but you can’t just change that one piece,because each new version is a different shape, so you gotta chuck the whole thingand buy a new one. so, i was reading industrial design journalsfrom the 1950s when planned obsolescence was really catching on.these designers are so open about it. they actually discuss how fastcan they make stuff break that still leaves the consumerhaving enough faith in the product to go out and buy anther one.it was so intentional.

but stuff cannot break fast enoughto keep this arrow afloat, so there’s also“perceived obsolescence.” now perceived obsolescence convinces us tothrow away stuff that is still perfectly useful. how do they do that? well,they change the way the stuff looks so if you bought your stuffa couple years ago, everyone can tell that you haven’t contributedto this arrow recently and since the way we demonstrate our value iscontributing to this arrow, it can be embarrassing like i’ve have had the same fatwhite computer monitor on my desk for 5 years.my co-worker just got a new computer.

she has a flat, shiny, sleek monitor. it matches her computer,it matches her phone, even her pen stand. she looks like she is driving inspace ship central and i, i look like i have a washing machine on my desk. fashion is another prime example of this.have you ever wondered why women’s shoe heels go from fat one year to skinny the next to fat toskinny? it is not because there is some debate about which heel structure is the most healthyfor women’s feet. it’s because wearing fat heels in a skinny heel year shows everybody thatyou haven’t contributed to that arrow recently so you’re not as valuable as that personin skinny heels next to you,

or, more likely, in some ad.it’s to keep buying new shoes. advertisements, and media in general,play a big role in this. each of us in the u.s. is targetedwith over 3,000 advertisements a day. we each see more advertisements in one yearthan people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime. and if you think about it, what is the point of anad except to make us unhappy with what we have? so, 3,000 times a day, we’re told thatour hair is wrong, our skin is wrong, our clothes are wrong, our furniture is wrong,our cars are wrong, we are wrong but that it can all be made rightif we just go shopping. media also helps by hidingall of this and all of this,

so the only part of the materials economy we seeis the shopping. the extraction, production and disposalall happen outside our field of vision. so, in the u.s.we have more stuff than ever before, but polls show that our national happinessis actually declining. our national happiness peaked in the 1950s,the same time as this consumption mania exploded. hmmm. interesting coincidence. i think i know why.we have more stuff, but we have less time for the thingsthat really make us happy: friends, family, leisure time.we’re working harder than ever.

some analysts say that we have lessleisure time now than in feudal society. and do you know whatthe two main activities are that we do with the scantleisure time we have? watch tv and shop. in the u.s., we spend 3 to 4 timesas many hours shopping as our counterparts in europe do.so we are in this ridiculous situation where we go to work, maybe two jobs even,and we come home and we’re exhausted so we plop down on our new couch and watch tvand the commercials tell us “you suck” so we gotta go to the mall to buy somethingto feel better, and then you gotta go to work more

to pay for the stuff you just boughtso you come home and you’re more tired so you sit down and watch more t.v.and it tells you to go to the mall again and we’re on this crazy work-watch-spend treadmilland we could just stop. so in the end, what happensto all the stuff we buy anyway? at this rate of consumption,it can’t fit into our houses even though the averagehouse size has doubled in this country since the 1970s.it all goes out in the garbage. and that brings us to disposal.this is the part of the materials economy we all know the most because we have to haulthe junk out to the curb ourselves.

each of us in the united statesmakes 4 1/2 pounds of garbage a day. that is twice what we eachmade thirty years ago. all of this garbage either gets dumped in alandfill, which is just a big hole in the ground, or if you’re really unlucky, first it’s burned inan incinerator and then dumped in a landfill. either way, both pollute the air, land, waterand, don’t forget, change the climate. incineration is really bad. remember those toxicsback in the production stage? well burning the garbage releasesthe toxics up into the air. even worse, it makes new super toxics.like dioxin.

dioxin is the most toxic man madesubstance known to science. and incinerators are the number onesource of dioxin. that means that we could stop the number onesource of the most toxic man-made substance known just by stopping burning the trash.we could stop it today. now some companies don’t want to dealwith building landfills and incinerators here, so they just export the disposal too.what about recycling? does recycling help? yes, recycling helps.reduces the garbage at this end and it reduces the pressure to mineand harvest new stuff at this end. yes, yes, yes, we should all recycle.but recycling is not enough.

recycling will never be enough.for a couple of reasons. first, the waste coming out of our housesis just the tip of the iceberg. for every one garbage can of wasteyou put out on the curb, 70 garbage cans of wastewere made upstream just to make the junk in that one garbage canyou put out on the curb. so even if we could recycle 100 percent of thewaste coming out of our households, it doesn’t get to the core of the problems.also much of the garbage can’t be recycled, either because it contains too many toxics, or itis designed not to be recyclable in the firs place like those juice packs with layersof metal and paper and plastic

all smooshed together.you can never separate those for true recycling. so you see, it is a system in crisis.all along the way, we are bumping up limits. from changing climate to declining happiness,it’s just not working. but the good thing about suchan all pervasive problem is that there are so many pointsof intervention. there are people working here on saving forestsand here on clean production. people working on labor rights and fair trade and conscious consuming and blockinglandfills and incinerators and, very importantly,on taking back our government

so it is really is by the peopleand for the people. all this work is critically importantbut things are really gonna start moving when we see the connections,when we see the big picture. when people along this system get united,we can reclaim and transform this linear system into something new, a system that doesn’twaste resources or people. because what we really need to chuckis this old-school throw-away mindset. there’s a new school of thinking on this stuffand it’s based on sustainability and equity: green chemistry, zero waste,closed loop production, renewable energy,local living economies.

it’s already happening. now some sayit’s unrealistic, idealistic, that it can’t happen but i say the ones who are unrealistic are thosethat want to continue on the old path. that’s dreaming. remember that old way didn’t just happen.it’s not like gravity that we just gotta live with people created it. and we’re people too.so let’s create something new. subtitles by the amara.org community

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fashion trend forecast 2017

good morning, or goodafternoon, everyone. my name is alli libb,and on behalf of the ama, i'd like to welcomeyou to today's session, sponsored by aquent,entitled, technology trends that willimpact content in 2014. we here at the ama provideyou with this webcast as one of the manyspecial programs we offer to themarketing community. we invite you to participate inthis ongoing series of free web

seminars to drive the greatestreturn on your marketing investment. so, whether that's in research,advertising, promotions, social media orbeyond, our webcasts offer education in allkey areas of marketing. so make sure tojoin us every week for our informative ofthought leader sessions. you can just go toama.org/webcast for more information and enrollment.

before we get started,i'd like to cover a couple of housekeeping items. this session is beingrecorded and it and the pdf of the slides will be madeavailable to you soon. if you have technical orcontent related questions today, you can askthem at any time by using the chat boxlocated on the left-hand side of your screen. you can also ask questionsand post to twitter.

please use the hashtagamaaquent to ensure that we see your post. as i mentioned already,today's webcast is brought to you by aquent. as evolving technicalplatforms and emerging channels have stretched marketing andcreative teams to the limit, aquent's contract andcontract-to-hire staffing services allow companiesto add technical expertise to their marketing andcreative departments,

and increase the bandwidth oftheir in-house teams and more. to learn more aboutaquent services, please visit their site at aquent.com. so with that, it's mypleasure to introduce our speaker today, kyle lacy. kyle is the senior manager ofcontent marketing and research for exacttarget, a leadingprovider of digital marketing and software solutions. kyle has been recognized asone of indiana's 40 under 40

by the indianapolisbusiness journal, as anderson university'syoung alumni of the year, and as tech point's youngprofessional of the year. he is the author ofthe bestselling book, twitter marketing for dummies. so with that, i'll go aheadand turn it over to kyle. thank you. thanks, everybody, for coming. i'm going to give you abrief overview of what

i do at exacttargetmarketing cloud. for those of you that aren'tfamiliar with exacttarget, we are the marketingarm of salesforce. so, salesforcehas cloud entities like the sales cloud,the service cloud, that help businesses do--that help businesses connect to customers. and exacttarget,as of last year, is that marketingcloud side of it.

and that means thatwe deal in everything from social publishing, socialmedia management, email, mobile, everythingthat has to do with connecting to the customer. and my job at theexacttarget marketing cloud is content marketing research. that means that my teamdeals with all the high level content that's being producedfor the exacttarget marketing cloud, globally.

so, that meansresearch reports, that means video, thatmeans case studies, it means a lot ofcontent that we are producing bothfor demand gen, as well as for ourcurrent customer base. at least to help them inthe overall scheme of how they're using our product. and most of thetime, what i have to answer to a lot ofpeople, and also to myself,

is what's next. what's happening next? what's the technology that'sgoing to completely transform the way that we dobusiness constantly? and honestly, it's really hardto figure out what's next, because that's whatwe do as marketers. and i've been searching totry to explain this to people. and this is actuallythe first time that i've played avideo on readytalk,

and i'm reallypumped to do this. but this is louis ck,for those of you who are familiar with them,and it's just really-- it's just a really goodoverview of, i think, what we deal withon a daily basis. so, this is abouta two minute video, and then we'll get intothe bulk of the content. [video playback] -when i read things like,the foundations of capitalism

are shattering, i'mlike, maybe we need that. maybe we need some timewhere we're walking around with a donkey with potsclanging on the sides. -do you think that would justbring us back to reality? -yeah, because everythingis amazing right now, and nobody's happy. like, in my lifetime,the changes in the world have been incredible. when i was a kid, wehad a rotary phone.

we had a phone youhad to stand next to, and you had to dial it. -yes. -do you realize how primitive? you're making sparks in a phone. and you actuallywould hate people with zeros in their numbersbecause it was more, like, uh, thisguy's got two zeros. screw that guy.

why do i want to-- and thenif they called and you weren't home, the phone would justring lonely by itself. and then, if youwanted money, you had to go in the bank, when itwas open for like three hours, and stand in line, writeyourself a check like an idiot. and then when youran out of money, you just go, well, i can'tdo any more things now. i can't do any more things. -that's it, yeah.

-that was it. even if you had a creditcard, the guy would go, uh, and he'd bring out this whole--chung, chung-- and he'd write, he'd have to call the presidentto see if you had any money. -you had to call the president. yeah. it was ridiculous. do you feel that we now,in the 21st century, we take technology for granted?

-well, yeah. because now, we live inan amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on thecrappiest generation of just spoiled idiotsthat don't care. because this is whatpeople are like now. they got their phoneand they're like, uh, it won't-- give it a second! it's going to space. can you give it a secondto get back from space?

is the speed of lighttoo slow for you? i was on an airplane andthere was internet, high speed internet on the airplane. that's the newest thingthat i know exists. and i'm sitting on theplane, and they go, open up your laptop, you cango on the internet. and it's fast, and i'mwatching youtube clips. it's amazing. i'm on an airplane.

and then it breaks down. and they apologize, theinternet's not working. the guy next to me goes,phbbt, this is bull--bull--[bleep]. like, how quickly theworld owes him something he knew existedonly 10 seconds ago. [end video playback] i really love that clip. and for those ofyou that it might have been a littlechoppy, you can

go to youtube and type in,louis ck internet, or louis ck technology, or louisck airplane wi-fi, and it will giveyou the full video. but basically, i feel likethis on a daily basis, and i do this 14 hours a day. right? i'm constantly trying tofigure out what's next. i'm constantlytrying to figure out how to reach peoplewith content,

both on a mobile device, aswell as a tablet, as well as desktop. and at events, andeverything, right? every single touch point. so, when i'm talkingabout what's next, i want to be veryclear that we also have to think about what's now. what's the customer doing now? what are ourprospects doing now?

what technology and whatchannels are they using now? because as a technologistand as communicators, it's very important werealize that what's next is something thatmatters to your strategy. but what's now ishappening right now. and the one thing that ismost important overall, which is the first trend thatis dealing with content, is that data alwaysequals relevance. and that, the bestway that is put,

and it's the bestquote i've ever found, it's from ginnirometty from ibm. what you will see with rapiddata and social sharing is the death of theaverage in the era of you. businesses will be able totruly serve the individual. and so, when we'retalking about trends, and we're talkingabout content, we're talk about channelsand technology and data and software, andeverything we're doing,

it goes to one pointand one point only. businesses will be able to trulyserve the individual based off of what they want. what they want, notwhat we think they want. and jay baer, who wrotethe book called youtility, it's a best seller,youtility-- y-o- utility. it's a great book. i encourage you to check it out. but he talks about thatrapid data and social sharing

actually changing everythingthat has to do with content. so, when i'mthinking about, when my team is thinkingabout content, and we're trying tofigure out content, we're really focusedon two types. number one is empathy,and number two is perspective-taking. and this is fromdaniel pink's new book. he talks more aboutit in a sales sense,

but it actually fits in a lotof marketing realms as well. number one is empathy,which is understanding someone's emotionalstate or feelings. madmen were really, really,really, really good at empathy. i understood theemotional context of the individual, whythey wanted to buy from me. i made an awesome poster,i did an awesome tv ad, and they bought. but what we have todo as communicators,

as content owners,and as marketers, is the second form of this,which is perspective-taking. which is cognitiveand analytical, and it's about understandingsomeone's interest and behavior. so while it's important for usto sit in a room, look at data, look at research, lookat consumer surveys, and try to figure out whysomebody's emotionally bought into aproduct or service,

we also have to take in thecognitive and analytical side of it, which is aboutinterest and behaviors. so when you'rethinking about content, and you're thinkingabout trends-- and data is truly the trend. i'm sorry if anybodywants to talk about connected products,which we'll talk about later. data is it. data allows us todeliver content to people

that know what they want. so we want to try tomeld the two together. and i want to give you avery brief overview of how my team looks at contentfor the marketing cloud, as well as how wecommunicate with salesforce, and how we build content thatmatters both to the prospect, as well as to the prospect. this is directly from my deck. i'm giving you an inside lookin terms of content pillars

and where we focus alot of our content. data tells all. be inspired. personal development. research. and strategy how to. and then the roleof that content. credibility, motivation,lifestyle, thought leadership, education, the weight ofthat, and then the scripture.

and each one of these plays intoeither empathy, like lifestyle or interest, right? and perspective-taking,like data, like making sure youtest your emails sends, ab tests everything. so that's how welook at content. and so, when we'redoing that and when we're tracking that content,it goes through the awareness phase, which a lot of-- andthis is from a google pdf

where they helped us-- thisis from our youtube page in terms of how we measuresuccess-- awareness is very top level. engagement and considerationis the funnel, right? and then sales isthat bottom part where we try tomeasure convergence. so we're going from reach andimpressions, unaided and aided brand awareness, lists andbranded searches, site traffic lists, everything that has todo with that engagement metric.

then we go down to views,cookies, re-marketing, and it's very much agoogle-driven idea right now, for the content. at least on this slide. and then it goesto clicks, sales qualified leads, sales, right? so, when we'rethinking about content, it's important that ifyou're doing truly great content marketing, and thatfirst trend being data,

you have to be able to measureevery single success metric and put a value on thatthrough the entire funnel. and a funnel is kind of aweird way to think about it. it's really easy forus to think about it. but it's trulythat entire process that somebody goes throughwhen they're interacting with your brand, and howare you measuring that. and what tools do you needin order to measure that. so the second trendis, moments matter.

and i use this example. most of you have probablyseen this already. this is a picture of adog jumping into a pool. this is a photographer namedseth casteel out of california, and he was tryingto figure out how to differentiatehimself and his brand. and he had a digitalunderwater camera, and he took a picture of hisdog jumping into a pool, put it on reddit, it went viral.

we're not going totalk about going viral, because that's stupid. he was lucky that itwent viral, and he sold a ton of picturesof his dog underwater. and now, guess what hedoes constantly, globally? is that he takes picturesof dogs underwater. that's all he does. he has a coffee table bookcalled underwater dogs. and i kinda wanted to doa-- i have an idea if i ever

leave software to dolike underwater cats, because i do think thatit would be a little bit more-- a little bit funnierif we had an underwater cat book as well, to go seth's book. but what seth did was he tookadvantage of a moment in time, and he made itbenefit his brand. and that's the same thingthat happens when a customer or prospect interactswith your brand. this is what'scalled a life cycle.

this is one thati use constantly. this is the process that acustomer walks through when they're aware of your brand,evaluating your brand, purchase your brand,use your product, re-purchase yourproduct or service, and then they're an advocateif you do everything the right way. and every single touchpoint along this cycle is a different channel,a different technology,

and a differentinteraction or experience that a customer ishaving with your brand. and guess what? content has to do withevery single one of these. and the more technology,and the more channels that are happening in theworld, the more content and the moreindividualized content we are going to have to create. when we talk aboutmoments matter,

it's that we have to realize ascommunicators in the next five years, 10 years,20 years, customers are at the forefront of this. and every single process,every single product, every single service,every single customer, this is different withevery interaction. we have to be able to usedata to make moments matter. which leads to the third trend,which is consumer mobility. and when we're talkingabout consumer mobility,

i think that this is thefastest growing trend, which is customers usingmobile devices. i know that google glass and alot of the connected products are going to revolutionizethe way we communicate. the way brands arebecoming a part of lifestyle, which i'll talkabout in the fourth trend. but it's really hardfor us to imagine this, just like it was really hardfor us to imagine the telephone. and many of you whoare fans of-- i just

got into downton abbey,and there's a moment in, i think it's the firstor second season, where they get a telephone forthe first time in the house. and the main butler, theguy who runs the house, is saying, what am igoing to do with this? the phone rings randomly inthe house and everybody's scared because they have noidea what to do with this thing. this is just another exampleof that happening, right? connected products.

it's wearing yourphone on your face. and i think that theconnected products that have to do with the watch--and also nissan, if you guys haven't seen this yet,this is the nissan x3. this is a head gear,google glass-esque product that helps youdrive your vehicle. and they just launched thisat the tokyo motor show. i think it wasearlier this year, but you can find the kind ofa creepy commercial on youtube

that shows this whole thing. and then of course,google comes out with contact lenses that helpwith diabetes patients, people that are diabetic. and they're testing contactlenses that allow you-- it's a computer on your eyeball. so we are not thatfar away from things being embedded inyour personal space. and when customers become morepersonal with their technology,

especially mobile, contenthas to flow with that. and so i want to giveyou a couple stats. we've done quitea bit of research, and have a new researchreport releasing at the end of this month, wherewe tracked user behavior on 500 consumer's mobile phones. and it was actuallyreally interesting. and that's for a wholeother conversation. so, let's just put the landscapeof mobility on here real fast.

americans spentmore time in 2013 on digital than any othermedium, including television, even while watching television. 60-- and this is from the newreport-- 65% of tablet owners use their tablet at thesame time as watching tv, at least once a day. one of the interesting points ofour research report that we did was that, consumers actuallydo not look at tablet and phone as a mobile device.

they look at them astwo separate things. so i think when we talkabout second screen, and we talk about well,everything's mobile. we have to understandthat usage is different for the tablet,even different times of day. we found in theresearch that tablets are used way more after 6:00 pm. so, we have tounderstand that people are using this at thesame time that they're

doing other things. five plus hours spent per dayin digital environments in 2012, which is a 575%increase from 2010, when they did-- whenthe e-marketer did this last campaign,this last survey. see? brian jensen is using atablet while listening to this presentation,which is perfect. this is the exact thing thatwe want to happen right now.

and then, on thereport, we found out that consumers spend, onaverage, 3.3 hours a day on their devices. so that doesn't mean that theyrandomly log in 3.3 hours. i mean, they spenttotal, 3.3 hours a day. and we even talkedabout it as a team, saying that seemsa little bit low. but that doesn't mean thatthey're not constantly checking their phone.

it's just the overall periodof time is 3.3 hours a day. eight out of 10consumers who signed up for emails, via mobile, froma brand made a purchase. so, what i want torein in here when we're talking about trends,and we're talking about mobile, is that there is onecore channel that still drives revenue,and that is email. and i'm not saying thatbecause we are the largest esp in the world--email service provider--

and i'm not saying thatbecause we send a lot of email. i'm saying thatbecause it's true. and we see the data thatmeasures that type of revenue. but one thing to keep inmind is 63% of us consumers-- this is a return path quote--say they delete emails immediately ifthey're not optimized for the mobile device. so, while email is still thetop way to reach a consumer, i think out of ourresearch, 91% of consumers

say they have asked for emailfrom a brand, email is mobile. 85% of respondentssaid mobile devices are a central part of everydaylife, and email plays into that. and one thing to keep inmind, and this is just a gauge of what we do, we sentover a billion digital messages on cyber monday for alot of retail brands. and many of our retail clientsexperienced mobile open rates exceeding 80%. so that means that almost 80% ofall the email that was opened,

that they sent out, wasopened via mobile device. i think return path hasa data point that says, i think it's around50% of all email opened is opened via amobile device, which is 10% more than itwas in january of 2013. so, we're seeing a massiveshift, a massive trend, in how people are using phones. and it's not just a smartphone. it's feature phone.

it's the razor that ihad in high school that still allows you tocheck email, right? but it's also textmessages, and sms, and everythingthat's happening when we are talking aboutcontent on a mobile device. 91% of consumersindicated that access to content across alldevices was important. so, a way to think about thisis that hulu, or netflix, right? i'm a huge fan.

my wife and i havea roku at home. we're thinking aboutgetting apple tv. and you could watch-- i canwatch something on my roku, pick up my phone, walk away,because we have no life. so i'm watching tv on my phonewhile walking around my house. it will pick up the exact placei left off, and it's streaming. so it's really importantto think about content being mobile. and the way that exacttargetdoes that, especially

the content marketingteam, is that we try to make contentas mobile as possible. and believe me, we havenot perfected this at all. so i'm just going to give yousome brief examples of what our blog looks likevia a mobile device. so on the far left is our blog. you can click share,and share pop up that allows youto share that blog post across all social media.

and then you couldgo to the blog post. and then it also has ourctas, which are responsive, which scale, basedoff of what device you're looking at them on. and it's not perfect. actually, i'm goingto answer a question. sarah stanley asked, who is thetarget audience for the study? are there studies availablewith data on youth specific audiences?

so sarah, on the end offebruary, so probably march 1, we're going tolaunch this report. and it ranged ages from15 years old to 65. and we also did salary ranges. household incomes $25,000and under, and over $75,000. so, i think we could probablyget that research to you in some way, but we'lltalk about that at the end. so when we're talkingabout content being mobile, it's really important torealize that your website has

to be responsive. your email has to be responsive. everything that you do needsto cater to the mobile device. because 70, well 60 to 70%of the core twitter users are using it primarilythrough a mobile device. that's crazy. so when you'resending out a tweet, you're saying hey, come lookat my coupon on my website. or hey, come lookat my blog post.

and i click the linkand i go to the blog and i can't readit because i have to pinch to read something, thenyou're doing it the wrong way because you're missing it. nicole, i do not see thosetrends within government. i would like to seethem within government, but i don't think governmentis ready for the mobile trend. but they should be. i wish that we were seeing moregovernment entities interacting

on mobile devices,because it's truly something that should happen. think about the dmv website thati have to go to for indiana. ok? so this is everything. so moving frommobile, the fourth is content personalization. and maria, i use b2c. so maria asked, this isall good information,

very targeted to b2c, whichis business to consumer. can any of thesetrends apply to b2b? i am frankly tired ofthe b2b and b2c question. and that's notoffense to you at all. everybody's asking it. b2b and b2c is still sellingan idea to an individual. the only thingdifferent is usually product or the sales cycleof the consumer interacting with the retail brand versusinteracting with an accountant.

it's still trying to sellan idea to an individual. if you're an accountant,if you're a lawyer, it's all depending on theindustry and how you market, but we are all consumers. and it's extremely importantto realize that we are all consuming contenton a regular basis, and it is interwovenbetween b2c and b2b. so i say, b2b2b2b2b2c. i know that doesn't reallyanswer your question,

but we all wantpersonalized content, which is wherethis plays into it. i'm going to keepanswering these questions because i think it adds to it. ken said, no doubt mobileis important and growing, but wondering if you thinkthe mobile over rates are inflated because it isan open based on images being loaded, and don't mostmobile devices automatically load images?

ken, it's really dependenton-- i think that you're right a little bit, butthe amount of images being turned on or off dependingon which inbox you're using, whether it's yahoo orgmail, i'm not as in tune with what that actual datalooks like within our database. i would assume that it doeschange it a little bit. but we were seeingmobile open rates growing this fast evenbefore we were dealing with the images beingturned off and on.

especially with thenew gmail inbox. especially with a lot of brandsusing different technologies to deliver that. so that's not the best answer. i could probably getyou that answer offline. that's a little bitmore data driven than it is just my own opinion. but i would assume that ithas to do with people opening, more than it has to dowith any type of images.

robert scott, and theni'm going to move on. robert scott asked, what do youbelieve are the primary reasons government is notembracing mobile? i guess the questionis, why do i believe that a lotof industries are not necessary embracing mobile. and i think it has to dowith change management. i think it has to do withhow people are shifting, and how paradigm shift has tohappen when it comes to mobile.

i think that data shouldalways be opinions, right? i don't think that you shouldgo spend $50,000 on making your website responsiveif you're only getting 5% mobile traffic. and maybe certain governmententities aren't seeing that. but there's alsocertain entities within the governmentthat have very responsive, and have awesome mobileapps, and do use push notifications to alert people.

so it's reallydepending on who it is. but i really think thata lot of businesses just have a hard timechanging and shifting with the fast technology. so, number four trend iscontent personalization. and this is my favoriteone, because we do this as a software. but it also really deliversa personalized experience to the peoplereading your content.

and there's three types. guided selling, whichi'll go through. something calledegonomics, which was coined by faithpopcorn, which is her real name, faith popcorn. and then location. so i'm going to go througheach of these three, and then we'll talk aboutwhat these mean to your brand. but number one isguided selling.

41% of consumers buymore from retailers who send personalized emailsbased on past buying behaviors. so i'm actuallygoing to connect this to b2b, because ithink it's important. imagine if you're anaccountant, and you're trying to sell my businesson using accounting. or maybe i'm aclient, and you have a newsletter thatyou send out monthly. or you have a blog thatyou're producing content

for that has to dowith my payroll, that has to do with the taxesthat i have to file. and you're sending thesame piece of content to all of your clients nomatter if it's a small business or it's a companylike salesforce, or it's a companylike exacttarget. you're sending the same email. personalized content isimportant to anybody, no matter the service orproduct you're providing,

because they want toknow what will help me. i want to knowwhat will help me. so i'm going to give you anexample of a company actually using this from a guided sellingperspective, which is basically walking somebodythrough a questionnaire and getting their opinion. so this is calledfablab by covergirl. you can go in, sign in. this was done, i'm not sure, itwas a test run for covergirl.

but it's basically just agreat idea of using content. you sign in, youregister, you go through, you can upload your photo,you can pick a model. i actually did this for youfor the sake of argument. i took a photo of me at mydesk, with a great smile. you can retrace your face. so you trace your face outline,and covergirl is walking you through all these things. and then you answercertain questions,

like tonal range, skinshade, skin tone, eye color, hair color, age range. everything thatthey need to know while you'reinteracting with them. and frankly, you could dothis on a form type site like formstack, for example,that's really cheap to use. it's just forms that you couldbuild, and ask people questions to build an identityaround that customer. so i'm answering thesethings and covergirl

is keeping track of what i'manswering based off of my data in their database. and then when i'mdone, they actually recommend products to me basedoff of what i've answered. so clean whippedcream foundation, clean week liquid make--covergirl and ole simply ageless foundation. and kathy, facialrecognition and privacy, i registered for it,i uploaded the photo,

it is my choice to dothat, and it's really up to you as aconsumer whether you want that information shared. so the stars onthere are basically product ratings of peoplewho have also bought this. so when you pick those things,and you add it-- kathy? she said, what about facialrecognition and privacy? a lot of people would never dothis, but a lot of people do. it's just anotherexample of a way

that you can useguided selling and keep people involved with you. so you're clickingthis, add to cart, they're keepingtrack of everything that you're sharing and adding,and then you can actually try the makeup on your face. and of course, as you can see,the flamed out shadow pots didn't necessarily workfor me, and it's probably because i had no ideawhat i was talking about.

and then you can doa before and after. but the whole point of thisis, other than the fact that i look terriblein makeup, it's the idea that they are keepingtrack of all these things that i'm doing, andthe perfect world would be if i leave thisguided selling site and go to their website,their website will change, content will change, based offof my browsing behavior here, as well as my past browsingbehavior on the website,

of course, using ip addresses. and that is something that weare constantly working on now, but it's really keeping data. keeping data and givingit to the customer, and delivering contentafter that fact. so we sat down as a contentmarketing team and said, you know what? we're not going to walksomebody through in order how to manage their makeup,because we're a b2b company.

we sell to businesses. we're going to dosomething really simple. we're going touse the technology to deliver ctas onour blog that have to do with what you're reading. so, speaking of location,we have six blog entities where we publishlocalized content, and i'll show those later. but we're delivering ctas.

so if i'm reading anemail blog in the uk, the cta, which you'relooking at right now, which is at thebottom of most posts, will change based off ofthe region that i'm in, as well as the subjectmatter that i'm reading. so, it's not just somerandom banner ad that says, you should download this. it's actually saying, basedon what you're reading, we think you'll be interestedin this piece of content.

so it's a very simple wayto give personalized content to individuals. and so when we'rebuilding this out, we actually saw, overthe course of six months, 1,000% clickthrough rates,200% in lead generation, and a 70% increasein traffic based off of people jumpingfrom different pages, as well an increase in visits. so when we personalizethe content,

it was extremelyinteresting to see that we had a higherrate of clicks, and a higher rate of leads,because we were actually delivering a very simple,personalized experience to somebody that was reading. and there's ahundred ways that you can do this, and a hundredgreat ways to do this. sarah asks, what aboutservices versus products? it seems like the covergirllab personalized emails

would be more for businessesthat sell specific products, versus a service likelaw or engineering. so we're talking about a serviceor product, you're right. a personalizedemail for a product would be better forsomebody like covergirl. but think about,i'm going to go back to the accountant as an example. there's different partsof an accountant's job, and that's how you can delivera personalized experience.

and i'm not explainingthat very well. let me think aboutsomebody else. well, let's thinkabout exacttarget. we're a b2b. we sell software. we sell a productbusiness to business. we have newsletters thatgo out to people based off of their preferences, right? so, if i was only interestedin environmental law,

and i signed up for yournewsletter as a lawyer, and i only wantto get information from you via email that'sabout environmental law, i don't want to get some randominjury attorney email as well. and you can tell i'm veryinvolved in legal profession, because i'm not usingright terminology. but it's only the idea, evenif it's a product or service, you're only taking a piece ofcontent, an idea, an interest or behavior of an individual,and trying to deliver them

another piece ofcontent that has to do with thatinitial behavior. so if i only want to learnabout environmental law, don't send me anyother pieces of content that don't have to do withwhat i initially signed up for. and that really goesinto the second side of this, which is egonomics. egonomics is the idea--this is faith popcorn. to offset adepersonalized society,

consumers crave recognitionof their individuality. so, it's the ideathat we're trying to-- with all this newtechnology, society is getting a little bitmore depersonalized. and i'm going to give yousome examples of people sharing in that egonomics. this is an e-commerce site thatactually allows their consumers to take pictures of themselveswearing their clothes, and then share itsocially so that they

can sell the productto their friends. so i think that an importantpart of content and technology trends, and the idea that we'retrying to make great content, is that your customer trulyknows why they bought from you. why they bought your service. why they bought your product. try to build strategyand test strategy around the customer sharingthe experience for you to their friends.

and that's why, atexacttarget, our video team relies heavily on customer'sexperiences and customer's stories that we can putvisually, put on youtube, and share throughout ourentire experience as a brand. fitbit is anotherexample of this. it's one of the bestexamples of egonomics in terms of connected products. i have a device. i want all the informationbeing sent to me,

all the content being generatedfor me from that brand, to have to do with me, hasto do with my exercise. there's a reason why underarmour bought imap, my fitness, map my run, becausethey wanted to create that content, that personalizedcontent, via email, via the dashboard, via thedifferent devices that you use. so you're creatingone connected system, and all your customersare getting the same type of information based offof their personal behavior

and how they do things. and it's kind of like, thebest way to think about it, and then we're almostdone, we have one more. the best way to thinkabout is the movie with tom cruise,minority report, where he's running from policeand he jumps into the gap. and the gap scans his eyeballand the entire store changes based on his purchase behavior. like, we're doing that rightnow on retailer's sites.

we're doing it on siteslike our own website that will deliver recommendedpieces of content to you based off of yourbrowsing behavior, and stuff that we'relaunching in the near future. so it's important that wekeep that idea of personalized content at the forefront ofall this technology trends. and then there'salso the brush that will track yourbrushing behavior and deliver it to your dentist.

so that's somethingelse, in terms of using content, and usingthe experience of the customer of the product, to make theproduct better in the lifestyle of that customer. and then, of course, thethird one is location. and especially froma b2b perspective, we view locationextremely-- we view it as being extremely important toany kind of content strategy. because i don't believethat you can necessarily

take united statescontent and just translate it andput it on the web. we do that sometimes,but we really try to get localizedcontent in each geo. so we have blogs in france,germany, australia, brazil, uk, and united states. and what we try to do is getwriters and guest authors in each geo to create contentthat has to do with that geo, instead of just posting andtranslating content constantly.

so we're trying to deliver apersonalized experience based on location as well. mobile phone is agreat example of that. and i think thatwe have a long way to go before we reach theidea that we're delivering translated content constantly. but it's really important totry to build systems like this and scale it. it's really hard forus to scale this,

because frankly, we don'thave a big enough team to scale this asmuch as we need to, but we're creating localizedcontent for geos at least once a week. and that's extremely important. and then, the last pointi'm going to leave you with, and this is the australianblog, is data equals relevance. and i always endwith this because i do believe that is the mostimportant thing for anybody

to do, is that dataequals relevance. and you are relevant whenyou use data, and use data effectively. what you'll see with rapiddata, and social sharing, and social content,and content that's delivered to personalizedindividuals-- or personalized content that's deliveredto the individual-- is the depth of the averageand the error of you. and that means that datawill always be opinions.

we can sit on awebinar all day long, and we can talk shopand try to figure out what's the best strategyfor your business, but the data behind yourbusiness, and google analytics, and your crm, and your emailserver service provider, and every single technologythat you have that's speaking to the customer,it always beats opinions. and we have to move fromnumbers keeping score to numbers thatdrive interactions.

you cannot keep score of thecontent that performed best because it got the most leads. it has to define your strategy. and it has to move yourbusiness to make better actions, because ultimately,technology trends will change every single month. and it's going to geteven worse, right? if you look at anything that hasto do with like, the ibm watson supercomputer that theynow have open source, where

all developers can buildon this supercomputer, and technology is changing sofast, it's really hard for us to keep up. so we have to make betterdecisions based off of the numbers. and that is, ultimately,what exacttarget tries to do, at exacttargetmarketing cloud, that we try to help you makethe best decision, and the best actions, based off of whatthe numbers are telling you.

and our content team isjust one portion of that. we're really thetop portion of that when it comes tothought leadership. but we really want todeliver mobile, responsive, personalized,content experiences to every single consumerof your service or product. and that's really all i have. all right, kyle. thank you so much.

i want to get to, i know youanswered a lot of the audience questions that came induring the presentation, but we did have somecome in recently, so i want to get to those. and as we do answer questions,i invite the audience to keep chatting those in,and we'll try and get to them before we end today. so kyle, one of thequestions i have for you came in from phillip.

and he said, do you have statson which mobile brands have specific open rates, iphoneversus samsung, et cetera? yeah, you can usually findthat if you google it. i don't have it offthe top of my head. i do know that wewill be releasing more of that informationas the year progresses. but usually android takes upthe majority of the market, in terms of phones. iphone usually is not, in termsof android operating devices,

not necessarily the phone. but from a mobile open rate, itreally depends on the industry. if you take allof them together, like all of the emailsbeing sent, it's about a 40, 45% mobile open rate. but that's why i saydata beats opinions, because you should belooking at your data. what is your data telling you? if you only have a5% mobile open rate,

you need to spendthousands of dollars to make your emails responsive. not necessarily, but youhave to watch that number, because it's going to change. and with that, i'm going toanswer sarah weber's question real fast. mobile is great, but whatabout, for a 65 plus audience, do you think traditional mediumsstill need to be leveraged? every medium needsto be leveraged,

and we have to quit makingdecisions off of age groups. every single individualis different, and every single individualuses technology differently. demographic informationis important. traditional mediumsare still important. television is stilla huge revenue driver for a lot ofbusinesses, based off of the amount they're spendingand the business that they get back, so it's a smart decision.

but just becausesomebody is 70 years old does not mean they're notusing a tablet or a smartphone. i think that you see a growthin tablets with the older individuals than youdo with smart phones. tablets are growing justmuch faster in terms of usage with the 65 plus crowd,than like an iphone. so that's somethingto keep in mind. gps data also has a lotto do with that location. that's a question.

would having an option to usegps data be used for that? yes. it's very much alocation based reference. do we have any more? it looks like we have-- thereis another one from sarah, and i think youanswered this earlier. i know you were talkingabout b2b versus b2c and how they'rereally not different. but what about, isthere any difference

about versus servicesmarketing versus products? i think that the strategiesare always different, right? like, exacttarget, our strategyis way different from nike, right? but you're still trying tosell, at a very surface level, you're still trying to sellan idea to an individual. i think when it gets into thegranular side of this, which is what channels are we using? how do they speak to each other?

what is our data telling us? should we be sendingemail to this group, or direct mail to this group? or, should we be having aseminar in this location, or a seminar in this location? i think it's alldepending on the industry. i think this goes intosam's question, which was, how would you recommendpersonalizing content if you serve a wideaudience that crosses

a variety of industries? you still have topersonalize content. we have clients that sendmillions of emails a day, and they have thousandsof different pieces of content within each email. you're talkingvariations that are in the millions ofdifferent variations that an email can get. i'm not saying thatyou need to do that.

but if you serve avariety of industries and a variety ofdifferent decision makers, much like exacttarget, you needto be building strategies so in the future, you couldbe delivering email, or delivering directmail, or delivering video to people based off ofwhat industry they're in. what level decisionmaker are they? and what's their pastbuying or past purchase behavior or pastbrowsing behavior,

of the data that you have? and i think that the biggestissue with a lot of things is that people don't keep data. we're really badat managing data. and in order for us to trulyunderstand the ramifications that personalizedcontent and great content have with thebusiness, is that you have to have yourdata in order, and you have to be able touse it effectively.

and then content isdirectly related to that. how can you mass emailwithout getting blocked? are there betterservices than others? i'm not 100% sure whatyou mean by mass email. we don't encourage buying lists. we always encourage the opt-in. any email that wesend, an individual has opted in toreceive that email. and that's extremelyimportant, which

goes back to whereexacttarget was founded, which is on permission-basedmarketing, which is a seth godin book. you have to ask people'spermission before you market to them, and youwill receive a better rate of return because of that. dixie also made a comment. i teach a sunday school classof all 65 plus, almost all of which use smartphones or tablets.

demographics as a mediumdriver is definitely shrinking. that's exactly it, dixie. daniel birk says, we senda newsletter to 300 people and have a high bounce rate. well then, if you havea high bounce rate, it means you're notdelivering the right content to those individuals. and if they didn'topt in to begin with to receive thatnewsletter, then you

are going to havea high bounce rate. so, what would i encourage youto do if your email service provider does this, like,exacttarget is one example. cheat-a-mail is another example. of course, exacttarget,in my opinion, is a better technology. you want to be able to delivercontent to those people based off of what they want, notwhat you think they want, which goes back to thepersonalized content.

and you can't sendan email to somebody if they did not opt in, carol. so, opt in has to do with,on your website, saying join our newsletter, orclick to join our newsletter. sorry. ok, kyle. that's totally fine, don'tworry about it at all. so with that, ithink we've actually gotten to a majority ofthose audience questions.

kyle, i thank you for takingthe time to get to all of those, and making sure that everybodygot their questions answered. so i'm sure theyreally appreciate it. so, with that, we havecome to the end of today's presentation, andkyle, thank you again for all the greatinformation today. just to recap, this sessionwill be made available to you soon via our recording. and you can also view thearchive of this webcast at any

time by visiting ourwebsite at ama.org/webcast. you can also continue thediscussion on twitter, and we encourage you to doso, using the #amaaquent. and of course, i'd like to thankaquent, our generous sponsor, and readytalk, who providedus with the web conferencing platform for today's session. if you'd like to learnmore about readytalk and their services, pleasevisit them at readytalk.com/ama. and last but not least, i'd liketo thank you all for attending,

and want to remind you to joinus weekly for our marketing thought leader webcast. that ends today's presentation. thank you, and enjoythe rest of your day.

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fashion in 2017

never be discouraged never hold back give everything you've got fall forward holding onto a dream and staying focused is really important i could come from a council estate in the middle of stuff uneven and live in 17 houses before 16 and when three michelin stars anybody wants to come in and copy or use me as inspiration then you know

beyond the real deal you don't begin we went to every single label when everything label said they do on us that the genius thing that we did was we didn't give up we didn't say because these guys you know we use that what they know approach you know we we didn't give up at that point when i went to film school but

we're not what you want to film school for you know you're only there's no use nobody for films will never got a job in the film's just had never happened so you were just doing to be at a particular disneyland so there was no why would you do that you know why don't you take a major that you can actually get a job

once i fell in love with it there was no going back even though i had absolutely no chance of making the film business so whatever you feel in your heart in your gut you should follow that follow that and then if that changes one day that's fine too then you follow that but you're the only

one who knows nobody else you can't let anyone tell you what you know your best is you know what your best is and i work at it you know you can have whatever you want it just takes work i've never really viewed myself as particularly talented where i excel is ridiculous sickening work ethic you know while the

other guys sleeping i'm working with other guys eaten i'm working nobody works hard and they inside the octagon outside the outfit on i am a cost work your butt off you never want to fail because you didn't work hard enough i never want to do lose a competition or lose an election because it didn't work hard enough i always

believed leaving no stone unturned muhammad ali one of my great heroes had a great line in the seventies when he was asked how many sit-ups you do is that i don't count myself sound start counting when it's that's going to feel pain that's what is not counting your steps when it really counts that's what makes you a champion become

an entrepreneur is not easy and a lot of people who tried to come on to notice they hail little away the good ones pick themselves up my try again the track eight until i see if they can do it i can do it and this mentality if somebody else can do it you can do it and i said to myself i will do it and i will do it better is the

mentality don't be afraid to fail anything i've ever attempted i was always willing to fail just the fact that i'm willing to fail is an inspiration people are still scared to move that they don't even try like one thing that people can say they can't say i'm not trying i'm not trying my hardest

and then trying to do it the best way that i don't have what little information idea don't give up you will fail a thousand times but then you'll succeed and most people like to give up after they fail because that's what it feels like that's when you're supposed to give up like that i tried i failed time to quit

i totally disagree failure really happens when you've decided that you know our water pursue that green like that's the moment of fail that's the point when you turn the corner from on your way to success to failing is often that people who are terrified and nobody in a straitjacket of their own making because they brought

to anything that the face we don't want to try with your famous all that's the rock-bottom rock-bottom wasn't fun at all i'm not going to romanticize the bottom and the great want to eat i have i've found that nothing in life it's worthwhile unless you take basis

not reggie jackson struck out 26 hundred times in his career the most in the history of baseball but you don't hear about the strikeouts people remember the home runs thomas edison conducted 1000 failed experiments and you know that i didn't know because the 1000 first was the light bulb the definition of a life

well-lived for me a life well-lived is a life that is not about victories or losses but about a continuous process of growth a continuous process of evolution a continuous process of adventure curiosity bewilderment and off one in which you don't go quietly into that good night at the end of the race but instead you rage and rage and rage

against the dying of the life define life according to your measures of success but it really is things i believe like expressing your power doing work you find meaningful regardless of the world thinks finding people around you who love you enjoying nature you know serving people being a good human being

finally realized something inside us more than our limits today all of us can impact the difference between having an impact and not having impact is a decision not resources it's not money it's all there tate decision so i talked a little about mindset today about thinking about how we think because ultimately the most critical thing what

distinguishes us as humans from every other than animal what distinguishes one human for another is how we think and i want to encourage you to think what i call a bold and abundant mindset because how you think matters and it changes everything in your business in your life everything we have control of our minute or hour

our day our week or month and our year stop running around being on the receiving end of whatever people want to dump on you and when you're hanging out with negative dark and dysfunctional people you cannot expect yourself to go to sleep at night and rest you cannot expect yourself to feel good about your day when you're including

negative and dysfunctional people in your day at the end of the day we are a bunch of people on a little pet planet in a huge galaxy and before we know we're going to be a bunch of dust and the great billionaire's get buried next to the taxi drivers and the pizza makers and we are not that big a deal and i think all that really matters is while

we are alive you know do your best to use every day as a vehicle to birth your talents in the world and secondly if you do that you're going to serve the world and raise the world with you and and that all just comes from inner power i mean that's just driving your powerful place with it you know that's where you get grace and that's where you get great

creativity that's where you get boundless energy because it's not about addicted to what the world thinks of you that's what you're trying to differentiate when you're trying to do something different there's going to be that got moment that got sent this right it's not right if you're not if you're not having doubt you're not pushing the

boundaries far enough we're trying so hard in our lives to fit in we try to fit into certain groups certain frat certain sororities you know amongst certain friends yet the people realize our most other ones that stand out but when you're prepared there is no fear there is no fear of

failure ok because even if you walk out of something and you feel like you failed at it your preparation is so strong that you're going to take that failure and turn it into the outcome you desire and most people stop at failure we've all failed and thanks

it's the most powerful tool you can use but it all depends on how you use its that drive inside of you ok it's what we talked about the darkside the dark side is filled with failure but it's the fuel that burns you like something that's never burn inside you before my blood my sweat my hair

there's so many individuals out there that are so talented in different things that never accomplished anything that the world is filled with talented people you know a lot of themselves they never accomplished anything with talent has to come preparation has to come action has to become development of being able to take those talents take those skills

continue to develop them continue to sharpen them physically continue to sharpen them mentally because at some point your physical talent is going to diminish you like this but the universe plateau and most people in the plateau they go wrong job wrong relationship wrong business because it's not instantly fulfilling them but the people

that go i'm gonna fight through and go deep i'm gonna find a way to break through i'm gonna find it learn and know more about this in human life so that i can help as many of these possible and will be bullshit because i lived it there's a power in mastery and how many

people you know are really committed to master today most people down a million things they master nothing and they wonder why they're unfulfilled because they're running for the sugar the next thing that feels good instead of getting past what doesn't feel good and getting where you own something we have a facebook world where

people fake their life cooking filters make it look different it really is tell stories that you don't totally full of it to make himself what good because we live in this kind of false world with significance is more important than wealth i think when you find your lowest point in your life

i think you kind of open to a lot of things to try to change it to try to get back on the right path is now 3 43 here in beijing his second floor writer that we started off with the floor and i 12 how to change my mind before

what the trilogy it's on my tent in the end i had to invest everything and ask was borrowing money from amends what was with it with are you the best footballer in the world right now i think so yes in my mind i'm always the best i don't care what the people changing what they say in my mind not just this year but always

modest the best i'm always going to say that i knew i knew i know what's gonna happen anyways gonna get here they didn't there's a lot of stress for years and a lot of times and both i proved them wrong i prove myself right you need to bet on your strengths and don't give a fuck about what you suck at if you want this

if you want bling bling if you want to buy the jets if you want to do work when i look around i always learn something and that is to be always yourself and to express yourself to have faith in yourself do not go out and look for successful personality and duplicated i feel i still have room to include still set goals myself to stop for never

complacent would have achieved even though it's been very successful for me i still feel had a lot to me check your finger then graham is low in his local teens looked around and look at the people in mired and he said you know i want to be admired so what i just behave like them and they found there was nothing impossible about the ad like

them if you're doing anything interesting in the world you're gonna have critics the only if you absolutely can't tolerate critics that don't do anything new or interesting i would just say go stand on a street corner and watch in a crowded urban area that watch all the people walk by and

think about what they're thinking about and that united voice people are thinking about you after years of repetitive work you will often need to dig hard to find your passions redefine your dreams and revive hobbies that you let atrophy to near-extinction you think so i come to you and give you highlighted version

stripped of how to live your life and if that was the case when you even go that way how boring is that is the unknown about the be that gets me up in the morning was always a challenge as soon as the challenges lost guys your will is dead there's no reason to get up in the morning

there are million readers why not but there's one great reason before was like it was a belief and every day with no one watching and five in the morning by myself i trained in i believe in it then i mastered it no every master to remaster and also one day my trainability collided with an opportunity to show it off

that's what luck its that's what successes start to finish a blueprint that every single module inside of it you create you hold nothing subjective in there it's all you you don't just live change your mark on it make a little

if you want to live extraordinary you must do extraordinary but you must demand it if you wish it you must demand it of yourself we all have problem i'm trying to tell you is this go don't be consumed with them problems are part of life but guess what they're not like every single problem that might be

causing you to worry and create stress for you is a gorgeous opportunity we'll even better business or build an even better life for install a better belief so the secret to real happiness is progress progress equals happiness if we can make progress on a regular basis we feel alive so if you wanna make real progress then you really gotta look at

your life in a different way usa i got to take control of this process and not just hope that's gonna work out you gotta keep picking yourself up and reaching for it you can get moving you will get through this you must get that you are going to hit through did you need to get outside

your comfort zone it's not about taking risks it's about getting out side your comfort zone when did you find yourself i mean really how many years ago did you come up with what it couldn't couldn't do your life how many years ago so often our lives we've adapted to be a certain way so that we don't fail or so that

people like this respect this but it's understood it doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life that's gonna happen all the matters that you gotta get up get them back the clock right so anything you can do is learn from it but hopefully you'll never make the mistake again if anybody who's on the downside of advantage

relying purely on carriage as possible it's possible think of the three biggest discourages they're not your biggest discourages you are i believe there's a hero and all that keeps us honest gives us strength makes us finally allows us die when pride with your ambition is to fulfill your

hearts always be careful you'll always be taken care of your needs your wants and your needs will always be next when you're following your heart that point is wealthy street where we lived in the projects we didn't even own a car and a prostitution ring on my street corner there were drug addicts in my alley working-class kids growing up

on the south side of chicago growing up with doubts and fears just like all the reward their domestic violence home and my mom very high yellow woman sobhuza strawberry quickly was 14 years old i became pregnant probably spores you can go without being homeless in the nfl prospects are no agent i didn't come from the environment it just sets me up

for success i was poor because it didn't have anything i had no money i don't think with the deviatoric future bit nothingness kids but it was rich dream of becoming the greatest bodybuilder that a dream to use bodybuilding as a means to get into

films but i had no idea that it will go as far as i took you to where i grew up the odds on me getting from there to here is not something you would have bet on don't allow anybody friends family even your parents to tell you aiming too high because if you look at my story it's not a hollywood movie it's real it's

authentic and it happened to me i'm not smarter than anyone else that can happen to you always say and i can do it anyone can do it and the reason that i always say that because i didn't grow up with things being handed to me i had to work hard and to dedicate myself and i had to be determined and i was when you see transition really start to happen when

you really want to transition something master that there's no limits no they don't let the world will put limits on you you can do anything you want to do but make sure if you have a vision make sure the visions are it people often want want to call me that exception like oh my god you're the

exception no i'm not the exception of my average ordinary woman who chose everyday to make one more extraordinary decision not alone my disability to stop me doing most things feel a sense of achievement that i have managed to make these contributions despite having als for

letting anybody into anything something words it depends on how many morning i wanted to do you know the stage in my life i don't feel like just too much that i can only so talking but if i really really really want to do it i don't give up that you have a good chance at making some your wildest dreams come true

most people don't even try sadly most people i'm trying them stop it bob very few people try and try and try or do never give up to realize that there's always work to do and you want to be the hardest working person and whatever you do you put yourself in position to be successful you have to have a passionate

about what you do in basketball was mine and that's what scares me to this point conscience shelves here's what you should do while your intuition whisper here's what you could listen to that voice that tells you what he could do nothing will define your character more than that people say you

have to have a lot of passion for what you're doing because it's so hard that if you don't any rational person would give up its really hard and you have to do it over a sustained period of time so if you don't love it you're not having fun doing it you don't really love it you're going to give up and that's what happens to most people actually if you

really look at at at the ones that ended up you know being successful unquote the eyes of society and the ones that didn't oftentimes it it's the ones that are successful loved what they did so they could persevere when you know when it got really tough and and the ones that it didn't love it quit because they're saying dedication

paul work along they are when they are the world forgetting i'm still come on top i got myself out of my two covers me black as the metropolitan i think whatever got there maybe my uncomfortable development of circumstance i final round earnings fate my head is bleeding but uh

now beyond this place around to shadow shape yet the menace of the year's finds and shelf man was not how strait the gate punishment eyes throne hi master i am the captain history is replete with the stories of

strong-minded resident lee world individuals who steadfastly holding to their inner convictions have been able to inspire their fellow man and in the face of tremendous and determined opposition have literally created out of nothing great businesses huge empires and new worlds

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fashion 2017

good evening everybody. can you hear me? okay, great! welcome. my name is chiyo ishikawa i'm the susan brotman deputy director for art and curator of european painting here at the seattle art museum and i'm really thrilled to welcome you to this evening's program featuring a conversation with bethann hardison which

ties into our new exhibition yves saint laurent: the perfection of style. i'll introduce bethann in a moment. i have just a few remarks first. this exhibition is organized by the seattle art museum in partnership with the fondation pierre berge yves saint laurent in paris and we are delighted that we were able to garner such support for the exhibition

here in seattle. this show is made possible by the sam fund for special exhibitions. our presenting sponsors are microsoft, nordstrom, and the seattle art museum supporters. our major sponsors are barbie and delta. thank you to all of our supporters. [laughter] join me. [applause] and a special thanks to those of you who are members of the seattle art museum. your ongoing support

makes programs like this possible and we couldn't do anything that we do without your support, so thank you. if you are interested in becoming a member of sam, there are brochures that you can take on the way out. and now i want to introduce bethann hardison. bethann is the founder of the modeling and management agency that bears her name

and she has long been a groundbreaker in the world of fashion, first as a model more recently as a businessperson and advocate. she's helped guide the careers of some of the most prominent models of color in recent times and she's the founder of a watchdog charity and networking group of models called the black girls coalition. in 2013,

bethann founded the diversity coalition, which calls for awareness and action toward the effort of creating a more inclusive fashion industry for people of color. she's won many awards including the frederick douglass award in 2013 for her work in promoting diversity in fashion and the 2014 council

of fashion designers of america founders award. tonight we're going to be discussing bethann's career: the progress and challenges that she's experienced working in the fashion industry as a model, manager, and advocate. so please join me in welcoming bethann hardison. [applause] thank you. so let's start by, we're going to start

by kind of going back through your career and then coming up to the present and, um, because i think all aspects of your life in fashion have been really interesting and have brought you into contact with so many interesting people and issues. so i think we can just start by asking how you got started in modeling. what was your background? was

fashion part of your upbringing? and when did you get into it? okay - quick question, quick answer. well i didn't grow up in the fashion business, even though it's now called the fashion business, i grew up in the garment district. that's really important and i am one of these people who like to keep it clear because fashion has gotten to be so

glamorous and everyone thinks you're in fashion now. if they sew a button on a shirt, they're in fashion. [laughter] that is not true. [sigh] so i grew up in a world where you really learned a lot about business and everything that goes with it. i started in a button factory, a custom button factory, and then i went on to a junior dress company, then i went into, uh,

[stammers] um, i think it was low-end dresses. i really went the gamut of the garment district and you learn a lot of things. i got discovered by willi smith. he had just gotten the design position at digits. he was every bit of 19 or 20 years old and he was the first person, as a designer, that asked me to work with them. prior to that, it was bernie ozer who worked at

the federated store that, uh, federated stores that actually take care of all the stores and his office asked me to be in a fashion show. that was my first runway show. and i had a full-time job the whole time i worked as a model. so my modeling was really the exercise of performing while i kept on doing other things. so you

haven't seen the slides that i picked before, but here we see you performing- oh this is interesting. i have to say something. is it up there? okay, i don't want to look back, you know. [laughter] that picture on the left, this is what i love about the internet. don't you love the internet? i hate the internet. [laughter] that picture on that left is not me. that's toukie smith - oh my gosh - but, but this

is not your fault. this, thank you, thank you. this is on, and there's another photograph of billie blair that says i did the bill black. and you can't get it off. that's what i hate the internet. because once something is on, you can't go and like 'oh take that off' and so some godly internet person says 'okay, let me erase that.' it's

permanently on. so, that has nothing to do with anything other than the truth, but that is, that is me on the right. you know, that was one of my, whaddaya call it, my first test shots. and i wasn't a print girl, i was a runway model. i, uh, the runway wor- the runway world and the print world were two different, i guess 'divisions' we would call it, because the runway models

actually service the design world, and the print girls actually worked in the magazines, catalog, and advertising. well, and even though this is toukie smith- willi smith's sister i think, right? yeah. there is something about the runway models of that period that is quite different from the very stoic, straight- ahead,

no eye contact with the audience. and look how much she's enjoying herself and how the audience is enjoying, and it's almost like kind of dancing, and so the runway models were performing a real, well, they were activating the clothes in a way that showed the possibilities of the garments. yeah. and that must have helped the designers and, and kind of foster a

close relationship with the designers. good point. and, and that's very true. we were allowed to bring our personalities to the collections, and that also allowed us as also to be inspirational to the designer which made us muses. mhm. well, and here are some of the models who you know came to prominence during that time and there you, uh i think, right? that is me. [laughter]

no disclaimer here. i don't trust anything anymore, but that looks like you. that is me. on the cover of essence and these are some of the, kind of, groundbreaking models: pat cleveland on the upper right and mounia on the left. those of you, and this is just an aside for people in seattle, those of you who saw the wonderful exhibition at the bellevue

arts museum about the ebony fashion fair will recognize this outfit by yves saint laurent. we have another version of it upstairs in the galleries, but that was you know, another way of kind of fostering the spread of fashion in the united states. putting these covers together of american and european publications makes me want to ask you,

since you had experience both in europe and in the united states, was there a difference in the way models of color were accepted, used, treated by those two capitals? i think once, i think actually, you know, i, sometimes i wonder, i know that, like, someone like dorothea towles who's gone now, she's no longer on this physical

earth, but you know she went to. like, i think she worked at balenciaga or dior. and she was one of the few models of color that went, maybe in the '50s or so. another well-known model was one of my favorites actually, who also went to paris back in those days, but i think really the truth of when we really crossed over well was when we went to

versailles and i think that changed everything for the, for the, um, the french designers because that's when they recognized us being on stage with the whites as well as with the dancers. that 'battle of versailles' change everything for everyone and seeing us walk and sashay or move to the music. designers in paris had never even seen a show of models

with music, they'd never even witnessed anything that way. so, to see these girls that came down and then i was the first one when the programs went on the air. when i came down the runway- so it wasn't a runway actually. it was actually a theater in versailles that was a marie antoinette theater so it was more an embankment. and this, oh there it is. well, see. and so in, and in

this particular case it really was something that really was very valuable and i think that's when mr. saint laurent and givenchy embraced the girls of color, because they really did. and it became their cabine and it wasn't, well, givenchy pref- preferred, his whole cabine was of color. mr. saint laurent always liked interesting girls, it didn't

matter if the girl was white or black, he always had an interesting eye. the girls weren't necessarily pretty, they had something that he just connected to. that was what was so great about that, that legend moment, you know. well i wanted to take a digression and talk about yves saint laurent just a little bit because he did work with many models of

color, and not just of african descent. this is kirat, who was an indian model and, um, let's see, i'll show a few. mounia, who was from... the caribbean. the caribbean, that's right. and one more here, of course naomi campbell, much later, and he was instrumental in giving her the first to- her first, well, the first cover for a model of

african descent on french vogue as late as 1988, which is kind of incredible. but, i, but i wanted to talk about that relationship between the designer and the model, building on what you were saying before, because here we see yves saint laurent with kirat and you see what an intimate relationship it is as he's trying the garments on the model

and working with her. he would say that the models were in some ways collaborators with him. he cared what they, how the dress felt on them. he asked their opinion and, you know, he felt that he couldn't do it without them. and this is something that you and i have talked about a little bit, that it was very different from the relationship today,

and can you can you talk about that collaborative role? yeah, you know it's an interesting thing. you know, i think even michael kors been you know, recorded saying that when someone like iman would come in and put on the clothes, and it would just change everything and that was when the model and the designer had this relationship.

and, of course, it is that, what we did. i did that with calvin klein. i mean, i would, calvin - i worked for stephen burrows at the time, but i still would model. i worked in random design studio of stephen burrows, but i modeled as a runway model, and calvin would have me come over and he'd like me to go through the collection with him and talk with

him about what i thought, my opinion. he really valued, he'd see a shirt i had on and he'd say 'oh - i gotta have that shirt. let's- can we, can we copy that?' and he, and the way he would copy it would change the vibe of it, but it inspired him. i mean, we have now a different business, so of course someone, you know when you have a designer that now has a casting

director and a stylist and they're in between. i always say they're in the bed with the designer and the model. they don't allow the model and the designer to have that romance that they used to have because it's now changed. the designer claims he's so busy with the accessories and all that, which is possible. i presume it is that way. but it's changed

for the fashion model and it's no longer what it used to be. surely mr. saint laurent and all of the designers, especially back in those days, their cabine meant everything to them. those girls inspired them. when they sent them out, those girls wore those clothes and it was different. will you explain what the cabine is? the cabine is actually the

actual selection of the models that the designer used over and over again. sometimes it might have been just in-house whether you... if the girls came out to show the clothes to particular buyers, that was the cabine. or it could be the cabine of the, selection of girls, that was what would also show, or be in present to show the clothes on the

runway.and so among american designers, here you are (right?) [laughter] with stephen burrows, who was your good friend and you were a kind of muse to him. and pat cleveland, another famous and wonderful model also working with stephen burrows, and again you see that kind of, this i believe on the left is from the, from the night at versailles, i think. no.

no. good. [laughter] you know what, this was - oh goodness, my brain is so dead but i want to tell you. i'm, first of all i want to commend you for having all these photographs, because it's so nice to see. this was like...it was an event of something in new york. dennis christopher's unders... that's what i thought because of dennis

christopher being there.yes, yes, dennis christopher. he used to be an assistant to holson who now became, he then became an actor. but this is the tommy, that's what it was. the tommy opening, that's where we were then. yeah.and then this image with pat cleveland with stephen burrows, with him pinning the dress and her kind of loosely in chameli, draping her hand on

his shoulder. it seems like you had that kind of relationship with him. yesbut you did not model for yves saint laurent, is that correct? never. no i used to only pray. [laughter] but at the end of the day, prayers were not enough. but i used to, as i was saying earlier, i had the opportunity at least to get my name on the list that i could get

invited to the show, their ready-to-wear shows at that time. and i was always so happy just to get in and to go by, you know, the office and get my ticket. it was like 'ohhhh i got it - i'm gonna go.' you have no idea how wonderful those experiences were. how, to sit there and watch the opening and everybody's just so excited and it's such an easy crowd.

it wasn't stuffy, you know what i mean. no matter who was there, it was never stuffy. and then marian wobble would walk out and this was a male model that always opened the show. because he mixed them in with the women. and he would walk out. he was always, he was a tall, handsome black guy, and he would walk out and you know the show's started. and it was just, it was exciting,

you know? those are times it was just like, man, 'mad cool' as we say. [laughter] mad cool, yeah.well, you then transitioned into becoming an agent for other models and why did you leave modeling? or were you doing these things simultaneously?no it's interesting. good question in that because i didn't, i... i started working at another model agency

to help someone make their agency work and they became very -we became very successful. but at that time people thought i was working so hard and learned i wasn't an owner. why wasn't i...do it for myself? then someone who was very successful in paris started wanting to come into new york and asked me to come in with them. i went

to paris while i was working with other agency in new york, and met with them. and when i start to find an office in new york, which i was encouraged to by people. i'd never want to have a model agency. i want to be really clear because everyone thinks 'oh - you're so ambitious! you wanted to get out there and do it for yourself.'

no. i want to work with the other guy and let them take on the problems. let them, you know, basically let me go on vacation when i wanted to, you know. i mean, i really wanted to. but you know everyone thought i was so good at what i did and you know, what you want to do? you want to leave the business go to la and work in the music business of film? you

should do what you want to. do what we know you're good at. alright, so i listened to other people like steven meisel and lisa robertson who now works at vanity fair. and i basically did what they asked me to do, out of respect to knowing that if you have an opportunity, being where you come from. you're coming from bedford stuyvesant, brooklyn, new

york and you have- [audience member whooped] thank you. [laughter] and, you know, you basically wanted this, you know, represent the community. you're given an opportunity. you are special at what you do. everybody doesn't get a chance to do it. so i went and opened up a model agency with respect to other people. i didn't want to do it, but in the end of

the day i became very successful at it and so i did that and only that. i didn't have a job then: that was the job, because the job i had right before was with the other agency. and i did it and became very successful at it and i'm glad that i did it now, of course. because i really garndered some very good careers, helped other people get up, and i also changed

the industr. and i also educated designers and publications about inclusiveness, and i could do it so easily. you know it's so funny how you, you don't know who you are when you come to this earth, but sometimes there are people who come to this earth to change what we see and i think im just, the revolutionary that i am, i'm just that

person. because i would say to calvin klein and perry ellis and people like that would call me and they'd be so excited that they wanted to use a black girl for their show. and i'd say 'okay, that sounds really great. now how many girls are going to use in the show?' and they say '35' and i'd say 'and you want me to find you one black girl?' 'yeah!' and then when i would say 'yeah, but

...don't you see how...racist that sounds?' [laughter] and they'd be like 'oh no. what-why? why? i thought you'd be happy. what? no. that's- what? i thought you'd, we want to do this.' 'no i do want to do it, but i want you to understand the ratio.' [laughter] this is important, you know. and - oh- brides magazine. i, you see, i had a white

model agency. this was the genius of being a person of color that owns what the competition has in group. so i had... that agency, that really was primarily white with a few kids of color: asian, latin, black. and so it was great. brides magazine, i had a white girl who worked all the time in brides magazine. so one time i said to the editor 'so, you do know that

black people get married too?' [laughter] 'oh bethann, hahaha, you're so funny. why you say that?' because, you know, you're so comfortable, you know. i made it seem so blatant. but they always sort of handle it so well because they didn't have to do with that conversation. like 'ohohoho.' yes, but that was a point to make because they, brides never had anyone of color anywhere. i mean, asian, latin, black:

never. you know they're not the only people getting married. so, that was great. because eventually that changed, it took time, but it changed. now you, i think when we were talking on the phone in preparation to this, for this conversation, you did that from '94 to '96, something like that? and then what happened? did you, did you stop

...working with the modeling agency or?no. i, actually started the agency in 1984. i think '86 is when we saw the coalition. the coalition was just to celebrate black girls. there were so many working editorially that had never existed before because elle magazine came along and just, you know american elle came along, and just changed the game and

changed conde nast and changed hearst. then they had to compete with elle because elle was doing so well. and this guy didn't care about who we put on the cover. he had every girl of any color, any shade in the magazine out. so vogue had to get with it and everybody had to get with it. ...it continued, so i just wanted to celebrate the girls. people thought i did

it to...to address racism. that wasn't it. i was just trying to celebrate the girls and let them see that they could work together as women and also as competitors work together. and also it was a terrible thing of homelessness going on in our city at the time and i wanted to sort of support the homeless organizations. so we did this

thing to raise consciousness to everyone all around about homelessness, about the girls of color being so cool, and everything. that's how it really went on and then that went into- the black girls coalition went on to 1993. and then i went on until 199- well, the girls, those successful girls sort of moved on. but then i wind

up, you know, changing it. 1983 is when we first start address race in advertising. and talking about the advertising agencies weren't reflecting their consumer. now they're perfectly one pitch, but they weren't at that time. and so we pushed that. i...this is one of your most famous models, tyson beckford.what a s- they have come up with some

sweet pictures.aww, well you know i thought that these pictures were really interesting because we think of the fashion world is such a cutthroat industry and kind of a dog-eat-dog and here you are in these really warm and affectionate pictures with two of the top models. and it's obviously a relationship of love and affection that you have, and i'm wondering that, you know,

how these strong and lasting friendships have helped you realize your bigger goals. wow.... that's a deep question. [laughter] okay, um. no, that's interesting. actually, discovering tyson was...was not- you know, people, many people asked me, when tyson became very successful in the second year, say, of his career, you know 'you must

have seen that. you must have really recognized he was gonna be something' you know? i didn't. because i had a lot of good boys at the time. he was just someone that you know, like many of them, i asked a lot of questions. i meet with everyone 3 times no matter how good-looking you are. but he really, he really helped me to...he added to my

legacy, honestly. because of the fact that, you know, we got ralph lauren that really loved and appreciated his heroic look, and that took everything to another level. my relationship with iman was quite different and still is, to this day, a very special relationship because, when she first came to this country, she was

controversial because peter beard had discovered her and claimed that she had discovered this girl in the bush. and sold this, between he and wilhelmina, sold this idea and of course in the black community in america they were very dis- ...really very upset by this because they felt 'why do you have to go all the way to africa to find a girl and bring

her back when there's so many beautiful girls right there?' so she came in into controversy. when she came, there was a big press conference held and they, you know, she was decked out in this way that- first of all, she was a university student. she spoke five languages. no one knew that they just thought she was discovered in the bush like 'bum-bum-bum-bum'

you know. [laughter] no, not so. the fact of it is is that she was somewhat an- when she went around to go on the 'go sees', like to see...halston and then stephen burrows, that's where i met her. and she had, she was trembling like a bird. she was so thin, she was so nervous, she had never worn heels before. people want her to try them on and i was helping

her with the shoe and the...the girls i had as showrooom models basically were like moaning. they were two girls of color and they were saying 'oh why is she-' because i had got down on my knees to help with the shoe and i hear them saying 'what is she getting down on her knees for to help her? she's no princess. who does she-? oh my god!" they were just moaning about it. and you could

see iman was like [trembling] and i just held, and i looked up and i said 'you speak english, don't you? you understand them.' and she said '[nods]' and she then, from that moment connected to me as i helped her anyway as her statue of liberty. she wrote about me in that way and we have been friends for 35 years. i was the mother - what is it? - the matron of honor

at her wedding to david bowie. i have been, you know i just gave her an award from save the children last week tuesday. yeah, this is a great relationship and even tyson. i mean, he's a piece of knucklehead but he's really [laughter] such a good-looking knucklehead. [laughter] and, you know, i am- i am the, i'm the mama, i'm the mama bear to him. and it's been a

wonderful experience too 'cause i've represented him for over 23 years.so did your relationship, i mean, when you were a model, did you have- i mean obviously you know, here you are at a different stage of your life but did you have that same kind of camaraderie with the other girls? or was there a kind of jealous competition...? you know, it's interesting that you say that.

no, i'm glad you question that because everyone does have 'oh - that business has to be so this' but no. we were really good girls together. i did have a, like i said, i wasn't a model on my, you know, just modeling like the other girls were. i didn't ever thought i can afford to do it. but i was a model chosen by very special designers and i was stephen

burrows' model at the time. and when the news, when newsweek wrote...wrote a story on the girls, i was included, the other girls were included. when new york times wrote on those 'black stallions' they named us that and they named us. and we all were so happy we were also, you know, we were just happy to be alive. it was a great time - it was the '70s!

i mean, come on! everyone was coming back to new york - all the europeans, all the artists. everybody rhought new york was so happening, studio 54 opened up. we were so cool, you could- you didn't need to be anybody. if you had style, you were in. personality and style was everything, so we were very cool with each other, happy to be alive. it was a

very good time. i mean you could live in a building for $45. [laughter] a very good time. i know, i know. well, okay, a little higher. maybe $100. but it was still, people lived, and artists lived down in soho, which wasn't even called soho then. it was south of houston. you know, they could- you could...live in a way

that was so different. so of course you had slackers sitting around in cafes talking all day long about the world, never having didn't go to work. i mean the energy at the time was so great. so we didn't have competition in that way. people were coming out; different designers, halston came along, giorgio sant' angelo. there were black

designers that were working. there was such greatness in that sense. and nobody had this kind of feeling of 'you're not accepted, you can't come.' it's more now because it's become "fashion." a difference of mentality, of many things, because there have become these bars where people have to jump over. and then it became the luxury business - it's

changed. so no competition with us. and still, we still all have to do things because of the versailles situation too. well, and i want to move now to one of your most powerful organizing efforts: he diversity coalition. and here you are with iman and naomi campbell and a letter that you sent in september 2013. and here, so here you are as the

spokesperson for this coalition and you are, in a very confrontational way, laying it out there and i'd love you to elaborate on this and tell us how that came about.this was something, after 2007 when i first started the - what do you call it? - the town hall meetings about diversity, trying to help change it because,

after i left the industry of a model agency i had from 2000- um, 1984 to 200-? no, 1984 to 1996. when i left, i went down to mexico and i started spending time there. and, you know, the new york times had written up the fact that there was going to be a- really a drought with me gone because of the fact that i had helped change and support and champion so much. which, of

course i felt was a little bit more- too much pressure on me, because i thought 'nah, it's not possible. everything's going to be fine. they don't, i mean, what-what big of voice was i? how big was i that i affect the things?' but, truth be told, things start to change. and naomi's kept calling me every so often and say, 'ma you gotta come back

because, you know, there's so many people not using girls of color anymore.' and, you know, it took a while. but by 2004, i think, you know andre talley as well as naomi was going to the collections and seeing, and seeing what's happening in new york. and it was just different. when things have- when you achieve something and then all of a sudden it falls back, it becomes

a real serious situation. and it took me a few years to get it together to find a way to do what i had to do. but i then held, in 2007, the...town hall meeting where i talked about the industry in such a way which really gave us a great thing because women's wear daily supported it on a cover story, new york times, the guardian, and the independent

in england. and it went around rampantly saying 'is there a problem that there's racism in fashion?' that was 2007, and then we try to keep, i tried, and with, the black issue came out with italian vogue. that was great because that was, i think the fact that...i think franca sozzani seeing that really helped to change things too. but not enough. and then by

2010 it was still sort of like wavering. i had different- but girls were coming up, the designers were seeing them. model agencies were doing better at taking them on because it had been being said for some time that, you know - no blacks, no ethnics. they were just casting directors. which, we never had casting

directors before. so casting directors now were determining who the designer would see. and then eastern europe had opened up and all the wall had come down so there was more girls coming in from eastern europe. so things had changed rapidly. by 2012, everybody was talking to me that things had, from 2010, had begin to look a little bleak again. and then

one day, in my home in mexico, i set up and decided to write a letter. i called two of the people who are part of the coalition. the coalition is like a, like the mafia, i call it. [laughter] you know, you never know who's in the mafia? but the coalition is like that. it's like a speakeasy. i'm the only person everyone knows because i'm the front the band. but

these are people who feed me information, but they're important in the industry. so they're models, they're editors, they're casting directors as well. they are people who- stylist, model agency reps, but they all - white, black, latin, asian - they're all the people who do not like the way the industry is going. they want it diverse. because they also represent, but

they also believe. so, with that, i had this crew and we would do international phone calls. and the international phone calls would be getting on for them to tell me who, what, how, how they felt about things, what they were seeing. so i did, with a little small staff i have, a count of every designer who used one or none models of color for two or three

season consistently, and i wrote a letter to the fashion councils in london, milan, paris, and also new york naming them (which is really hardcore). but at the time it just seemed like that's the only thing we could do. because before, you talk nicely and talk to everyone, like in a room like this. didn't you send it to the press?and i sent

it to each one of them by email and, and then, and said that if they, if they did this, then, whether it was their intention or not, it was...it was racist, right. so of course i had to call women's wear daily because i had to get the press involved. so they had to see it, and so women's wear daily said 'well who

is the-' you know i try to be gangster and i said, they said 'who- who is-? [laughter] who wrote this letter?' i said 'i don't know. i- i don't' [laughter] [laughter continues]it's so silly. it's silly, right? she said 'bethann, you gotta tell us who wrote the letter otherwise i can't do anything about-' well of course, i wrote the letter. and i can't- so i said,

'okay, i wrote the letter.' so she said 'alright.' so they went to each of those councils and called- contacted them. and they all had to give, you know, an explanation. the councils are not responsible for the designers, but that was the only way i could think of to get their attention. it was brilliant, honestly. i mean, you know at the time you think it's just, you know,

you're just doing something. but the kids behind me... the two that i said 'look at this letter and tell me what you think.' and it was just short. and they said 'it's definitely hardcore, but you're hitting the point.' i said 'so i- so this should be the letter?' they said 'this should be the letter.' and that was a lot. so there were people who

said, and at press, 'do you think you might get sued?' [laughs] the joke. i said, first of all, if i was like dealing with the klu klux klan or homeland security, maybe i'd think about getting sued. this is fashion- hahaha. [laughter] i mean, i'm not doing anything wrong. i'm just looking at it like the little kid who said 'the emperor's new clothes - they

don't have any clothes on!' i mean, i'm only reporting what they're doing. so i mean, how could i get sued? she said, 'okay, i'm just asking.' i never had any fear of that because, as people said 'do you think you can make a difference?' but i've been down this road before. i have sort of rang the bell, you know. and i've seen the results. and i

also think that they're never doing anything out of being- i don't say that i, actually, was very careful with my words. i never said they were racist. i was saying the action, the results of it, is racism. the first thing i knew about my industry: no matter who they are, they're the last one who wants to think that they're racist.

and i knew that if i put that out there, it would change things. that was september 8, 2013. that was the first day of fashion week in new york city. i didn't expect to change anything in new york city, but i knew it would start something. so when you see this photograph there with naomi and iman, that was on good morning america, but that was just the

beginning of the press. it was international: cnn international, cnn new york. it was just boom-boom-boom-boom-boom. and i'ma tell you something: i give those two girls a lot of credit. what? it's not easy for them because they've been on the road with me before and different things, but they- i mean, iman said 'i don't care what's on my schedule,

whenever we need to be someplace, i'm with you.' and they were so, you know, quote-unquote like i am gangster, they were gangster with me. they really basically stood strong on it. and it wasn't anything to affect or to shame and industry, or to shame anyone. it was to educate. the whole point is to educate them, make people realize that what you

think you're doing is cool, but it's not cool- it's not good for, for the entirety. and what happened is that by- i sent that letter in september 8th. by paris, milan - things change. and celine was- so, to say, the new york times had written a cover story two months before that on the same same issue, backing what i had been doing all along. and the

end of the day celine, who we really love as a design company, but never used any one of color - any color. that season, right behind that letter, in october she used five girls. immediately. because no one wants to think of themselves that way. it's based more out of habit and ignorance. and so with that was great because she right away put somebody of color in her

advertising. things just changed some- uh....mr. armani closed the show with a black girl, opened... i mean they just- they started shifting. and that supported all the agencies because now people feel much more comfortable that have a market. that's what's great. i'm very impressed by your style of activism. that is, i mean, this is a

very direct letter, but then your follow-through was very positive and, as you said, 'educational' rather than scolding or putting them on the defensive and it seems like that's a model that could apply in so many different ways.in so many ways. because it has to be organic. number one, you have to feel like it's the

truth of something. and, like i said, when i was getting my reward for the cfda which, really, believe me - you know, i'm revolutionary. i think i'm the granddaughter of fidel castro and sh- you know. i almost cursed just then, you see. i caught myself. but the end of the day i really believe that, you know, you have to

educate. and that's what i was saying in- when i was getting that award, that i wasn't really trying to put anyone down. that i'm not here to raise another race up. i'm just trying to educate those who are in charge, those who do take that opportunity. it's to educate whites more so than the intended to help blacks or latins on you know or asians. it's

more to get clear because young kids don't see it the way we see it once we're grown-up. young kids- i have, my son even. he, you know, he's far grown now but back in the day if i asked him who was the kid that was with him, he couldn't describe, my son. well just tell me something - was he white or black? he said 'i don't know.' now that was back then.

kids today really don't get that, they don't get the color thing, and so it's so important to me. it's more for what we're bringing up, more so than who we are right now. that's what our responsibility is.i was interested, when we were walking through the galleries today, and we were talking about this issue and you told me about a

conversation you had with zac posen.yeah. and could you talk about that? because that's - yeah. - because he wanted to use an entirely...-his thing is very- zac posen's thing is very much like mr. saint laurent. mr. saint laurent used to feel like he just loved the way his clothes looked on girls of color. he just- they make, they did something to him that made him see

it differently. zac feels the same way and zac's thing was always with me. he wanted me to help him, he wanted me- my blessing also, on doing an all black cabine or an all-black model show and i just - it just doesn't play well with me, with that. you know i'm still about diversity. you can't be about diversity and say 'yeah, let's get all

the black kids in there.' i mean, you have to- you have to really look at it for what it really says. and so i would say to him 'no, don't do all black show, don't do an all back show.' and he said 'but why?' and everybody thinks because of what you fight for, that's what you would like to see. that's not what i want to see. if i

say diversity, i mean diversity. i don't need to be 50-50. you could be 70-30, meaning less than. but let's do that, because if you do that then you'll see the beauty of each one. if you make it all one thing people pass it off, especially in this new thing called 'fashion.' [laughter] you know, they'll sit there like this- you know they're so cold anyway. you do a fashion show, i mean.

these people have- you know, back in the day, you talk about the '70s. we used to yell and you- first of all, you invited all the students. and people outside of our industry never were allowed into a fashion show. so you invite maybe students of fashion, and these kids would cheer and make noise and a girl would walk down and she'd

sashay and everyone went 'ahhoh!' you know. not anymore. now everybody sitting there like this. and these are people who are to buy and to sell and to report your clothes. so of course, you know, you be-hahaha you can't get any rise out of them, that's the whole thing. [laughter]it's not as fun. no, it's not fun. so, with, you know, the great thing about talking to zac about, you

know, changing it and making it diverse - he didn't go down that road. but the time he decided to do what he wanted to do more. he and his mate called me up and asked me to come up, they had something to show me. it was right before the shows, about 3 or 4 days. and i went up and what he did was just- what was very smart. he had a cabine of mostly girls of color, of every

shade. with asian girls, latin girls, dark girls of every shade. but he reversed it where he made maybe- he had like six or seven blonde and... brown hair and red haired girls. so it became the reverse, but it did something so brilliant because, for me, he showed, with so much strength, the beauty of the girls of color. and, at the same time, the

girls that were caucasian were so happy to be there. ii was so funny to see. it was like they felt like they were special. [laughter] and they were! because everyone was beautiful. but it- when he showed that collection, it was the first collection i've ever seen zac had where the audience was so quiet and at the end they roared.

because he sold the collection on a beauty that they had seen in such a way that it was more organic than forced. and that was what was very proud for me.and so he was- he got your point obviously. he got the point. well here you are getting your award. and that looks like a beautiful evening - it was nice. - so you might think 'well it's all done. [laughter] you know,

we succeeded!' but i'd love to know your assessment of the issue of diversity in the fashion business today, and are you feeling optimistic? yeah, it's interesting. you know, it's interesting to think, you know, when people say 'who's going to be there?' you know, prabal gurung always says that. who is the- he's a young designer. well, he's not

young, but he's, to us, young in the sense that his business is young. and he wonders, who is going to be that person who actually ends or comes after i go? i don't think it's that situation because there are people who come along, along the way, and no one replaces them. you know, we could only hope that things change. i feel confident because

you know there are a lot of girls now. and model agencies are having a good time with the asian girls, latino girls, girls of color, black girls.they're feeling confident with the market. how much of a career they can have, because so many models in the world right now, i don't know, you know. but you can at least see them in catalogs, you can see them in

advertising. so i feel very, much more confident. but i never think i can take my foot off the clutch, like i always think they have to stay right there, you know, watching. because, you know, at one point i got confidence and i laid back for a few years and it'd start to go down. i don't think it's gonna happen this time. this time, i think the

conversation has been had so much and now also, you know, you can't- you couldn't talk about race before. people don't like talk about it. they want to just all be all good. why do we got to talk about it? [laughter] well, [scoffs] because there's a problem. [laughter] and so, you know, i might- my point to be to that is that, you know - now it's good because now they're talking about it in

politics, now they talking, you know, black lives matter, police hitting people, shooting people. i mean, the end of the day, my little subject in my conversation which was in this little island that's growing a little bit more pop culture called 'fashion' - it was a big conversation to be having. but now i'm getting a lot more support in a sense. you know, i don't

need that kind of support. but in a sense, it's a better conversation for everyone that is not an uncomfortable conversation. it's not uncomfortable in my, in my world so much because it's a fashion business. it's people who really are liberals. which i always said liberals are like borderline - you never know. [laughter] yeah, but in the end of the day it's

always better to have the conversation and i feel more confident now then i, then i have in a lot of years, because now so many girls- i'm discovering girls i don't even know where they're coming from. you're like 'wow - look at this one, look at that one.' and i'm having a dinner, we're saying, with [name] from w with 12 girls because, you know, restaurants

can't have...so much of a big table, but we're doing it in a restaurant. and it's just to keep celebrating everyone. you keep changing around because there's so many beautiful girls out there right now, and they need support because it's not an easy game to be a model no matter what color you are. and then to be a girl of color or a boy of color, it's not an

easy game. i mean, i don't encourage anyone to be a model. i want you to go into technology. [laughter] keep it real, you know. do something where you know you can win, you know. become a coder. but girls want to model because it's like when i was a kid. i want, you know, people wanted to be a ballerina. so in the end of the day, you know, i

don't encourage it. i discourage as much as i can, but those who are beautiful can get through. c'est la vie.well, one last question for you. we walked through the exhibition today and we talked about how yves saint laurent was so aware of his legacy, even as a very young man and we talked about legacy. and i just wonder if you know- what you think, if

you had to kind of boil it down to a sentence, what- how would you define your legacy? wow. [laughter] alright. want to help me? [laughter] alright, so i mean, you know, there's a lot of things i say like - you know, i have slogans - that keeps me going. i don't know about this, you know. i know

that when you leave this earth, each and every one of us - and that's not anyone who's done anything special - but just living. we, each one of us, should walk away knowing that we did alright, alright? so you do your very best. everyone's not meant to be a trojan horse. there are a lot of people who are meant to just pull the trojan horse.

so you know, you have those who are not going to be necessarily successful at things but doesn't matter. it's a personal success. i don't think of, you know, i know one thing - i got more responsible about leaving a legacy because people kept asking me 'please write a book, please write a book, please write a book.' and

then i know i started a documentary to talk about this industry. and then, the documentary, i was always trying to make it about joan smalls and jeneil williams and...[name], and i was trying to talk about the industry and how it was stuck, giving me such a hard time. i was trying to talk- and then eventually you, you know, you just know:

make the documentary about you. because how long- much longer do i have to live? you know, you live, everyone's- so many people are passing away. i keep thinking 'i gotta do that.' so, yes, i started being responsible about a legacy. so, yes, i would do...you know, the book. yes, i would do the the film so i can leave something behind. now people start saying

'where are you putting your papers?' i never heard of papers before. 'you know, you have to put it somewhere.' put what-? i threw most of them away. i mean, okay. [laughter] now i know you have to do that, so now i'm trying to be conscious. because it's not so much about what i leave about me. it's what other people should have the right to see and know. so, yes, i do think that i

have things, like i say, running- i have mantras like, you know, 'learn to run your own race.' you know...don't always look around and see. stay in your lane, you know. 'the lighter the load, the freer the journey.' these are things that get me through. so if i have to say that i have things that i say to get me through, i

don't know what my legacy would be other than: she was cool, she was funny, and she sure loved the dance. [laughter] [applause] thank you all, really. wow. okay, i stand too. i want to tell you thank you. wow. well done, huh? i want to say one thing too, real quick, 'cause i know we're gonna do a little q&a, maybe? - yeah.- okay, i just want to say

one thing. thank you very much, the museums. i'm really very proud of the exhibit, number one, that you were able to achieve this and very proud of what the- mr. berge, i have to give him credit for everything - to bring this, and to help you to have this here. but mostly importantly what you did here, what you've done, what david and philip has

done, but you all. thank you for coming out and making me feel so cool. thank you.i think we're all inspired to hear you and i know that there will be some questions, so we have a few minutes. philip has a microphone for anybody who has a question. saw this hand first so i'll go over there: good evening, miss hardison.

so, bed-stuy, fort greene. brooklyn love, right? a funny question: she asked a question that i was going to ask, like what do you want your legacy to be? but, on a lighter note, did kadeem have his selection in your agency at all? you mean what- you mean, when you say that- kadee- you know kadeem was my messenger. he started when- yeah, he helped me a bit, you know, my

company. what do you mean his selection? do you mean of girls? [laughs] kadeem would be- no matter who he liked, he became everyone's brother. he took it- boy, and i had- he was great for me because he really helped take care of the girls and so he liked people, but they just kept looking at him like, as brother.

yeah, so he didn't get much of a selection. that was a good question. again, good evening and thank you so much for coming to seattle. my question is: in terms of beauty, i learned what is beauty from my mother right here, and it was to appreciate women from all races and colors. but when i look at our first lady, to me, you can't be more beautiful than

she is, and designers- [applause] designers, you know, would give their life. and here's this woman. so why isn't the woman of color more acceptable to designers and just everywhere in the world? because, again, i mean the grace, the beauty that is in women of color is just so apparent to me. again, because of my mother. - yeah, you're right. - so, your thoughts on

that? but again- well you know that's interesting you say that. now it was- it's very interesting: what i started doing, if i sit at a fashion show and sit next to someone, i will show them the difference, especially when zac did what he did. i would say 'look at the girl of-' 'cause a girl of color, when she wears the

clothes, it seems like she's wearing her own clothes. when you see the girl who's non- the...non colored girl. [laughter] it's hard to get that out. she seems like she's a model. and i promise you, i would sit at show with, you know j- j alexander, the queen. i sat next to him at zac's show and i said 'i want to show you something:

look at each girl that works out and you'll see the difference of how the girl with color she wears a-' and this is true, and we had this little joke that we would say 'wearing it. not wearing it. wearing it.' and it's true. it's...it's just a quality. and some girls, i like, david and i both spoke about karlie kloss. yeah, no - karlie kloss wears a dress. i

mean, she's a white girl, tall like a, you know, like a building. but she has a sashay about her because she's like an entertainer. so it's not everyone but in most cases it's true, it's the beauty of them all. hi. so i am a board member on- with barbie and i collect african american barbies. i

have one of the largest collections in the world. and, i would say, that i don't know if you realize how you've actually impacted girls from a long time ago because i have my legacy here. and barbie has now stephen burrows and byron lars and we have zac posen and certain- and the collectible dolls. so i want you to know that it is,

your activism is actually going down into areas that you don't necessarily know directly. yes, thank you very much for that. thank you. [applause] hi. thank you so much for all the work that you've done. - thank you. - and thanks for being here today. my question was how much, with

fashion, and we're talking about women of color modeling, and their presentation to the world and making that more 'acceptable' or whatever, mainstream. what about behind the scenes in fashion? like, how do we get- i'm a photographer, so like how does-? how do you get- work on that?you could get- you know, okay i'm gonna cut you real fast and tell you:

you could do very well in new york 'cause you're good-looking. now let me tell you what happens. this is- [laughter]thank you. it's a shame to say, but as we say growing up as kids and mothers and parents and all, you know, your looks can take you a long way. it's an amazing thing. what you just asked, because that's

something that's going on right now, talking about behind-the-scenes. there are so few behind the scenes, it's always been. there are not a lot of people who basically can be behind-the-scenes, i mean, have that- whatever that take- that true grit. and if they do have it, they don't know how to become an apprentice. they don't know how to work with someone else to help

them get up. that's what everyone does. most people of color think that i can do this on my own. it's not true. what you need to do is get inj- you have to play the guerrilla warfare. you have to get in with the other guy, work with him, let someone who like him begin to recommend you. or let the others see you with them. but i

promise you, i have to say to you, it is true - if you're like a, you know, like a full-size person or not particularly attractive "fashion" person, you won't get anywhere. it's amazing. it's amazing. it's...it's almost like the eye needs to travel and find good-looking, and then they sort of find all the sudden that you're kind of

interesting or sexy or something. i don't know. especially with the males. but with a female, yeah, you could easily go to new york and start working with some designer as an assistant and i bet you ten to one you'll shoot up and you'd sink it. but also the stylist and hair and makeup - they're people who really basically are brilliant at that. but, as i say to them,

they don't need to be in the quote-unquote fashion anymore because they mostly do celebrities and they're making good buck and they're doing very well. but everybody has their personal best. people want to be accepted in the other world and they should be. that's a good thing. i mean, you know, i

don't know what to say about that other than the fact that there is a problem. time for one more question.[laughter] i made it! okay, hello, my name is jodyann, so i identify with the bethann thing, so...[scattered laughter] and i'm also from new york - yay. my question is...i feel like every time we talk about blackness or people of

color, women of color, it's always in relation to whiteness. i just want to step away from that for a second and just talk about like women of color, models of color, because even in this image- like, i understand that in relation to the fantasy- like what we know about the fashion, like this is adding diversity. but when i look at this image in itself

it's very homogeneous in terms of its representation of beauty, just like - there's just a lot of homogeneity. so i just want you to speak a little bit about, you know, women of color, models of color across races and like, what the diversity- what you think the next steps are where the industry is right now in terms of giving a little bit more

diversity within the representation of blackness or woman of color, or stuff like that. well, where we are we're moving nicely along you. could it be where we want it to be, if people wanted to be 50/50? no, we're not going to be there. because there are so many girls from all over the world that are caucasian that come to

america, to new york to work. all around the world. there's so many. before, eastern europe wasn't open like it is now, it's such a change. so will we be able to have a lot of girls of color working in the industry? we are doing much better than we were a few years ago. would i like those girls of color to not work in the industry?

yes, i would. [laughs] because i don't love the industry like everybody else does. i appreciate it because i'm from it. but at the end of the day, i wish they would, like i said, go work in technology. [laughter] but in the end, yay team. they are doing much better and there's a lot of beautiful kids coming along and i'm really very proud of that. i wish the boys could work

better, actually, because that's my real nut is the male model. but they do okay, but not as good as the girls are doing. so there is a lot of, you know, you may not see it because you don't go to shows, you can't see all of it, you don't see enough in your magazines or advertising. but it has been a great improvement. i really wouldn't say it if,

you know, if it wasn't. i don't think that, you know, we're 'free, free at last' and all that. but [laughs] but i'm very proud of what we've achieved and i'm...i'm hoping it'll continue and it's good. it's better. yeah, i want to say that- one thing, this is something that's very important. i'm glad you threw that out. i- age in, and also plus size and all those things. when

they say 'diversity - do you- you must really care about that.' truth of it is, that's not my fight. i stay within the lane of fashion model and that's what i know i can work and really achieve. the other thing is happening on its own. the plus size girl - they think that's a new hip, cool thing and so model

agencies are adding that. that's fine. when it comes down to age, yes, if you were a model before, you can continue to work in the industry all the way to the very end. will you be working like you were when you were 22? not necessarily. you can work with a lot of different companies. will you start out as a model at at 42 or 38?

no. but, unusually so, you can find that in the commercial world. and the 'commercial' is television, you know, those kind of- where you can actually, someone can dicover, say 'oh your aunt is so beautiful she should go up and see-' and, yes, you can maybe get a commercial. but in general, as a career, who wants the model when you're at good age

and you're-? i mean, [laughter] what are you, lonely? you're not lonely. so, i mean- i mean, you know, but you know, don't go by me because i'm not, i'm not- i'm more of a hater than a lover when it- [laughter] no you're not. [continued laughter] well, i want to thank you all for coming tonight and thanks again to bethann hardison. [laughter, applause] you're not a hater.i'm just kidding.

[continued laughter, applause]

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