STRAIGHT-UP SERIES : TRACY EVANS
In our Straight-Up Series, small business owners and entrepreneurs in Detroit and Cleveland share their stories. Learn how the pandemic has specifically impacted them and some positive changes that stemmed from it.
I grew up in Kalamazoo and went to Grand Rapids for high school. I love the Midwest. My family is here, these beautiful lakes are here, we say drive safe a lot as a form of I love you.
Being in the Midwest, especially west Michigan and Detroit, there’s always been such a close tie with the auto industry. My mom worked and retired from General Motors and seeing such hardworking individuals most of my life, made me understand how much love I have for the Midwest and what Detroit and this great state of Michigan stands for.
It’s Not Right is an organization that I came to after having a wild battle with Founders Brewing Company, really a battle with workplace misconduct. Often, when you are in those situations, you can feel so alone, like I’m the only one and why is this happening to me. We’ve all been in those positions or at least know someone who has and when we feel alone, it is imperative that we remember that we’re not. It’s Not Right is helping humans, whether it’s businesses or individuals, to deal with those things.
During pride month it is always so crazy to see how many businesses do all of these performative things that are not the solution. Or as the people say “that ain’t it”! It’s about understanding that people experience bias everyday. Race, sexual background, sexual orientation, all of these things happen to people all of the time. If you can’t figure out what you can do better to help those people, then you should probably seek some help in your organization and that help has to be from the top down.
The pandemic has really shown me that I needed to slow down. That we all should be slowing down and really processing our inner thoughts and how we feel about things. Maybe do some real thinking about how one can help themselves first before they can actually help other individuals. How they can process their own traumas without projecting that hurt onto others.
A lot of organizations and individuals are stepping up and realizing collectively just how much impact we can have when we come together. When we actually don’t feel alone, we’re empowered by the love and kindness of others. I’m glad the pandemic has brought us together and started to get people to care more about some of these issues that we should have been caring about all along.
What I’m most excited to do post-Covid, is hug humans and be around friends and family. I’m also looking forward to helping people understand the impact of workplace misconduct and how important it is to have an organization that listens to its employees, believes them and believes IN them.
Many organizations make it seem like it’s so hard to care about their employees. It’s really not that hard. There are all sorts of statistics that show the correlation between happy employees and productivity.
What I’ve learned this year is that love and kindness always wins. The thought of us loving each other unconditionally and knowing that you can find special things in individuals when you are just kind to them. It’s been really really incredible. What’s BS to me is unkind people.
My advice to makers is don’t be so hard on yourself. Take whatever steps you feel comfortable with. Sometimes we think that we have to hit these huge goals but sometimes you set them so high you can’t even grab them. It’s ok that you did a couple of the things you needed to do but didn’t get it all done. It’s ok that you took a day to relax, regroup, and rethink. Just get back and do it the next day, the next time, the next month, whatever. Find that consistency and next thing you know you’re much closer to your goal than you think.