Category Archives: Personal Empowerment

Feminists are so often stereotyped as humorless beings by a world that doesnt seem to understand what an uphill battle this life can be for a woman, certainly for a feminist, said musician Ani DiFranco. (Daymon Gardner)

When feminist icon Ani DiFranco first stepped onto the global music scene with a defiant voice and black combat boots, she was just 19 years old.

She had an urgency about her: a mission to publicly dismantle the patriarchy with a charge for her fans to do the same. She was creating her own music, writing song after song in a catalogue that would eventually span to a 20+ album career. She was creating her own record label tooRighteous Babe Recordswhich would not only elevate her voice but also catapult other women into the recording business. She was also educating herself. By age 20, the songwriter was taking classes at The New School in New York, including Feminism 101. She was attempting the complicated tightrope between feminist theory and practice.

Today, when Ani DiFranco speaks, its easy to hear all of that work and care in her voice. She is deeplythoughtful when reaching for language, in a manner that makes evident all the years she has spent having difficult conversations about progress. When she speaks, you can almost see her underlining Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich in Feminism 101. You can imagine her chatting with Pete Seeger. Learning tactics. Making mistakes. Expanding her ideas of inclusion. Deepening the kind of spirit required to create real and lasting change.

Ms. spoke with DiFranco in the lead up to her April 18 livestream concert, celebrating the release of her new album Revolutionary Love. She spoke with us about poetry, feminism, domestic abuse, shame, allyship and places where vulnerability and strength can co-exist. She was calling in from New Orleans, with her children and dog moving through the background and her head newly shaved. At age 50, she could still feel traces of her younger self and the epic journey that led her there.

Emily Sernaker: How has this time been for you, creativity-wise?

Ani DiFranco: Creatively getting off the touring train has allowed me space and time. I have two kids who are in virtual school. So, in a sense, I have no space or time because were constantly together. But thats also a blessing for somebody like me who was aching for more time with my kids because my job is travel.

Its allowed me to explore some other ideas that Ive had for a long time and never had a chance to, like Righteous Babe Radio. We launched this free 24/7 streaming internet radio, which is a lot of live music from me and my cannon, my musical community, a lot of poetry and spoken word, a lot of unique shows that were generating now. I host Woodys Voice, a biweekly conversation curated by the Woody Guthrie Center in Oklahoma. We also have a Putumayo world music show that were airing. Thats been an amazing new ride. A lot of time, a lot of energyno money. So, it doesnt solve the absence of touring.

Im working on a childrens book. Im working on a musical. All of these sort of long-term creative projects that I probably wouldnt have been able to shoehorn into my packing and unpacking lifestyle. Thats kind of cool, getting an opportunity to change it up creatively.

Sernaker: Its powerful that youre able to help so many artists through Righteous Babe Records. The folksinger Anas Mitchell of Hadestown actually spoke with Ms. about what your generosity meant to her.

DiFranco: Yes, Anas! There have been so many wonderful artists that have come through our house, stayed in it, and we got behind them for a while, and then they move on. And theres a lot of great artists currently working with Righteous Babe Records. 2020 was probably our busiest year for the label itself. We released so many records. The day that my record came out this February, we had two releases. Jocelyn Mackenzie also released a record on Righteous Babe.

Sernaker: For readers who arent familiar with the history of Righteous Babe, could you share what was like to create your own record label?

DiFranco: When I started Righteous Babe label, there was no there there. There was no office and telephone and staff. It was an idea. I made a cassette of my first album and I just wrote Righteous Babe Records on there in my little chicken scratch. It was my way of thumbing my nose at the corporate establishment. Its very anti-capitalism, or thats maybe not the right way to say it. I felt that this sort of hyper-capitalist society was to the detriment of culture, of art, of people, of just the human interests. I had this idea that I wanted to be an artist in the world without getting in that bed with those business bottom line minded people.

So, when I was 19, I started writing Righteous Babe Records on my tapes. After a year or two, I was driving around playing showswere talking one guitar and a 69 Beetle that I was traversing the country in. I had one or two tapes to my name. But the income started to be such that I could hire literally my best friend. Then my other good friend. Thats how the label itself really became a reality. From there, we just slowly grew over the course of a decade or two.

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Sernaker: I love the story about adding babe into the title. You sarcastically used it to push back at what guys would say, right?

DiFranco: Right. I sort of simplified the story just then because youre right. In the beginning, I wrote Righteous Records because I felt that was just my way of expressing my dedication to my humanity. My idealism was: Im trying not just to make art, but make change. Then we found out there is a Righteous Records in Oklahoma. A gospel label, and we got in touch with them and they were like, Yeah, no, I think well keep that name exclusively. Thanks. So yes, putting the babe in there then was not just my earnest dedication to the cause, but my humor came into it at that point, which I think was really good in the end.

Im sure maybe you knowfeminists are so often stereotyped as humorless beings by a world that doesnt seem to understand what an uphill battle this life can be for a woman, certainly for a feminist. I think that the babe in the name definitely cuts that off at the pass.

Sernaker: You just mentioned that you seek to be a changemaker in addition to an artist, which also comes up in your new music video Do or Die. Youre modeling protest as an individual and are endorsing the Breathe Act at the end of the video.

DiFranco: This summer I was out there on the street as often as I could and joining the protest for racial justice. It was uplifting to be with thousands and thousands of people every day and to look around and say we are the majority. That was a very visceral, real, experiential [feeling] this is America. It is diverse and rejoicing in diversity, showing that we understand our diversity is our strength, and we understand that no one can be free until were all free.

The challenge then becomes to translate that energy and groundswell of protest from the streets, to the halls of power. How do we translate this into systematic change? Because, of course, we understand that racism is sewn into our systems, our laws. When I discovered those incredible Congresswomen doing the work in the Breathe Act, I thought: here it is. Theyre engaging with every modern civil rights organizing entity. Its a huge coalition. They are attending to every aspect of what racial equality and systematic means.

Sernaker: You definitely emphasize the word we in the lyrics to Do or Die. Theres a feeling of you addressing the listener, including them in the conversation, right at the top of the record.

DiFranco: I feel like that line right there in the song Do or Die speaks to the whole album. Each of the songs exists in that place of damaged relationships and some of the songs are very personal. Im talking about my personal relationships and trying to recover from traumas that we inflict on each other. From the damage that has been done without abandoning my family and that, of course, that metaphor applies exponentially outward.

The human family cant divorce each other. Cancel culture is not the answer. When somebody, anybody, makes a mistake or treads on their fellow humans, we have to find a way of dealing with that because we cant kick each other off the planet. The quest becomes: how to be the end of a cycle of violence. The violence tends to just go back and forth, back and forth between people. We need to figure out how to say it stops here and I am going to meet even my opponents with revolutionary love.

Sernaker: I actually heard you speak about this. It was a really gripping moment at your book release at The New School auditorium here in New York. I dont know if you remember. The Q&A ended with a fan of yours, who was put off by a phrasing of the moderator that they felt was disrespectful or politically incorrect in some way. You jumped in and de-escalated the situation.

DiFranco: Yeah, I totally remember the moment youre talking about. The moderator said Ladies and gentlemen once or twice to address the room. The person who came up to the mic was a trans person who very much took offense to that. They came up to the mic in attack mode, that was the energy of their message. I feel like I have this experience so often in my life now, where I see what is playing out around me. Then in my minds eye, I see an alternative reality, where that person comes up to the mic and says: You know, this has been lovely and I really appreciate it a lot of what has been said, but I am a trans man, and I felt discluded by the opening welcome. To approach it with, again, that spirit of revolutionary love with compassion for the other, and to approach it as a teaching moment instead of a battle. It does take an extreme amount of patience, and humility on the part of the oppressed, the marginalized

Sernaker: [That they have] to be the teachers is problematic.

DiFranco: Yes, it is a weight. Many feminists in particular have spoken to that or people of color. They say, We have to spend our life being so patient, so humble, and every moment is a fricking teaching moment. All of my energy is supposed to go to this? And I would say no. It is not up to the people who are marginalized, who are discounted, who are disempowered, to give their whole life to this work of teaching and shouldering the burdens by themselves. I think the sort of the math Ive learned to do in my head is that those that can afford to be that teacher in that moment, that is the work you are called to do.

Each of us has a role to play and that role changes over time. I feel like with that lens in mind, I have been writing myself into existence for thirty years. I came from a place in this world where I felt very small, very disempowered, very discounted, very pushed down, very afraid. I listen to my early songs and I hear songs of survival. I hear songs from the perspective of prey to a world of predators. Thats what it was like, being twenty and on my own and in New York and walking down the street at night. Now, after thirty years of writing myself strong, writing myself safe, writing myself into a fully realized human being, despite the odds, despite a society that does not always recognize the full humanity of females, I am in a position now where I can be that teacher. Where I can, in that moment of that book talk, try to de-escalate, where I am ready now to step into that place. Of course, I dont do it perfectly and Im still learning. Im still growing, and Im still trying my hardest and failing all the time.

Sernaker: In your memoir, you talk about taking classes at The New School like Feminism 101 and reading Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, Bell Hooks, Alice Walker, Adrienne Rich, Ntozake Shange and Carol Gilligan. What does being part of a feminist continuum mean to you?

DiFranco: It means everything to me to jump into that river. I came into being because of all those women. All those second wave, feminists, writers, poets, philosophers, revolutionaries made me understand who I am. They helped me tune in and be able to hear the sound of my own voice. Through the din of the patriarchal culture, they taught me to trust in myself and my instincts and my perspective to understand Im not crazy. Im not alone.

Sernaker: In that Feminism 101 section, you wrote: It cemented my will to become part of a process of breaking silences and challenging the code of resignation sounding patriarchy.

DiFranco: Its simply that you cant start with imbalance of one of these fundamental binaries that I see as masculine and feminine. I dont see women are feminine and men are masculine. I think masculine and feminine are in each of us. Whether we identify as female, male or in between or neither or both and, the swirl is within us, among us and between us.

Even in our very selves, even in me as a woman, if the masculine in my nature is upheld and recognized, and affirmed, celebrated, and the feminine in me is always doubted, and suspect and undercover, I myself cannot be fully realized and let alone a society that elevates the masculine and devalues the feminine. I think thats a fundamental imbalance of human societies if you go around the globe. You cant start there, you just cant start from patriarchy and get to peace because from one imbalance begets another and another and another.

Sernaker: Youve also spoken eloquently that womens reproductive rights are civil rights.

DiFranco: Amen.

Sernaker: I know thats an issue close to your heart.

DiFranco: Yes, and I really do think language is so important. We need to drive the language around this issue. Because putting it in patriarchal, religious language in moral language is not right. I think that womens ability to control their own reproduction, to decide when to reproduce, is fundamental to being free in a society.

In modern society, [if you cant] choose when you want to reproduce as a female, you are a reproductive slave. You will never be free as long as you are under the control of an external force telling you that you must have a baby now. You will never be free or emancipated in that circumstance. You have to understand reproductive freedom as an element of civil rights, only applies to people with reproductive systems. Then, if you feel you are morally against something, be it having an abortion, homosexuality, whatever the patriarchal religion says, if that is your religious belief, then for yourself you may absolutely choose not to do these things that you agree are immoral. But to tell other people with other beliefs, and other lives, that they have to abide by your religious beliefs, I think thats where [its problematic].

Sernaker: How can language and activism work together? Im thinking again of the song Do or Die, theres a great moment where you mention using a pen to pick the locks.

DiFranco: Ive always been quite skeptical of laws because they have not served everyone equally. The laws that are supposed to make us all equal in America have not succeeded. Then along comes the last administration, and I found an incredibly renewed sense of respect for the law. I thought: Wow, these rules, this democracy, and as imperfectly as it has served so many of us, is a whole lot better than fascism. Its a whole lot better than dictators.

This is contained in that song Do or Die in that line that you brought up: They use their pen to pick the locks. Our founders created this democracy with a pen and paper. It allowed for a peaceful transfer of power, which it wasnt until were were the brink of losing itthe profound gift that is. As imperfect as the system has been and unequal for people, this is a system we can work with. This is a system we can grow.

Sernaker: Lets talk about your love of poetry. Its unique that in your shows and albums, youve really made a choice to have spoken word present throughout.

DiFranco: I have a love affair with song and my guitar but sometimes only a poem will do. The silence around the words and the rhythmic freedom of a poem. The lack of necessity to rhyme when you take the music away. All of that when its just you and your words and the air and anybody whos there to receive it.

Poetry has been the vehicle especially for feminists in our culture. Im sure its not disconnected from the fact that women are caregivers, are so busy feeding and loving others that, to have a room of ones own to write the novel to create the epic work, long, skinny columns of very distilled thoughts has been a traditional medium of feminist movements. Its like: I have five minutes, and Im going to try and communicate the world through this poem.

Sernaker: Many people in the United States didnt realize how much they needed a poem until they heard Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.

DiFranco: Oh, my gosh, Amanda Gorman! I know. Were going to be okay. Remember the Parkland shootings and the young women from that? Emma Gonzalez. Now, Amanda Gorman and the climate activist Greta Thunberg. These young women thank Goddess.

Their nimbleness of mind and freshness of perspective, and genius, that is very much of a female nature. The fact that they are finding their way to the world stage now and that humanity is opening up enough to listen to those young female voices is so hopeful for the 21st century. It is making it different from the last. But yes, isnt that something? It says it all right there that every time a President, the leader of the free world, the most powerful man, so far, is being installed in office, who do you call? A poet.

Sernaker: Id like to ask about Shrinking Violet if you feel comfortable. There are so many women stuck in quarantine in domestic situations that they cannot get out of, either verbally or physically abusive. And we know that number has gone up. Why was it important for you to share this song?

DiFranco: Part of me didnt want to include that song on the new record. Part of me never wants to sing it again. I had to write it because thats how I get through life. But sharing it, and broadcasting it is very uncomfortable.

I did it because of exactly what youre saying. I know that Im not alone in feeling scared in your own home. I know that there are many, probably more women than men, but all kinds of human beings right now that are stuck at home, like you say, in fear. So, Ive written about it.

As songs Ive written go out in the world, I hear whispered messages back and Shrinking Violet is often paired with Bad Dream. I already feel glad that I included them. Its just, youre not alone in these things. Even the most brilliant, active, powerful women out there in this world might be struggling mightily. When they go home, they might be feeling disempowered in their private sphere. I think its so important for us to know that we are not alone in our struggles, in what we consider our failures and weaknesses. So yeah, getting back to your original question, [its] the bravery of just being honest. Showing yourself succeeding, failing, being strong, being weak. All of that helps to allow for others to do that for themselves. My only message is you have just as much license as I do to be all the aspects of yourself and to be unashamed of them.

Sernaker: How has this impacted your experience of understanding what art can do? I mean, you already knew that art helps people not feel isolated, as your fans have testified.

DiFranco: The mighty second step that happens after youve created something to go share it in real time. That is a heavy duty connection point I sure miss. But even like you said, just the act of writing it out of your body, even if you only have that, that is really important.

I had this experience [years ago] where I came home to my house in Buffalo and there was a man upstairs. He was in my house, in the dark, in my bedroom waiting for me. I managed to talk him out of my house without any physical violence I wasnt even going to tell anyone because I knew people would worry about me. But every cell of my body got affected. I started having panic attacks all the time, thinking: Im having a heart attack, gripping pain in my chest and cant breathe.

I told myself mentally, thats cool, Im good moving on. But physically, its like: no, that was very traumatic. Now you have to process it. You have to deal with it in some other way than pushing it down and moving on. I grappled with what the aftershocks physically of having panic attacks for months. Then finally, I sat down and wrote a poem called Parameters. I put on a record at that time. It took several hours, I wrote it in one go. Afterwards, Im not going to tell you the panic attacks completely disappeared, but

Sernaker: It created space for it.

DiFranco: Yes, it was a marked difference with healing from the act. Thats before I shared it with anybody. You can write your heart and soul into a letter and never send it. The fact that youve articulated it for yourself, youve released it from your body, onto the page or into whatever medium you express through that is a healing process in and of itself. The sharing then becomes another different opportunity for healing and connecting and evolving with community. But even just the act of self-expression is medicine in and of itself for those of us that are sick from isolation and sick from feeling erased. To write it down and be your own witness is something.

Sernaker: I also wanted to ask you about physical appearance. Throughout your careerespecially in Im Not a Pretty Girl and Imperfectlythis is something youve explored in depth. I remember hearing your lyrics in college: Im okay, if you get me at a good angle. Youre okay, in the right sort of light. We dont look like pages in a magazine, but thats alright. The permission of that felt unique. Its something young women dont really hear.

DiFranco: Being fixated on trying to be pretty is an incredible energy suck. Of all the things you could dedicate your skill and attention and talents towards trying to win at the game of competition for the male gaze, its just like ew. What a inspiration suck from women. That winning, that seeing other women as competitors, its all very subliminal shit.

Seeing the show, getting the thumbs up from the patriarchal beauty standard is the route to power, to self-empowerment. Its all such a huge diversion. Actually, sabotage is, I think, so much of our potential as women. So yeah, its come up a lot. I imagine I have a lot of songs ahead of me about getting old. Its like Im not your boy toy when Im young and cute. Now its like, okay, young and cute is kind of in the rear view. I look more like my mother every day to me. I am 50 now. I suppose from here, I keep counting up not back down again, so I think the new horizon of being not a pretty girl is not being a girl at all. Im moving towards being an old lady. Im going to search for the power in that. Against once again, that sort of patriarchal point system. Warding the male gaze and turning my own gaze on myself. One of the elements that Ive offered in my songs over the years and the albums and the songs is: youre also there. Your gaze [matters] why dont you look how you want for yourself?

The physical, the body image stuff, and the trying to win the game of who has the prettiest face and the biggest tits: thats a trap. I recognized it as disempowering very early on and dividing. How do they divide workers of the world against each other to go fight for fascism. Whoa, what, how does that mind meld work? And the same thing with women. How have they so successfully divided us, pitted us against each other? As competitors vying for the treats from the master.

Sernaker: Physical appearance also feels worth exploring because you shaved your head again in your new music video. Do you want to speak about hair in particular?

DiFranco: Yes, I shaved my head again recently at age 50 and I hadnt since I was 20. Which makes me look at the fact that its a different world around me now. I hope that I had played a part in that. These days, theres a lot of theres a lot of women with shaved heads. I think even in the context of being sexy, of being pretty, of being gorgeous, of being desirable, theres that tiny opening showing theres actually a lot of ways to be feminine. There are a lot of ways to be beautiful.

My shaving my head in the video was just me checking in with myself again. I do it as an intuitive thing. I felt, well, my hair was getting shorter every day of the pandemic (I was cutting it myself) incrementally. Every time I would Zoom with somebody they would be like Wow, you have less hair again. Then I got to the point where I just thought, I think I just need to shave it again. Then we were going to make this video and I thought, well, maybe well make it part of the action. When it came down to the moment of reckoning, my two friends are in the bathroom with me. Im like, you know, maybe just short is good. And theyre looking at me like Were doing it. I thought here we go: bumps and nooks and crannies and 15 year old sags and wrinkles. Age 50. Okay, bring it on. Bring it all on.

It really worked, I have to say. From my own personal point of view and wanting to check in with the sort of revolutionary that I stomped into the world to be. For weeks on end after I shaved, I would get up in the morning of course not remembering. Id look in the mirror and be like, Ah! I saw me at 20. Every day, it was like, oh, and then my life flashes before my eyes and the epic journey since that moment when I was 20 and did it the first time. The immense change in me and the immense change in my society and everything. It really did serve to really put me in touch with that span. With that evolution with what epic change has taken place within and without myself. Also the work yet to do.

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The coronavirus pandemic and the response by federal, state and local authorities is fast-moving.During this time,Ms. is keeping a focus on aspects of the crisisespecially as it impacts women and their familiesoften not reported by mainstream media.If you found this article helpful,please consider supporting our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month.

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The Ms. Q&A With Ani DiFranco: You Have License To Be All the Aspects of Yourself and To Be Unashamed of Them - Ms. Magazine

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi paved the way for his own political project at a meeting with Shia and Sunni clerics over an iftar dinner, where he hinted that the era of sectarian quotas has ended.

Kadhimi surprised members of the clergy representing sectarian factions who were in attendance by likening sectarianism to Zionism, calling on the clerics to adopt a moderate discourse.

He said, Sectarianism is just like Zionism. It makes no difference. They all build their values on racism and the sowing of discord.

Kadhimis escalation of his political narrative about the importance of the civil state, in what seems to reflect likely support received from Arab countries, puts him on a collision course with the religious party forces that have ruled Iraq since 2003.

Among such parties in particular is the Dawa Party, which now seeks new alliances, especially with the Sadrist movement. The Dawa party seems to be acting on the principle, established by its current leader and former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, according to which there is no relinquishing of Shia rule in Iraq.

Maliki had indicated on a previous occasion in Iraqi dialect, We shall not give it, meaning we will not give up Shia rule.

An Iraqi analyst said, Kadhimi is responding to the Hashed (Population Mobilisation Forces) and to Iran in their own language. They accuse him of being a lackey of the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel, and he responds by describing them as Zionists.

Kadhimi draws support from moderate forces in Iraq, and has clear support from Iraqi President Barham Salih, but observers say that time is running out for the Iraqi prime minister before Iraqi elections scheduled for next fall.

Kadhimi is trying to restore the prestige of the state and its control over the countrys resources, but he is at odds with the concept of empowerment, which means in practical terms apportioning state institutions, official positions and resources along sectarian and partisan quotas.

An Iraqi parliamentarian who preferred to remain anonymous said, Kadhimi has not adopted the discourse of opposition to sectarianism in a vacuum. He knows very well that this rhetoric finds deep resonance among the popular trends that were behind the protests that erupted in 2019. These could at any moment regain their street momentum considering the deteriorating economic conditions for which no far-reaching solutions have been found and may in fact continue in light of the obstacles that have hindered the governments plans to reexamine the budget cycle, fight corruption and curtail the influence of parties within the joints of the Iraqi state.

Although the quota system is clearly at play in the distribution of ministries among political forces, the main threat to any political project fostered by Kadhimi could reside in two camps. The first is the Popular Mobilisation Forces that dominate the political and security landscape and challenge the authority of the state.

The other camp is the second line of civil service officials behind ministers, where party representatives control government departments in Baghdad and local administrations in the provinces.

It is not clear which formula Kadhimi is considering as part of his plan to enter the partisan political arena in the upcoming elections. But it is certain that he is not about to repeat the experience of former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who won the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group but lost his political influence after hinting that he would not be a front for Iranian influence in Iraq.

Iraqi writer and activist Dhikra Muhammad Nader ruled out any intent by Kadhimi to depart from the political system that is based on sectarian quotas.

Nader told The Arab Weekly that Kadhimi is aware, based on his previous experience as head of intelligence, of all the inner workings of sectarian quotas and is a partner in this system. So he should not be expected to do anything that contradicts the system or undermines its existence.

She stressed that Kadhimi, both as the holder of the highest government position or the initiator of a political project, is essentially incapable of fulfilling his promises, because political change in Iraq is beyond his ability to implement it.

She added, The legislative, executive, and judicial establishments exist because of sectarian quotas and the sharing of spoils, and there is no national imperative among its political or moral considerations.

Kadhimi realises that the challenge is greater now that the people have been instilled with religious political discourse; and those who are politically and financially empowered benefit from the current situation to reap more personal benefits, while the simple people are swayed by the religious discourse promoted by tens of thousands of Shia clerics representing the highest Shia authority (Marjaiya), religious parties and the Sadrist movement.

Analysts point out that Kadhimi does not forget that his ascent to power was the result of the protests that spread for months in the main squares of Iraqi cities as crowds rejected the ruling political class and sectarian parties. This strengthens his conviction that the vocal support for his anti- sectarian narrative is his asset in any future electoral race .

Kadhimi said in his speech that religion is the main pillar in the identity of Iraqi society, and Islam is an identity, and the constitution respects Islam, and stipulates that its principles should not be violated and that the feelings of the majority of the people should be respected and there should be no prejudice to its symbols and rituals.

He added, We are most in need today of spreading the hope and advocating for it through places of worship and clerics. We need hope that creates societies and helps us build our country.

But Kadhimis political ambiguities are reflected in his call for clerics to participate in a national dialogue between the various trends of the people, to build and support the countrys future.

Religious minorities have complained of persecution in the country over the past two decades, while Sunnis have seen their political role marginalised by upheaval and violent sectarian conflicts.

The sectarian quota system seems in some ways to have seized control of the present and future of Iraq, backed by militias.

Millions of deprived, unemployed and enlightened youth have expressed their rejection of the sectarian system, which they consider as contrary to the history of the modern state in Iraq and an obstacle to building a citizen state based on the principle of social justice.

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Kadhimi paves the way for own political project in Iraq by attack on sectarianism | | AW - The Arab Weekly

U.K. pop star Kerry Katona who now makes money by operating an OnlyFans account recently revealed that she enlists her teenage daughter to snap racy photos of her to post online.

The former "Atomic Kitten" singer and 40-year-old mother of five reportedly told Closer Magazine on Sunday that her children don't mind her "showing off" her body online for money. Her 13-year-old daughter, Heidi, even takes some of the pictures for her.

"Mums have as much right to show off their bodies as anyone else. I can do what I like with my body, as it belongs to me," she told the tabloid. "My children know I do it and Heidi even takes some of the pictures of me for the site."

Despite admitting she does worry her kids may get some "grief" for her decision to showcase explicit images of herself online, she justifies the move by arguing they would face the same pressure no matter what she decided to do with her life.

"I do worry about my children getting grief, but they'd also get it if I gave it all up and became a lollipop lady I'm Kerry Katona at the end of the day," she said.

Later in the interview, Katona acknowledged that the money and personal empowerment the decision brings her help, too.

"I say to them, 'What's the difference between me getting papped topless on a beach or going topless on a site I'm in control of?'" she explained, adding, "It's changed my life financially and it's made me feel empowered."

Speaking for them, Katona insisted, "My kids are fine with it they're loving the money!"

"They're resilient and open-minded and I've taught them that other people's opinions don't matter," she explained.

Katona, according to the Mirror, has five children: "Molly, 19, and Lilly-Sue, 18, with her ex-husband Brian McFadden, Heidi, 13, and Max, 12, with second husband Mark Croft and Dylan-Jorge, six, with late ex George Kay."

OnlyFans is an online subscription service in which users sell personal and explicit photos of themselves to paying voyeurs.

The service can be incredibly lucrative, which says quite a bit about the society in which we live. Earlier this year, TheBlaze reported about a Christian OnlyFans model, raking in $200,000 a month on the service, who argued her faith would not stop her from stripping down.

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OnlyFans mom enlists 13-year-old daughter to take raunchy pics of her - TheBlaze

EdelGive Foundation, one of Indias leading grant-making organizations released its Landscape Study on Women Entrepreneurship which showed that women entrepreneurs in India were likely to grow up to 90% in the next five years as they receive big boosts in several areas of their lives.

The national study focuses on the challenges, impact on health, socio-economic security and family wellbeing outcomes of women entrepreneurs, providing a complete overview of women entrepreneurs and the ecosystem within which they thrive.

The study conducted across 13 states has revealed that around 80% of women, from semi urban and rural India, feel a significant improvement in their socio-economic and cultural status after starting an enterprise. Women surveyed also reported a greater sense of independence and confidence.

The study is a part of EdelGives UdyamStree Campaign which aims to boost the entrepreneurial spirit in women and plot women entrepreneurship as one of the key pathways to boosting Womens Economic Empowerment in India.

It was released by Ram Mohan Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development in an online event which was chaired by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog.

The multi-faceted study has focused on a cross-section of factors ranging from societal, financial, personal to familial factors in order to understand the overall journey of women entrepreneurs and has also looked at the role of government, NGOs and corporates in the ecosystem.

While the study has reported an improvement in socio-cultural aspects for women due to entrepreneurship, it has also revealed that there are still significant gaps in terms of financial knowledge and resources available to women entrepreneurs along with marketing, production, technological and socio-cultural challenges faced by them.

Despite several government schemes and policies supporting women entrepreneurship, the uptake of such schemes by women entrepreneurs is quite low.

Lack of awareness about financial aids and schemes, non-availability of required documents, perception of the process to use these schemes as complex and having no assets to put on mortgage, were some of the inhibiting factors behind this.

The study projects that businesses owned by women entrepreneurs are likely to grow up to 90% in 5 years in India, in comparison to similar businesses in the US and UK where expected growth trends range from 50% and 24% respectively, during the same period.

Speaking at the panel discussion which was part of the launch event moderated by Journalist, Faye DSouza, the Executive Chairperson of EdelGive Foundation, Vidya Shah said, Women in India are leading a cultural revolution building their businesses, paving the way for future aspiring women entrepreneurs. Their role is pivotal in enhancing the economic growth of the country, employment generation, and industrialization.

Naghma Mulla, CEO of EdelGive Foundation during the panel discussion added that Empowering women economically has a bearing on their overall growth - Right from developing their self-esteem and confidence, to increasing the quality of life that women lead, entrepreneurship facilitates their empowerment.

It also, albeit gradually, gives them autonomy and decision-making powers to make informed choices over higher education and better health for themselves and their children. We believe that an UdyamStree can be catalytic to societal progress and well-being, she added.

Based on the key findings, the study recommends that states conduct a meta-analysis to identify their specific needs and design and implement relevant programmes, promote products from women entrepreneurs under a common brand with tax incentives, impart soft-skills training which is inclusive of accounting, HR management and communication, implement awareness generation and community mobilization initiatives for moral support and establish mentorship programmes at the local level to enable budding entrepreneurs to formalize their enterprise and expand.

Read: Hiring activity recovering steadily across sectors: Monster Employment Index

Read: 85% of women in India missed out on raise, promotion because of their gender: LinkedIn study

Read: Report finds accelerated demand for graduate business degrees in 2021 amid declining Covid-19 concerns

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Women entrepreneurs in India likely to see business growth up to 90% in the next 5 years: Report - India Today

MIAMI, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Shave with V is set to launch their Care Bears collection just in time for spring. The collaboration is inspired by the empowerment, colorfulness, and positivity of the Care Bears.

The collection will feature bright, beautiful metal razor handles including gold for Funshine Bear, hot pink for Cheer Bear, and teal for Wish Bear. The packaging will showcase different Care Bears and be a great collectible item for fans in addition to being a fun, colorful travel case.

Shave with V will be also launching a premium rainbow shave butter to complement the razors and provide a smooth shave.

The entire "Care Bears" Shave with V collection will be available starting May 23rd at shavewithv.com

About Shave with VShave with V is a personal care company focused on high-end sustainable products for all generations. Shave with V handles are 100% metal and comes in palette of 12 colors in both shimmer and gloss finishes. All the packaging is Eco- friendly and acts as a travel carrying case.

About Cloudco EntertainmentCloudco Entertainment, formerly American Greetings Entertainment, is the owner for iconic entertainment brands such as Care Bears, Holly Hobbie, Madballs, Packages from Planet X, Twisted Whiskers, Buddy Thunderstruck, Tinpo and its newest IP, Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese. Cloudco Entertainment develops multi-platform entertainment franchises across all media channels and extensive consumer merchandising programs that immerse children and adults in brands they love.

About Care BearsIntroduced in 1982 through consumer products, greeting cards, and later a series of animated television shows and feature films, Care Bears is one of the most popular and endearing children's properties in the world. Fans of all ages love these huggable bears from Care-a-Lot who inspire all to have fun, share and care. The Care Bears first appeared in their own television specials in 1983 and 1984, followed up with a long-running animated TV series and then made the leap to the big screen in 1985-87 with The Care Bears Movie trilogy. More recently the Care Bears could be seen in Care Bears & Cousins, a Netflix original CGIanimated series launched in fall 2015 and the brand-new Care Bears: Unlock the Magic, a 2D animated series featuring an all-new look and mission for the bears, launched in 2019 on Tiny Pop in the UK and Boomerang and Cartoon Network in the US.

Website: http://www.carebears.comYouTube: http://www.youtube.com/CareBearsFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/CareBearsTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/CareBearsInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/CareBears

Media ContactAdlih Rodriguez305-874-9341[emailprotected]

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TORONTO, April 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TransUnions (NYSE: TRU) latest quarterly analysis of global online fraud trends found that since the COVID-19 pandemic began, fraudsters in Canada are increasing their digital schemes against businesses. In addition, TransUnions recent Canada Consumer Pulse Study found that 34% of Canadian consumers have recently been targeted by digital fraud.

TransUnion came to its conclusions about fraud against businesses based on intelligence from billions of transactions and more than 40,000 websites and apps contained in its flagship identity proofing, risk-based authentication and fraud analytics solution suite TransUnion TruValidate. It found the percent of suspected fraudulent digital transaction attempts1 against businesses originating from Canada increased 26% when comparing the following two periods: Period #1 (March 11, 2019 and March 10, 2020); Period #2 (March 11, 2020 when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and March 10, 2021). Fraudsters are always looking to take advantage of significant world events. The COVID-19 pandemic and its corresponding rapid digital acceleration brought about by stay-at-home orders is a global event unrivaled in the online age, said Anne-Marie Kelly, head of Market Development, Identity Management and Fraud Solutions at TransUnion. By analyzing billions of transactions we assessed fraud indicators over the past year, it has become clear that the war against the virus has also brought about a war against digital fraud. TransUnion found the Canadian cities with the highest percent of suspected fraudulent digital transactions were: 1) Longueuil, 2) Quebec City and 3) Montreal.

Consumers Targeted by COVID-19 SchemesTransUnions Global Consumer Pulse Study also found that the 34% of Canadian consumers who said they are being targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19 in the last three months is higher than approximately one year ago. In April 2020, 28% said they had been targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19.Gen Z, comprised of people born between 1995-2002, is currently the most targeted out of any generation at 49% of those surveyed. They are followed by Gen X, born 19651979, which have been targeted 34%.Among consumers in Canada who reported being targeted with digital COVID-19 schemes, the top pandemic-themed scam is phishing with 44% saying they were hit with it. Examining Fraud Types and Their Impact on IndustriesGlobally, TransUnion analyzed the below industries for a change in the percent of suspected digital fraud attempts against them, comparing the periods of March 11, 2019-March 10, 2020 and March 11, 2020-March 10, 2021.

Suspected Digital Fraud Attempt Rate Post-Pandemic Declaration

For more details about TransUnions recent global digital fraud findings, visit this blog post.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)

TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good. TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people in more than 30 countries. Our customers in Canada comprise some of the nations largest banks and card issuers, and TransUnion is a major credit reporting, fraud, and analytics solutions provider across the finance, retail, telecommunications, utilities, government and insurance sectors.

_______________________

1 The percent or rate of suspected fraudulent digital transaction attempts are those that TransUnions customers either denied or reviewed due to fraudulent indicators compared to all transactions it assessed for fraud

Contact:Fiona BangPhone -647-680-2885Email - fiona.bang@ketchum.com

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One Year after COVID-19 Pandemic Declared, New TransUnion Research Shows Digital Fraud Attempts from Canada Have Increased - StreetInsider.com

Above every marketing strategy and brand building is an effective team that can work together towards a specific goal. And nothing can bring you closer to the results youve been targeting than instilling a culture of empowerment within your workplace. Carrie Charles talks withKenny Blakesleeto share how he implemented such a culture that spelled success for bothApex Site SolutionsandPulse Signal Solutions. He explains how core values must always come into play in real life and helping employees understand why through various programs gives them a bigger professional purpose than they could ever imagine. Kenny also talks about the philanthropic work that puts him and his team in the middle of a battle against human trafficking, further empowering their belief and ideals beyond just being tower leaders.

I am excited to have with me the President and CEO ofApex Site SolutionsandPulse Signal Solutions, Kenny Blakeslee. Kenny, thank you for being on the show. Im so excited to talk with you.

Thanks for having me. I know that the names are a little bit of a mouthful and a little hard to remember. Theyre long-winded but we wanted to capture what the companys doing.

Im excited to hear about it. I cant wait. Kenny, you have a cool story of how you started in telecom and how you got to where you are. Can you talk about that a little bit?

I feel like Im a perfect example of whats possible in this industry. I started back in the90s when I was still in high school. I was working in a yard for a company back then. They were called UCCI in Roseville, California. I was working in the yard on a summer job. I left and went into the Navy. I did my four years in the Navy as an avionics technician. When I got out, I came back to work in the industry. I was working for my dad. Itwas only supposed to be temporary on my way back to do college after getting out of the military. I got hooked and never left. Ieventuallyleft my dads company. I was young. He was younger. We butted heads like the classic father-son story.I left and went to some other companies, got more experiencedand climbed the ladder. In 2010, I started Apex Site Solutions and built it from there. I went from working in a yard as a temporary job and continued to climb the ranks. I think thats a perfect example of whats possible in this industry and what makes it exciting for a lot of younger folks.

Tell us more about Apex and Pulse Signal.

Apex started in 2010. I was working as a project manager for a company that wassubbing out most of their work. They wanted me to grow in that role. I was having a ton of problems finding good subs that could do high-quality work and understood what we were doing and understood the quality that was required, the closeout requirements. At that point, I said, Why dont we do this? Im going to go get my contractors license. Ill go to work for myself. You start selling some stuff to me. Youll have at least one subcontractor who can do the work at a high-quality level and that you can trust. Put all of it on my plate.

I never planned initially to grow Apex into anything massive. It was an opportunity that I saw. I said, Let me go work for myself and hire a couple of people. Well build some sites. It will be a lot of fun. Theres an opportunity there. Soon more opportunity came. Morepeople wanted us to build sites. We hired a few more people and continued down that road of organic growth. Soon I looked up and we had twenty people working for us. I realized, This is turning into more of a company thanjusta guy out there that buildthe sites. Thats when things started to shift. I had to make the choice.Do we continue to growordo we stay extremely small?

At that point, I was still doing everything myself. I was still doing the closeout packages. I was still doing project management. I was still sendingthe bids while also still trying to be out in the field working with the teams. I hit that trough of sorrow where everything felt it weighed so much on me. As we talk about the culture that weve built with both of these companies, Ive got to admit, it wasnt always this way. When I was going through that trough of sorrow, this wasnt a great place to work. I was a borderline miserable guy. If the leader is miserable, thats going to pass down to everybody else. We werent a great place to work. We had a lot of turnovers.

I met somebodywhobecame a mentor to me. I started interacting with a couple of other peopletooin the industry like Brian Woodward who started to mentor me on becoming a better leader.Hes like,Youve got to hire some people in and start to trust some other people to take over some of these responsibilities. I was forced to grow in my leadership. By being challenged by people like that, it got me to a place where we started bringing other people in to take on some of the responsibilities. Their leadership started to grow. It started to free up my time and my mental space to become a better leader and to become more intentional with the way that we interacted with our team and everything else.

It started to grow from there. Admittedly, it wasnt always a success story. It took a lot of growth. It took a lot of efforts. Even once I decided to make the change, you got to build trust with the team too where you say, Were going to change the way we do things. They roll their eyeslike,Yeah, sure. It takes time. It takes a lot of effort. Thats how that grew. Pulse came. We launched that in 2019. Thats focused on in-building services, RF engineering, more of the professional services side of things. We saw an opportunity in the DAS world, in the in-building public space,for us to take the RF expertise that we built by working for the carriers, testingandtroubleshooting for the carriers and bring that to a new space.

Thats been a lot of fun. Its been a challenge. Its slightly different. Were going from a construction-focusedtower company, Apex,and going into more of a professional services field. Its been a learning curve for me.Were focusing on the same things that we focused on with Apex, which are the core values that we stick to and matter to us. Company culture has driven a lot of success and allows us to attract some top talents that want to be a part of the team. They can see our mission. They can understand how we behave and go about our business. Thats been a lot of fun. Were growing that too.

Kenny, this is one thing that captured my attention about you and your companies, itsthat culture. I find that it is one of the most amazing culture stories that Ive ever heard especially from a smaller company. I wanted to showcase that. Talk about your culture and your values. Talk about what your motivation was for creating this incredible culture.

Ill bring Brian Woodward back up. I spent a lot of time talking to him. He was a great mentor for me. He started to frame up for me aboutyou realize the difference that you can be making in peoples lives when you give them this career. Thats whats exciting about our industry. I saidthatIm the prime example of it but weve got guys and gals that come in with no experience. We teach them from the ground. We love to get them here with no skills, maybe a little bit of construction background but we can teach them the skills and the right way to go about things, the right way to handle yourself as a professional,all the way from the beginning.We coachand mentor them.We teach them these skills, attributes and soft skills,how to go about being a professional. We can lay out a career path for them.We take them from somebody,especially younger folks in their low twenties who maybe went to a little bit of college because they were told that they had to or theyd be a loser if they didnt.

There was no real interest in doing that. They dont know what they want to do at this point. All of a sudden, we lay this career path out for them and try to teach them the skills and everything else to be successful. Theres so much opportunity here. We can make a generational change. I know it sounds a little much maybe sometimes but its true. We can get people in here who werent sureaboutwhat they wanted to do. Theywerent sure how they couldhavesuccess in the future.We layout for themthat this isnt a job. This is a career opportunity. You can go from being someone with zero experience in this industry and advance through the ranks of becoming a tower-lead, a foremanora field supervisor in our company, a project manager and then all the way up to running your own office.

Weve got guys and gals that withintwoyears are leading their own crews. Withinfiveyears, theyre actual project managers. Were not talking about the barely trained,scraping by because youre so busythatyou need to put somebody. Theyre successful. Weve teed them up for success. They jump into those roles. They thrive because of the different training platforms that we have and everything else we do. The bottom line is what got exciting for me was realizingthatI made that.I talk about coming out of that trough of sorrow that I was in for a while and it got exciting again, where it got exciting was when we realizedthat this isnt about building a company. This isnt necessarily even about serving the carriers or 5G. Thats the goal. The way that we accomplish that goal is by focusing on our people. Weve got somerockstarsin this company that deserves the opportunity to grow. Lets continue to cultivate that. Lets find more of thoserockstars. Lets give them a career path.

Thats why our company mission,we sat down and did the hard work of what is our true mission.What are our core values? Whats the vision for where were taking this? When I say hard work, a lot of people want to throw some words up on a wall and think it means something,but weput the timeto define itto make sure we all agreed on it. It was real. It wasnt aspirational. This is who we are and what were about. They did the hard work of getting it into the companycore, weaving it into the fabric of our culture and making sure its how we live. We decided our mission is to transform lives by providing growth and development opportunities that empower our people.

Our mission is 100% focused on empowering our people and giving them all the tools that they need to get there. Thats how were going to drive success. Thats what makes it fun. All of a sudden, what seemed like a little bit of a rat racebecame fun again. It wasnt about solving the problems of a construction site. It wasnt about folks calling in sick. When you realizethat our job here is to give them the tools to see and give them the opportunity to grow, now its fun again. Youre seeing peoples successes. You can celebrate those. Thats one of our core values,celebration.Its a tough industry. Its not easy. There are hard days. We work rain or shine. Were climbing towers.Were traveling a lot. Its not an easy job. Once we look at it as a career,thenwerealize that theres a light at the end of the tunnel, and theres a reason youre doing this on a day in and day out basis, it makes it bearable. Thats what were all about.

How do you empower your people? How do you keep them motivated and inspired?

There are a few different ways. One of the ways is by these core values. I continue to back to them. To me, whenever anybody talks about culture, it comes down to core values, living those core values and making sure that you do the hard things with those core values. You hire tothose,you promote those and you fire to those too. Sometimes people need to part ways with you if theyre not living those core values or if their mission isnt the same as yours. They can be the most talented folks in the world, but if youve taken the time to say, These are our core values. This is how we behave on a day in,day out basis. This is whats going to make us succeed, sometimes you got to part ways and say, This isnt a good fit. Thats one of the ways.

The other way is weve created a lot of training platforms. Weve created this career path. Weve created anOn the JobTraining career path. Its keeping with the military system, which is you get called out on different things. Wed gone through the career path from atowertech 1 to a towertech 2,towertech 3, foreman, project supervisor, project manager. Wevebrokendown the skills that are required for allofthose. Therearealso the attributes that go into itandthe soft skills that we coach to. Weve got some training that we put them through there. We give them leadership training. Sometimes we go out to outside sources for some of that leadership training.

ThisOnthe Job Training program that we put together breaks it down to the minutia, to the micro-skills that are necessary. Things like wiring aRaycap, testing fiber or splicing fiber. It breaks down all of those skills. They go through at any time that they can show proficiency. They get it signed off. They have to get it signed off twice. We have a practical exam that tests them out at each level. Their career path is in their hands. As long as theyre focused on that and theyre ambitious, they can get through that as fast as they want to. We also know that were promoting somebody. We check in on the core values all the time. Anytime we do a job debrief, theres a section that says, All of your crew members, how are they living our core values? Tell us where there may be deficiencies. We can coach that.

We utilize that togetthem clearabout,Heres everything you need to do. Its all in your hands. Youre empowered to take your career into your own hands. We also talk a lot about coaching and coachability. We also assign everybodya mentorwhen they come onboard. Theyve got a mentor for the first 60 to 90 days depending on how its going to make sure that theyre comfortable in the role. That firstsixweeksor so can always be overwhelming in a new role. We want to make sure that they feel comfortable. If there are any issues, if there are any questions they have, theyve got at least one point of contact that they can always reach out to and know that theyll get an ear to listen to them and also someone that they can bounce things off of. We try to keep theopen doorpolicy as well and everything else. We find that having someone thats assigned and is also checking in with them on a regular cadence helps to make people comfortable as they come onboard and make sure that they understand that this is a place that they can thrive.

Our goalisto make sure that people know. There are so many things we try to do to empower people. We have a professional development program that we check in with themevery six months. Wesit down with them, check-in on their goals, help them with goal setting, help them to be accountable to the goals theyve set out there. Thats both professional and personal. Its important to figure out their why. What gets them out of bed in the morning? What keeps them coming back to this tough job? Lets figure out how we can help them succeed in whatever those goals are, whatever they are. For some folks its, I want to earn more time with my kids. I want to buy a truck. I want to buy a home. Lets help them frame-up that why that gets them out of bed. Lets help them achieve those goals.

Kenny, this is the key to retention, everything you said. Youve become an incredible leader. How did you learn all of this? How did you know to put all of this in place? Was it intuitive? Are you committed to personal growth and development yourself? These are significant programs that make an enormous difference in engagement, retention and growing your company. How did you figure all this out?

I feel like you must have teed that one up for me because if you see me on social,Im talking about 1% betterevery dayall the time. Thats something that Ive taken on myselfas Ive grown as a leader.Number one, I talk about all the time the vision of where were taking this company. Were planning to take it national, both of them. Im not the leader that I need to be for this company yearsfrom now. The person that Im going to have to be to get us there and to be the right leader at those levels, Im not that personright now. For me to get there, Ive got to be focused on getting 1% better every day. I try to use that as an example for everybody to challenge them, Whoare wegoing to need you to be when youre stepping up and running your own office or when youre becoming our national VP of Safety? Any of those examples, youre not that personright now,but we can get you there. We want to get you there.

Our goal is to promote from within. We want to empower everybody to get there. One percent better every day is something we talk about all the time. Its one of our core values for both companies. Its through mentorshipandseeking out coaching. One of our values is coachability. We expect everyone in the company to be coachable. That means I better be coachable too. Im always seeking out mentorship and trying to grow, reading books.The bottom line is weve got people in this company that challenged me. Weve got somerockstarsin this company. Theyre not afraid to call me out if Im falling shorter or Im not doing what I need to do. Thanks to them for holding me accountable and for forcing me to grow. Where I standnowisnt going to cut it for the future. Ive got to keep growing. That forces me to think about that with our team too.

Another thing is how intentional we are. We talk about culture all the time. Were always asking ourselves in our team meetings,especially the core leadership team, how can we help folks grow? How can we challenge people? What programs can we put into place to systemize this to make sure its not one-off thoughts? As we scale, as we grow the company, how do we make sure that this carries over in any new office that we open up so that this isnt truejustin the home office anditdoesnt transfer through and translate to a new office? Its something were intentional about. Its something were always looking for. Another example of something that wed done and its a good example ofwhatthe teamiscoming up with it is we give all of our guys their Apex hard hats when they start. We started what we call a brag tag program. Its almostlikethe college football helmets where they got stickers for their helmet anytime they do something good.

We have Friday team calls. There are celebration videos. Anybody can join these Zoom calls on Friday. Anybody within the company can jump on there and shout out anybody else in the company and say, I want to notice Angel for accountability, one of our core values. He held me accountable for something that came up. Anytime people shout each other out, they get a sticker that they put on their hard hat and then they start to decorate it. They also have years in service on there and everything. Thats an example of something that when we first thought about it and it came up at a team meeting, were kicking the idea around. Would this be motivational? At first, I was a little worried. Im thinking, These are rough and tumble construction. Whats this?

It was amazing to watch the team embrace it. Theyre shouting each other out more than even getting the praise from leadership. When they get praise from their peers, youwatch them light up. They get excited about these stickers. Theyre proud to decorate their hard hats. Its something that took off. Not because of the idea of a sticker but the idea of celebrating each other, calling each other out. We talk about it all the time. One of our core values is accountability. We hold each other accountable. We hold each other to a high standard. We want to bethebest in class.

Achieving high standards is always necessary but you have to balance that out too. It cant always be accountability, cracking a whip and calling people out. You got to balance that out with a little celebration, a little love. Celebration is another one of our core values. We do want people celebrating those small victories. Understanding that weve got big goals but theres going to be milestones along the way that we have to appreciate. We cant get so caught up in that long-term vision that we dont celebrate the milestones and the little victories. It all goes back to being extremely intentional with the team, talking about it and weaving it into the fabric of the culture.

Regionally, where do you work? I know that you said you were going to be expanding nationally soon. Wheres your home office located? Where are all your offices located? Where do you do the majority of your work?

Were out of Elk Grove, Californianow, justSouth of Sacramento. We have one office.Wereplanning on opening another office in early 2022,and then starting to grow rapidly from there. We do serve Washington, Oregon, Nevada and California. We serve them all out of the home office. We got some crews that are deployed remotely. We also have a few crews that are set up remotely too. Were serving a wide region. Were going to start to expand our ability to better serve those regions by opening offices there and then growing from there. When it comes to Pulse, thats already serving nationally. With professional services, we can do a lot of work remotely.

Were working on projects out in Nebraska. Were working on some sites on the East Coast. We get called out to do some troubleshooting. We have some high-level RF engineers within Pulse. A lot of times when the tricky problems come up, theyll call us. Well go out and fix what other people are having trouble fixing. Weredeployedall over the United States with Pulse. We also have some team members over on the East Coast that is based there with Pulse too. Theyre working to drive each others growth. There are a lot of crossovers and they bring each other opportunities. Its another way that when we launched Pulse, it was important to communicate to the team here at Apex,This isnt us abandoning Apex.

Apex is still going to have my love and attention to the teams. This is another example of creating opportunity. Weve had a bunch of people that came from the Apex side. We realized that their skillset could serve on the professional services side. We foundthat that gets them more excited, I dont have to be doing some of that professional services stuff or the engineering type of things,iBwaveDesign. That interests me a little bit more. Theres an opportunity to go over there. Lets move you over there. Its all about them and its all about how they can thrive. It gets back to the mission of empowering our people and giving them a future.

You said that its all about them. That brings me to my next question for you. This is something that moved and touched me when I heard about this. You created a philanthropic organization in the tower industry to make a difference. This is something that Id like you to talk about. I would like everyone to know what Kenny has createdbecause we can all make a difference here. Its powerful. Can you please talk about TATE?

I cant take complete credit for it by any means. Weve had partners. Jim Tracy with Legacy Telecommunications got behind this thing. Nate is getting behind this thing. Im excited about it. To tell the full story, I connected with a local organization here called3Strands Global. Theyre based here locally. Thats how I came to know the CEO there. They do national work to help fight human trafficking. I got to know her. I was hearing her story, how theyre helping fight human trafficking and learning about how big of a problem it is. We were doing some work with them. They also source victims of human trafficking when they get rehabilitated, get ready to get back into the workforce. They help source people. We were working with them on that.

One day she was telling me the story of how they had trained all of the field employeesofa local utility company on how to spot the signs of human trafficking and then what to do about it, which isprettysimple. Its calling thenational hotline,reportthefactsand let the authorities take over. I thought, Thats cool. We can do that. We got tower workers. We got people going all over. Theyre road warriors. Theyre at gas stations. Theyre at truck stops. Theyre staying in hotels. Theyre building all these hotspots where they could spot signs. This could be perfect.

As we talked, it grew. How many tower workersare thereacross the entire nation,especially growing with 5G coming in with the need for the workforce? Its going to continue to grow exponentially. How powerful could that be if we could take this national and get all of the tower workers nationally? Get them all trained up on this especially since its a simple thing. I called up Jim Tracy from Legacy and floated the idea to him. He said, Lets run with this. Lets take this to Nate. Lets get backing. Lets do whatever we can. It grew from there. I also have to shout out John Foley from the Safer Buildings Coalition. We also took it to him and Laurie Caruso also from the Safer Buildings Coalition.

Originallywe said, ItsTowersAgainstTrafficking. They said, Thats only a small part of our audiences.Lets make itTelecomAgainstTrafficking andExploitation. Lets take it to all of the telecoms. They made it even bigger. We launched the portal, which means that the trainings gone live. ItsTelecomAgainstTrafficking andExploitation, TATE. Nates helping us to push this out there to all of their members. We want to continue to grow it from here. Its a simple ask. Its 30minutesworth of videos that anyone can watch. Youcanget RAN certified. We tried to keep the industry acronym there. Its RecognizeAndNotify. Thats all were asking. Get your people RAN certified.

When they watch these videos, they learn first about the problem of human trafficking, how big of a problem it is and the fact that it takes place in our own backyard. Itshocks a lot of people that its happening right under your nose. Second, they get trained on how to spot those signs of human trafficking after theyve learned about how big of a problemitis. Third, they learn what to do, which is as simple as picking up the phone. Theres a national hotline. You call that hotline and you report the facts. Its 30minutesworth of training. We can put all of our field folks through it. Theyre empowered to take action when they see this problem happening. Hopefully, we can start to shut down some of this problem.

As I learned about it, its an enormous problem. Anything we can do to help out. Any good that can comewith it is awesome. Its completely free of charge to anyone employers that want to sign up. Weve got sponsors that have signed up. Were also accepting other sponsors. Sponsors that have signed up to fund this like Legacy Telecommunications, Enertech Resources, my own company, Quality Telecom out of Rocklin, California. Companies are writing checkstosponsorthis so that it remains free of charge. The platform will stay there. All you got to do is sign your folks up and get them trained. Well get them certifications. Well get them stickers and everything else. Its another example of empowering the people in our industry for their future too. Its a simple ask.

What were going to be doing with our company is anybody onboard is going to get this training. Were already putting them through RF safety, climb training, OSHA training, all the other training we do. Whats 30 minutes more of a video to educate them on this, to let them know, This is important to our company that you look for these signs. One of the things that we want to do is have an impact on our community as we grow. This is an example of how we can do it. Anybody onboard is going to be going through this training and then were going to be certifying all of our folks that have been here a long time too.

Its something thats important to me. I hope its going to grow and take a life of its own from here on out. Its not something that I necessarily want to be leading the charge. I want this to grow. We got to start it. I want it to grow from here, get organic and become something important to our industry. They understand the power that our industry has to do good. Our industry already does a lot of good. They come together all the time especially with the Tower Family Foundation, things like that to help families of tower climbers that have died. There are a lot of examples of how our industry is already doing good. This is one more way that we can make an impact.

For the readers who work for a tower company or who know a leader of a tower company, what can we all do to get the word out? Can you give a website or a place someone can go? How can we all help this cause?

Any questions that anybody hasorif they want to reach out and learn a little bit more, they can emailInfo@3SGF.org. They can get info there. Also, the portal for the training where you can go free of charge, get registered and you can do the training iswww.3SGF.org/tate. I know thats a lot of info. Anybody can go there. Anybody can reach out to me as well or Jim Tracy for Legacy Telecom. Reach out to any of us. We know whats going on. We can get you pushed in the right direction because we want to get as many people to sign-up for this as possibleand let it start to take a life of its own.

Thanks for sharing that, Kenny. The next topic I want to cover is the workforce. What are you seeing out there when it comes to talent? Do you have to turn away work sometimes because you dont have the skilled labor to do what you need to do? What are you seeing out there?

The opportunities there in this industry, theres a ton of work going on. The deeper you look, the more opportunities you find even outside of what were used to. For us at least, the bottleneck is people, getting people trained up as fast as possible, finding good talent that stays committed to this. It is a tough industry. It isnt necessarily for everyone. We understand that. There is still a decent amount of turnover that we experienced because even when we interviewed people, we try to talk them out of the job. We try to say, Theres a great opportunity but heres what youre going to have to deal with. We spend a lot of time doing that. I think people still come in and get their eyes open in the first few months of, This is intense.

I dont know that I necessarily want to say were seeing a shortage,but if we could speed up the process of getting more talent in the door and getting them developed even fasterwithall theeffortwere putting them in, whatever we can do to empower more people to get into this industry, understand the benefits and the opportunities that are here, it would benefit us. We do consistently turn away workbecausewere flat out too busy. We dont want to rush anybody into leadership positions that arent ready for it. We were methodical about it. Were going to make sure people arent asked to do more than theyre capable of. We are having a situation where we want to speed this up.

Every company in telecom is experiencing the same thing that you said.Whats interesting and what makes you different too is that you have a training program inside of your company. You have development inside of your company. You bring people up. You bring new people in that dont have experience and you train them up. You may not be feeling it as intensely because of that. Youll bring in green people and say, Let me teach you. Lets plug you right into our training, development and career pathing and get you going. Thats huge for companies to develop their own training programs and apprenticeships to get new people into our industry. I think thats significant but even still, theres so much to be done and much work that were still facing the shortage. I couldnt agree with you more. Talk about 2021. What roles are you hiring for Apex and also at Pulse? Are you hiringnow? What is the outlook for 2021?

Were always strategic about how were hiring. Id say hiring tower technicians especially with no skillsets, thats evergreen for us. That is our big goal,to bring people in with no experience, set them out on that career path and watch them succeed. Occasionally, we do bring in people that are experienced and talented especially for some of those higher-level positions as we need to grow. Sometimes we got to bring in outside talent. Were hiring. We plan on hiring a lot more in 2021, tower foreman andsignalforeman, project coordinators, project managers, RF technicians and RF engineers. Thats more on the side of running test equipment, doing troubleshooting,someiBwave experience. Its wide-ranging.

Theres a whole bunch of roles that were going to be looking to fill. Were hitting that point in our growth where sometimes the random ones pop up. We promoted internally because we got lucky and had some talent joined the team. We promoted aDirector ofSafety where we used to have someone that was wearing multiple hats. Were at the sizenow where we cant be doing some multiple hats. We need a full-time dedicated person thats safety obsessed within our company thats going to take us to that next level of safety. We promoted from within there. We hired a talent acquisition manager. I think youguysare hopefully working together. The reason we did that is were going to need to do a lot of high-level hiring. We need to get a lot of good talent in the door. People that are eager to learn, eager to grow with us,andwant to embrace our core values. We can set them up for success and then they can set us up for success as well. Were going to rely on them to help us to grow and to be smarter than I am and teachingmehow to do this thing.

I have a question. This may be one of your secret sauces in your company. Where do you find these tower climbers and tower technicians that have no experience? Where do you look?

Its the standard places. Weve got ads out on Indeed. Weve got ads out on ZipRecruiter. Were going to Facebook a bit. Social media for our companies is not about driving business. Its not as if American Tower or AT&T and Verizon is going to social media to look at profiles to see who theyre going to hire to do work. Our social media is built around letting potential hires know or helping our recruiting so that people know about what our values are, what were all about, the opportunity were offering.The bottom line is some of the fun stuff that they can get to do.

Were utilizing tools like that. Were trying to use our social media to get our message out there so it attracts folks. Were having some success there. Weve also got referral programs within our company. Anybody that comes in and is liking it and realizes the opportunity here. They can start referring in their friends. They get some cash in their pocket for that. Were trying to get creative and do anything we can. When we get those folks that walk in and theyre the right person, its exciting. It excites the rest of the team. Youll have a tower foreman that says, Keep him on my crew. I want to keep working with that person because I feel like I can turn him into arockstar.

Everybody within the company understands that our growth is going to be empowered by creating success for the people that are coming up underneath you because thats how youre going to be successful. Every tower-lead thats going to become a tower foreman, we tell them, Thats great. Its your job to create two tower-leads for this because youre going to need to leave one where you were and youre going to need to take one with you. If you want to be a foreman, train up, mentorandcoach two new tower-leads andnowyoure a foreman in a truck as long as youve gone through the OJT program. Thats what its all about. Were using every technique we can to try to get people.

Kenny, I want to celebrate you and acknowledge you for who you are in the industry, who you are for the industry and most of all, who you are for your people. Its so refreshing to hear that you are people-centered and focused and thats your number one concern over anything else. Its wonderful. I think that we can all learn something from you. Im sure everybodywhosreading this wants to work for Apex or Pulse. Where can we all go to learn more about Apex and Pulse if someone wants to hire you or someone wants to work for you?

The websiteiswww.ApexSiteSolutions.com. There are ways to reach out to us there,www.PowerOfPulse.com. You can reach out and connect with us there. There are also some fun YouTube videos that were doing and somepodcastwere doing called Tap Talks on thePulse Signal Solutionspage. You can check out more about us thereandhave some fun with us. There are our social media accounts,Apexon Instagram,LinkedInand everywhere else. You can feel free to email me atKenny@ApexSiteSolutions.com. Theres alsoCareers@ApexSiteSolutions.com. There are all the standard ways but if you go to our website and click any of those links, youll get ahold of us and we can get connected that way. Thats the simplest.

Kenny, thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been valuable. Ive enjoyed talking to you and learning more about how you run your company and how you value people. Thank you.

I appreciate it. Thanks for the microphone and the megaphone. Thanks for taking the time to talk about TATEtoo. That was special.

You take care.

While leading the team at Pulse, Kenny also plays an active role in spreading awareness and increasing education throughout the in-building wireless industry. He is passionate about bringing together stakeholders throughout the industry ecosystem, aligning AHJs, FCC licensees, fire officials, contractors, developers, and building owners on the importance of quality in-building wireless systems.

Kenny began his RF career serving in the Navy. From 2001 to 2005, he served as an Avionics Technician, repairing components from jets on the aircraft carrier, John C Stennis. He achieved the rank of Petty Officer Second Class in three years.

After his service in the Navy, Kenny worked at various tower companies where he quickly climbed the ranks from greenhorn to foreman to RF tester to project manager, gaining the necessary skills and knowledge along the way. While serving as a project manager, he managed 10 internal crews along with subs in the completion of AT&T UMTS projects.

Kenny launched Apex Site Solutions, a DVBE, in 2010. Starting with just one employee, he has grown Apex to a team of over 90. Leading at Apex, Kenny also effectively implemented teams, processes, and systems that allow him to develop and mentor leaders to deliver industry-leading services. He has facilitated and grown relationships with all major carriers, tower owners, and service providers in the wireless telecommunications industry, and oversees the development of a comprehensive professional development program to speed the growth of a highly skilled workforce. In 2019, Kenny launched Pulse Signal Solutions, utilizing the RF acumen he has developed with carriers to bring RF expertise to the public safety communications industry.

Kenny currently resides in Elk Grove, California with his wife Brooke and two kids, Colton and Boston.

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A Company With Heart: Building A Culture Of Empowerment With Kenny Blakeslee - RCR Wireless News

College of Nursing alumna Kevina Cassell created Surviving the Frontlines, a 30-day self-care journal, to help nurses reconnect with their why during the pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Kevina Cassell)

When Kevina Cassell went to sleep, her Surviving the Frontlines 30-day self-care journal for nurses had about 12 views on her website. Those came mostly from herself and a few friends, family and supporters from the University of MissouriSt. Louis.

The scene was quite different when the College of Nursing alumna woke up.

I had 1,450 views on that one item, Cassell said. It just kept going from there. In November for Black Friday, they sold out in three days. I added more to the website, and they sold out again. I was so blown away at the amount of support that I was getting from different nursing groups on Facebook.

Cassell, who earned her BSN at UMSL in 2017, had initially created the journal at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to help herself get in touch with her motivation to be a nurse before deciding to share her work with others. Since that first product, Cassell has created a student planner and 2021 vision journal.

When the pandemic hit, she was working as a dialysis nurse. Cassell says people dont realize how sick patients undergoing dialysis treatments are, and shed get close to patients and their families and struggle when they passed away suddenly.

COVID heightened that feeling because now her patients were suffering from more than kidney disease.

Id go home sad and in tears, she said. I was like, Did I make the right decision? Why did I become a nurse? I had to sit down and think on what I loved about being a nurse, what got me here, why stick with it, why its so important. I wrote a journal for myself to help cope with the amount of sickness and death that we were being surrounded with.

It really helped and reminded me how much I love being a nurse and my patients and how proud I am for pushing myself through the program. Once I had gotten through that moment, I wanted to do the same for other nurses.

Cassells journal includes prompts intended to help nurses meditate on their reasons for becoming nurses and their purpose in nursing, positive affirmations, creating a self-care plan, personal goals, reflection, evaluation, self-empowerment prompts and more.

Creating the student planner came naturally afterward. Aside from the standard to-do aspect of a planner, Cassell included quotes from prominent figures in nursing or health care, spaces to record goals, and areas to reflect on what they are learning well or struggling with.

This is a way for students to stay organized and inspired throughout their nursing journey, she said. Its a place for them to write down their goals and their tasks so that they dont get discouraged because it can get hard.

Cassell found planners invaluable during her BSN studies at UMSL, so she was able to draw on her own experiences working through the academically rigorous program while balancing her outside obligations as a mother to a small child.

It was challenging, she said. Because I was a parent, I couldnt just not work, so it was always difficult for me because I had to work during the day and be up all night studying or taking courses in the evening.

Nursing is Cassells second career. She earned her BBA from Georgia Southern University in 2005, finding a job in financial aid at Southeast Missouri State University after graduation. She went on to earn her MBA from SEMO and then became a human resources representative at the NCR Corporation in Duluth, Georgia, after graduation.

But after a few years, she realized it was time to make a change.

Traditional corporate, its just paperwork, Cassell said. Theres no passion there. Nursing allowed me to be who I was. Im a nurturer at heart. Im a giver. I love helping people. I love taking care of people.

Cassell had an idea that she might find a good professional fit in nursing administration, but she had to become a nurse first. She returned to Missouri, began working in administration at Washington University in St. Louis and enrolled in the UMSL College of Nursing.

The nursing program tested her but supportive faculty such as David Bell, Amanda Finley, Christine Recktenwald, Joan Ruppert and Sheila Grigsby made the difference for Cassells studies.

When youre in nursing, peoples lives are in your hands, she said. Its life or death, and you have to know your stuff. I put a lot of pressure on myself to know and actually understand, not just the material, but the why behind the material. I want the patient to have the best outcome. I want them to come out alive and well.

After graduating from the program and becoming a registered nurse, Cassell worked in rehab as a traumatic brain injury and stroke recovery nurse and as a dialysis nurse. Then, in June 2020, she accepted a position in employee health at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis where her job functions include helping manage occupational health and safety related issues and prevention of infectious disease. Her department is also responsible for helping manage the COVID process for their employees including everything from minimizing employee exposure to overseeing COVID vaccination clinics and post-vaccination observations.

When Cassell began nursing school, she never would have imagined shed get into nursing entrepreneurship. But her current job is exactly the sort of thing she had in mind.

Were just trying to do our part and keep the community COVID free, Cassell said. This role was actually a perfect fit for me. My goal as a nurse was always to go into nursing administration, and this job is preparing me for that path. It also blends all three of my degrees together.

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Pandemic inspires alumna to create Surviving the Frontlines journal and planner for nurses - UMSL Daily

2021 is a special year for LetsGrow.com. The company from Vlaardingen, specialized in collecting, visualizing, and analyzing crop data, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! The entire year 2021 will therefore be dedicated to this anniversary.

Has LetsGrow.com really been working with data in horticulture for twenty years? The answer to this question is: Yes. The company was founded in 2001, partly as a result of an initiative by Wageningen University & Research (WUR). The initial goal was to make the models of the WUR available to growers via the Internet, which was a very new technique at the time. Later, the company developed further in opening up various cultivation data in order to be able to compare crops. The experience, gained in two decades, has ensured that LetsGrow.com today is specialized in collecting, visualizing, and analyzing data from growers worldwide. In doing so, they combine the latest technologies with specialist knowledge.

The switch from a comparison platform to the optimization of cultivation by means of extensive data analyses arose from a higher goa namely the need for high-quality food in a growing world population. "In the coming years, many greenhouses will be built to serve this demand for food. In practice, this means that more greenhouses will be built than growers can be trained. So there is more and more need for knowledge of cultivation. In other words; how can a grower grow as efficiently and optimally as possible in a sustainable way and how do you make this scalable, repeatable and predictable?" - Ton van Dijk, Global Head of Sales & Operations at LetsGrow.com.

The plant central with plant empowermentAt LetsGrow.com, the plant is always central. The models and analyses are based on the principles of Plant Empowerment. This is an integrated approach to the sustainable cultivation of crops by supporting the balance of the plant and the greenhouse. The starting point is to stimulate and support the natural growth of plants by creating optimal growth conditions, both above ground and in the root zone. Ton: "By guiding growers with the Plant Empowerment theory and by providing visual insight into their data via our platform MyLetsGrow, they can make the step from traditional growing to Data-Driven Growing. We use technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for our models and always put plant physiology at the heart of this, we call this Expert Intelligence. We combine this with Expert Knowledge, the knowledge of our specialists and that of our customers, to achieve the best possible result for the customer."

A 40-strong diverse teamOver the past 20 years, the company has undergone considerable development in its services, but the team has also grown. Today, the team consists of almost 40 people. Ton is proud of the growth of the team and the developments they have made and are still making: "We employ many different types of people. Some with backgrounds in horticulture, but also people with knowledge of other technical branches or for example in sales and marketing. Our team is very diverse in knowledge, but also in gender and age. We combine young and university educated talents, with some very experienced colleagues. In addition, we also have a variety of male and female or cultural background. That makes us a dynamic group that is very well balanced".

Personal growth and lots of funLetsGrow.com also pays a lot of attention to a pleasant working atmosphere and personal development. Ton explains: "We think a healthy and pleasant company culture is very important and also encourage our people to continue to grow personally.

"In addition, we do a lot to recruit new enthusiastic colleagues. By encouraging a good work-life balance and offering a pleasant working environment. Despite the fact that we are all working at home a lot now, we do try to maintain the connection with our colleagues. Above all, work should be fun!".

Celebrating the anniversaryTo celebrate its twentieth anniversary, LetsGrow.com has various actions planned. Ton says: "Of course we are going to celebrate this milestone throughout the year. We are going to use our LinkedIn channel to share interesting articles in which we look back at the history of LetsGrow.com and look ahead to what the future will bring us. Of course, we want to include our clients in this vision of the future. That is why we are looking at the possibilities of organizing something for our clients. Offline or online, we are leaving those options open in this uncertain time".

For more information:LetsGrow.cominfo@letsgrow.com http://www.letsgrow.com

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Twenty years of working with data in horticulture - hortidaily.com

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NICE inContact (Nasdaq: NICE) today announced accelerated international adoption of its digital-first CXone cloud contact center platform, tripling sales in the past year and adding a record number of new international customers to the platform. With the increased global demand for CXone, NICE is doubling its local CXone sales and services resources across EMEA, APAC, and South America; launching new local cloud instances in multiple countries around the globe; and broadening its global security and compliance certifications. NICE inContacts global momentum is fueled by international investments, signaling the criticality of arming contact centers with an AI-infused cloud native platform that scales to fit the complex requirements of diverse global organizations. According to industry analysts, today, CXone is used by the most cloud contact center agents in the industry in more than 100 countries.

Our innovative, cloud native platform, CXone, is experiencing great momentum with organizations worldwide, said Paul Jarman, NICE inContact CEO. We are focused on leveraging our digital-first approach and a globally distributed team of customer success experts to push customer service beyond the traditional contact center environment regardless of location. Its imperative to keep global teams and customers connected, and we are committed to enabling that in any industry or location around the globe as we expand our footprint in key industries, such as healthcare, financial services, government, energy and utilities.

Recent new CXone customers headquartered internationally include government agencies and healthcare providers as well as large telecommunications and utility companies operating across Europe and Asia. In the past year, several large financial services firms in Canada, APAC and EMEA have selected CXone to move their contact center operations to the cloud and to help them transform the customer experience they provide. Companies of all sizes in EMEA and APAC, as well as business process outsourcers, are now using CXone across retail, travel and hospitality, and manufacturing industries.

Jarman continued, NICE inContact is driving innovation in the cloud contact center industry across four key pillars AI, digital engagement, self-service and agent-empowerment. Were bringing these innovations to organizations around the globe with customer success teams located in international locations and an enterprise-grade, global infrastructure that is needed for companies to confidently move contact center operations to the cloud.

NICE inContact has doubled local in-region expertise for CXone sales and services to capitalize on the robust demand in Europe and APAC, as well as expanding partner relationships in all regions across 35 offices globally, including 11 in the UK and Europe. Clients and partners have access to local teams that provide the full suite of onboarding, education, technical support, and professional services to successfully transform their customer service with CXone.

CXone delivers protection for critical company data and supports compliance with global security regulations and privacy standards. The NICE inContact Information Security Office has best practices in place for data privacy protection for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other legislation to protect personal data, as well as other certificates and standards such as FedRAMP in the U.S., Cyber Essentials in the UK, Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP) in Australia, and many more.

Across the globe, NICE inContact CXone delivers high availability, elastic scalability, carrier-grade voice and connectivity services, and low latency through multiple global CXone cloud infrastructure sites that include platform services and voice points-of-presence (POPs). In addition to our established global sites.

NICE inContact is rapidly expanding its well-established go-to-market partner network now with over 90 partners that include global carriers, unified communications (UCaaS), resellers, VARs, systems integrators, and certified implementation partners. For example, the company has forged a partnership with a global leader in digital transformation and other major partnerships with leading service providers that have enabled it to reach thousands of new customers across Europe. Recently, NICE inContact entered into a partnership with a telecommunications company in Canada, expanding access to NICE inContact CXone across North America.

About NICE inContactNICE inContact works with organizations of all sizes to create extraordinary and trustworthy customer experiences that create deeper brand loyalty and relationships that last. With NICE inContact CXoneTM, the industrys most complete cloud customer experience platform, we combine best-in-class Customer Analytics, Omnichannel Routing, Workforce Engagement, Automation and Artificial Intelligence, all on an Open Cloud Foundation to help any company transform every single customer interaction. See how our customer-centric expert services, innovative software, extensive ecosystem of valuable partnerships, and over a decade of global experience can help you transform every experience and customer relationship for lasting results. NICE inContact is recognized as a market leader by the leading industry analyst firms. http://www.niceincontact.com

NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) is the worlds leading provider of both cloud and on-premises enterprise software solutions that empower organizations to make smarter decisions based on advanced analytics of structured and unstructured data. NICE helps organizations of all sizes deliver better customer service, ensure compliance, combat fraud and safeguard citizens. Over 25,000 organizations in more than 150 countries, including over 85 of the Fortune 100 companies, are using NICE solutions. http://www.nice.com

Trademark Note: NICE and the NICE logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of NICE Ltd. All other marks are trademarks of their respective owners. For a full list of NICEs marks, please see: http://www.nice.com/nice-trademarks.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including the statements by Mr. Jarman, are based on the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of NICE Ltd. (the Company). In some cases, such forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as believe, expect, seek, may, will, intend, should, project, anticipate, plan, estimate, or similar words. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those described herein, including but not limited to the impact of changes in economic and business conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; competition; successful execution of the Companys growth strategy; success and growth of the Companys cloud Software-as-a-Service business; changes in technology and market requirements; decline in demand for the Company's products; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; difficulties or delays in absorbing and integrating acquired operations, products, technologies and personnel; loss of market share; an inability to maintain certain marketing and distribution arrangements; the Companys dependency on third-party cloud computing platform providers, hosting facilities and service partners; cyber security attacks or other security breaches against the Company; the effect of newly enacted or modified laws, regulation or standards on the Company and our products and various other factors and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the company, refer to the Company's reports filed from time to time with the SEC, including the Companys Annual Report on Form 20-F. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise them, except as required by law.

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NICE inContact CXone Accelerates International Growth: Tripling Sales and Adding a Record Number of New Customers - Business Wire