I know it’s been a challenging week for everyone.

Running your business through a pandemic is no easy task.

But the incident that happened in Minneapolis put things over the edge.

It was an awful situation that never should have happened.

I respect the people that have been peacefully protesting, especially the police officers that have joined them.

Some businesses have been boarded up, others vandalized and many business owners have had no idea what to even say.

I was one of them.

I’m not writing this email to tell you what to believe.

In fact, no one should do that except yourself.

I’m only sharing my experience in hopes that maybe it helps you make a difference…in your own unique way.

A turn of events with the members of my Mastermind this week…made me think deeper on this topic.

I’m not going to share the full details of what happened but I found myself in a situation where I was clearly unprepared due to my lack of understanding, knowledge and awareness of the current events.

The mistake I made was saying nothing…which could be the biggest mistake of all.

It drove me to look deeper into what was going on and why.

It started by an article a business colleague asked me to edit for her.

The article was all about educating yourself about racism in America.

I edited the article but I really think it was in the plans for me to read it.

She sent it to me because she wanted me to tweak it from a copy perspective to get more people to read it…but I think it fell in my inbox for a reason.

It drove me have more conversations with friends about the current events.
It gave me an understanding that I never would of imagined without speaking to them.

Some of things they told me and the emotions they shared were eye opening.

I took a break from thinking about marketing and started to think about the human race…and how the world can be better if we just took some time to think about what’s going on…and not just pretend everything was normal…like I was doing.

These conversations drove me to be much more compassionate.

It was not that I didn’t care before, I was just unaware.

As a white man in America, I have and never worried about feeling unsafe, how could I understand?

I have no answers for you today on how to deal with this…It’s well beyond me.

I have no advice for how you should respond or if you should post anything or not.

You should do what you feel in your heart is right.

It has taken a lot for me to write this, but in my heart, for my friends that are hurting, the words came.

I only share the message because through an incident that was painful, it led me to a deepened sense of compassion for others that are hurting.

It shined the light on how important it is to get involved and educate yourself about situations like this… in the way that’s most authentic for you.

I don’t think you need to be marching or posting to be involved, a call to a friend that you think may be hurting probably creates more impact (as was explained to me).

I realize these are challenging times and I wish you the best of luck through these days.

I hope the pain of today brings a better, safer and happier world for tomorrow.

Vince Gabriele