6 Ways To Support Black Creators & Fitness Professionals

Well, haven’t the last few days been a lot to take in?! For me though, the last few days forced me to take in and digest the last few weeks, months, years… my whole life in fact.

The support for Black Lives Matter has been overwhelming, but we all know that this needs to never stop, until (as some now say) all lives matter.

I’ve had so many emails drop in my inbox, many from brands which seem performative so get deleted immediately, but one email, from Kate Doster, caught my eye. Kate wasn’t just sharing a list of books to read, or a list of black {insert function or profession} creators to follow. She shared actionable tips (these images are all hers) to support black creators (and myself), some of which don’t even cost you a dime.

#1 – SEE A PRODUCT FOR SALE? BUY IT.

I never had a product to sell until the global situation we are in arose. I fund myself without work, so I did what I could and created a programme of online fitness sessions.

You can come and sweat (or foam roll) with me on Zoom. I have free classes, and my paid classes are either £3.50 or £4.50. You can buy a 4 class pack for £12 or a 30 day pass for £20.

I’m recently launched a weekly on demand library too! This means if you can’t make the live classes, you can still hang out with me virtually, whenever and wherever you. Take a look at what’s available and how it works.

#2 – SEE A DONATE LINK? USE IT.

It was actually the global pandemic that made me create a Ko-fi page. I found myself without work and I want to do my best to not have to rely on the Government. So I started delivering some free online classes before I created my full programme and used a donations based system to bring in some funds.

What I also realised, well even more so, is how valuable my time is and how much of my time I have given away for free. Every time I’ve jumped on a call with someone to help them problem solve, or met someone for a coffee to help them build their business, only to never hear from said person again.

So I hope no-one is offended when they ask for my time, that I send them the link to my Ko-fi page to buy me the coffee they promised.

#3 – SHOP THEIR AFFILIATE LINKS

If you’re not even sure what affiliate links are, you can read more about them in this post on the blog. Essentially, creators get paid if you shop via a link that is associated with them. It costs you nothing but helps to generate some revenue for the creator.

Books To Shop On Amazon:

I created a page on my blog called Shopping Quick Links where I have a list of the most popular brands in my niche (…and a little beyond). I do always try to use affiliate links when appropriate in my posts too. The revenue I generate isn’t massive but every penny helps!

#4 – SUPPORT THEIR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

I’m not gonna lie, YouTube is not where my strength lies (lol) but I do have a few decent videos on my channel which I created since I started teaching online fitness classes.

#5 – LISTEN, SUBSCRIBE & DOWNLOAD THEIR PODCAST

I don’t personally have my own podcast but I was just recently featured on The Tough Girl Podcast. I think I covered a lot… much which I wouldn’t have gotten into on my blog yet.

Here’s some feedback I got: “listening right now to the podcast and decided to give you a follow. Was a great listen and a much more honest depiction of exercise and finding the motivation than you often hear or see especially right now!”

#6 – SPEND TIME ON THEIR SITE / BLOG

If you’re reading this now, then that’s one box ticked. Please do spend some time here, have a look around as Kate suggests.

As Kate explained, many content creators have ads running on their site as an additional revenue stream. We don’t get paid to blog and the content we create is shared free of charge, whilst we cover the costs of the sites.

I’ve been lucky enough to have reached enough pageviews (just about) to move to an ad platform which has a better pay rate than Google Adsense, but since the pandemic ad spend has been soooo low. I got BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious) goals for this little space of mine of the internet though!

So, in my navigation menu at the top of my site, you’ll find quicks links to the areas of content I cover most, like running, cycling, health, fitness…. and if there’s something you’d like to see, just ask! I often share life updates each quarter too so you can come behind the scenes with me. You can catch my last one here, and I’m due another one real soon…

TL;DR How To Support Me

• join one of my online classes
• support my work by buying me a “coffee”
• shop my affiliate links
• support my other channels (links are at the bottom of the post)
• listen to my podcast feature
• spend time on my site

If you’ve taken the time to read this post, and actioned any of the points in support of me and my content – Thank You.

Now, I urge you to do the same for other black content creators and fitness professionals. Lift them up, amplify their voice, share their content, engage with them consciously.

“It’s not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” 

Angela Davis

Elle