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Oct 22, 2021

How do we open up doors and break down barriers for Indigenous peoples to get work?

To get mentorship? 

And to be leaders in that sector? 

 

Darian Kovacs asks “what if we equipped Indigenous folx with the best education, the best resources, the best credentials, and let them loose into the world of marketing and advertising? And what if they happen to rise up as the leaders? Because they're incredibly brilliant people that are resilient, understanding, and empathetic of stories and storytelling because of the way they are brought up in their history. 

 

Darian Kovacs, seasoned podcast host of Marketing News Canada and founder of Jelly Marketing joins Susan Diaz and Rohini Mukherji.

 

We tackle the phenomenon of the new found anxiety of someone who want to be an ally who is moving from a place of privilege to just becoming aware of the real state of things I- whether it was the George Floyd murder of last year or the unearthing of over 1000 children's graves, covered up in the Canadian residential school system. 

 

We touch on

 

  1. How to operationalize empathy
  2. How to get past the fear of doing the wrong things and paralysis by analysis that stops people from doing anything to help
  3. Some of the really practical pieces marketers struggle with - Darian talks of  a tool like Canva which many digital marketers within amazing organizations use. If you look up the stock images and try to find Indigenous people you’ll find very generalized/racialized images. When we come up against that, he suggests that we reach out to the platforms and get dialogue started on how it can change. (spoiler: they’ll likely be open to it as Darian discovered) 

 

This episode is super fun; complete with Grey’s Anatomy and Suits analogies and even examples of power sightings of Canadian political nerve centers (hint: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau were in Tofino, BC in early October 2021, catching a lot of bad press on the bad taste of taking a ‘luxury vacation in this time’. Darian channels some primo empathy in his approach to that narrative)

About Darian

Darian Kovacs is the Indigenous founder of Vancouver based SEO company Jelly Digital Marketing & PR and digital marketing course, Jelly Academy. He brings 15 years of marketing experience and a passion for education, and creativity.  He is the host of the podcast Marketing News Canada. Darian specializes in mixing PR with digital marketing and has worked with numerous internationally renowned brands on developing and executing their digital marketing and PR strategies. Darian lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife and four children and likes to mountain bike, watercolour and read in his free time.