Messaging and a world in crisis

We’ve been asking ourselves questions over the last two weeks about our company’s posture when the world is in crisis. We’re a marketing company, after all. What business do we have speaking out against evil on a world scale? Yet at the same time, what business do we have not speaking out against evil?

These questions aren’t new - you’ve most likely dealt with dilemmas just like this countless times. There are endless conversations to be had about collective and personal responsibility, the difference between virtue signaling and a response of genuine care, and whether businesses should even have the capacity to care about all things.

We want to bring you into the conversations that we’ve been having as a team since Russia invaded Ukraine, in hopes that it can give you some encouragement and guidance as you navigate these very same questions with your own organization.

There are a million causes that demand our attention daily, and we have to come to the point of accepting that one person/brand can’t do everything.

We can't care with endless reserves of energy (at least outwardly) about homelessness, hunger, clean water, abuse victims, trafficking, foster kids, adoptive parents, fair wages, racism, religious freedom, and the list goes on.

Even the best nonprofits in the world that work for the sole purpose of these specific causes can’t do it all.

That means that our marketing company, your tutoring business, and her financial planning firm will all be at a loss if we try to put our business on hold for every crisis that arises. No one can do it all.

And I (Katie), believe that God puts specific things on every individual's heart, and this enables us to be the body of Christ. We can all do our part to make the world collectively a better place, working together toward individual goals that combine for the greater good.

So while yes we are empathetic and curious about all these things going on, we know that every business will be slightly different than the next in the way it handles these issues.

And for us -- for now -- it's Ukraine. 

Most of us aren’t facing a dilemma of whether we (and our businesses) can or should stand in support of Ukraine. The vast majority of the world is on the same page about that. 

But it gets tricky when we move beyond that general agreement, into daily choices about how our business should handle life as usual when the rest of the world is so upended right now.  

Here at Murphy Marketing, we have some deeply personal connections to the nation and people of Ukraine, and that has been instructive in our outward-facing communications. 

One choice we made in light of that reality is to keep our Instagram feed quiet, in an effort to create space on everyone’s feeds for photojournalism and on the ground news sources. 

So within our company, this crisis hits extremely close to home. That doesn’t mean it hits quite as close to home for you and your organization - and that's okay. 

Even if you care about Ukraine, like most of the world does, this may not be the topic that sits 

closest to your heart. Maybe you can’t afford to spike your anxiety by seeing the constant barrage of images and stories from a warzone, or maybe this is a really crucial time for the growth of your organization, and you need to keep your head down and stay focused. 

While it's helpful and important to vocalize support for the suffering, we also believe that standing up to evil can look like a number of different things - it can look like expressing support on social media or in your church, sending donations, and prayer - but it can also look like continuing to do your good work faithfully. 

At the end of the day, go back to your businesses’ core values and what’s on your heart in the current moment.
How can you continue to work well while also acknowledging the events of the world around you? That answer will vary widely between each and every one of us, and is a good reminder to maintain a posture of grace towards yourself and your team, as well as the companies and individuals around you. 

We’re all doing our very best. Together, our very best can become something really amazing.

If you’d like to get involved, our community is sending aid to our family working on the border of Ukraine to help with the evacuation efforts. Their GoFundMe link is here. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly katie@murphy.marketing

These photos were taken on our trip to Ukraine in 2013. The city photos are in Lviv. The two where we’re at McDonalds is in Chernihiv and the kids playing with fish is in a tiny village in the north east part of the country, currently Russian-occupied. Our family is still in Chernihiv and the village at this time.