📚 What Do You Need Now?

Welcome Back! 👋🏼

Life is a little off kilter right now and the usual ways of growing in your work might not be as accessible. I mean, we are literally watching techno-fascism breach the halls of our government. This is not a normal moment.

As our global order shifts, I also want to pause and check-in.

🌱 how can the roots of change agency support you?

Fortunately or unfortunately, I've been at the forefront of the techno-fascist wave since I joined the advertising game 15 years ago. I've seen up close & personal how the Big Tech bros, their Big Business friends, and the politicians they've bought have influenced and manipulated our emotions, our digital spheres, and our society.

Advertising agencies give you a unique (& usually horrifying) perspective of a company, an industry, and global capitalism. I am intimately familiar with the financial levers that our global banks pull because of the years I spent with Wells Fargo and Capital One. I understood the demise of Twitter well before many, because I'd seen their pitch decks and I've worked elbow-to-elbow with Musk's former employees. I even ran a climate justice campaign in California that he and Tesla spent a lot of money to suppress. An Avenger hate trolled me in Twitter! That campaign turned out to be a precursor to his tactics in 2024. (more to share)

Growing Decolonized Communications in 2025

Now that I'm on the other side of corporate advertising, I see it for what it is.

Our society and institutions were built on top of the unhealthy soil of, as bell hooks refers to it, white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. The roots, or social conditions, are unable to flourish in spoiled dirt. Policies, legislation, and social norms will continue to reinforce the systems beneath the roots if we do not cultivate healthier soil.

Marketing sits at the base of the tree because it plays the outward-facing role of reinforcing the unhealthy systems below it. Modern marketing is about manipulation, accumulation, and the status quo. It reinforces old narratives that are no longer true or healthy.

[Read our Theory of Change]

Tending to new soil...

asks us to intentionally build new systems with community, equity, and sustainability at their core.

I want the roots of change agency to be a supportive base for communicators to move from marketing to storytelling. So I'm asking for your help. In the midst of the world changing, can you share how you are changing and what your needs are?

Pausing for Intentional Growth

I plan on pausing our Friday newsletter to collect responses. In the meantime, Paid Flowering members will receive a workshop recording or resource each week. In the coming weeks, I'll be sharing more about how your feedback is shaping how this newsletter for communicators will be shaped.

This is our time to reshape the world starting with how we communicate! 🌍 I hope you'll join me on this journey and move our world away from marketing and white supremacist capitalist patriarchy for good.

And that's a wrap on this week’s newsletter! We hope you found this helpful in your work. If you have any topics you want covered or have any questions, please reach out and let me know.

In Solidarity,
Sam Chavez (she/they/he)
the roots of change agency founder

🌱 about the roots of change agency

the roots of change agency is a decolonized communications & media agency that supports activists, movement leaders, and social change communicators. We were founded in 2020. Learn more.

• Send us a Question for future newsletters
• April 1 - May Force Be With Your Content Strategy Workshop
• Become a Flowering Member
• Become a Supporter - help me grow a decolonized media ecosystem