Author

Crystal Paradis-Catanzaro

Marketing & Communications Professional

cp-presenting-abc

I honed my tech chops, organization skills, ability to craft effective messaging and knack for running successful campaigns during my years as an administrative assistant, social media manager, copywriter and then communications director in the graphic design and digital marketing agency world. I developed and shared my expertise in copywriting, data-driven digital marketing, website optimization, content strategy, social media strategy and traditional media outreach alongside industry and community leaders.

I organized a variety of networking groups and spoke regularly at events, on topics including effectively using Evernote to organize your life and efficiently using social media as a small business. I also worked hand in hand with fellow Directors and co-founders to manage proposal writing, RFP response process and new business management.

I also created and authored the weekly #PortsmouthLOVE Letter, a popular weekly newsletter which was sent out most weeks from 2014 through mid-2018. I still update the #PortsmouthLOVE Instagram account and occasionally publish web articles on PortsmouthLOVE.com.

You can see more of my professional marketing and digital media experience on my LinkedIn profile.

Advocate & Activist

crystal-c-span

Throughout my career in marketing and communications, I volunteered for a variety of community organizations, boards, projects and initiatives, both in communications and marketing advisory roles and as an outspoken advocate.

I have spoken out and taken action on a number of progressive and social justice issues, including organizing community conversations about the heroin epidemic, advocating for reproductive justice, writing about gun violence and taking ownership for how I spend my time and energies through values-centric work.

In 2015, I was named one to watch in the #10toWatch Awards by Catapult Seacoast and SeacoastOnline.

Organizer

Community organizer in Exeter, NH for NH Democratic Party, 2016 election cycle; Photo by @collingately for NHDP

In the summer and fall of the 2016 election, I devoted 100% of my time as a field organizer in Exeter for the New Hampshire Democratic Party, working tirelessly to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. In that role, I consistently led the state with the highest number of active volunteers. Amid a national election that was a startling GOP sweep across many of the other swing states, we ultimately won New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton, sent Maggie Hassan to the Senate, re-elected Carol Shea Porter and Annie Kuster to the House and gained seats for Democrats in the New Hampshire state house.

In 2019, I was named New Hampshire’s Progressive of the Year by the New Hampshire Young Democrats. I continue to be an active activist on political, sustainable community and feminist issues.

Strategic Consultant & Business Owner

In 2017, I started freelancing and consulting full-time, focusing on how I could invest my time and energy to positively benefit my community with my unique skills and strong voice. I started incubating the idea of creating community experiences and spaces for womxn. I moved to Somersworth and heard peepers outside my kitchen window for the first time. I organized the third annual Portsmouth PRIDE for Seacoast Outright, which drew an estimated crowd of over 3,000 LGBTQ+ community members and allies. I took my first Feminist Business School course.

In 2018, I founded Feminist Oasis, a business with a mission to promote intersectional feminism through experiences and spaces. Our launch event was Feminist Theory + Lemonade, a sold-out screening of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, followed by a discussion with feminist scholars on the intersectional feminist theory implications of the film. During the discussion at this event, I heard an attendee express her experience of the evening, articulating the exact vision I’d been carrying for over a year. That realized dream continues to energize and inspire me.

Visionary Community Leader

In 2019, I ran for office, winning an At-Large seat on the Somersworth City Council. Although I was a first-time candidate, I won the highest amount of votes, something I attribute to the strong community engagement we employed throughout our campaign. We reached out to members of the community who’d never been asked for their vote, we shared our vision for a more accessible local government and offered an inspiring and attainable plan of action to improve everyday life in our City. 

I took office in January 2020, and in just over two months, I was no longer the only new person on the Council — when COVID-19 hit, we were all new at leading a community. I asked the Mayor to create an Election Review Planning Commission to ensure that our 2020 elections were accessible and safe (he agreed, and appointed me as Chair); we changed the location of two polling locations to larger venues, installed a City drop box and put best practices into place that would allow for CDC guidelines to be followed. I served on 7 City committees, including Secretary/Treasurer of the Lamprey Waste Regional Cooperative — a coalition of 13 towns and cities. 

As Councilor, second-in-line to Mayor, I was thrilled to see key priorities of my campaign become realities. supported opening world’s first Little Indonesia, and I (along with my dog, Daisy) cut the ribbon on city’s first dog park. When City leaders proposed a sweep of unhoused folks in the City, I joined calls from the community to establish full-time warming center ops, which eventually passed. And when a COPS grant was proposed to commit additional funding to our police department amid a national call for police reform, I secured a commitment from our Chief that the new officer would be assigned to implement the ACERT (Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team) program to protect our community’s most vulnerable youth.

Forecasting the urgency of an upcoming 10-year Master Plan and identifying a lack of leadership and conflict of interest in our longtime mayor seeking re-election, I decided to run for Mayor in 2021, on a platform of Accessibility, Transparency and Vision. Somersworth was being outpaced by surrounding communities, and smart growth opportunities were going unclaimed by a too-short-sighted old boys’ network. I came in second in a close three-way race, and am proud of the surge in community response and conversation we raised.

You can’t be what you can’t see — I continue to believe in the more optimistic vision of what our City can be, and as a private citizen and homeowner, I’ve proudly remained engaged, and continue putting forth that vision.

Director of Strategic Communications & Community Engagement — NH Women’s Foundation

During several years of strategic consulting work, I joined the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, as the Women Run! & Community Engagement Manager. In 2021, I joined the Foundation full-time role as Director of Strategic Communications and Community Engagement. It’s exciting to be back at the organization, after once faxing merger papers to form one of its predecessor organizations, while working an admin job at an agency nearly 15 years ago. Full circle!

I’m thrilled that this new role gives me an opportunity to continue the advocacy work I’ve always done, even when my “day job”s have been unrelated. More folks find us every week, and our events, trainings, publications and grantmaking cycles grow each year. We’ve expanded our philanthropic tools to include two new field of interest funds that I’m passionate about: the Women and Girls of Color Fund and the Reproductive and Sexual Health Access Fund (launched in the wake of the leaked Dobbs decision). I love my team and my work, and am always on the lookout for ways to engage new coalitions and communities. If you have ideas, please reach out!

***

Photo Credits (from top, down): Will Zimmermann, @WalterElly, screenshot from C-SPAN, New Hampshire Democratic Party.

Marketing & Communications Professional

cp-presenting-abc

I honed my tech chops, organization skills, ability to craft effective messaging and knack for running successful campaigns during my years as an administrative assistant, social media manager, copywriter and then communications director in the graphic design and digital marketing agency world. I developed and shared my expertise in copywriting, data-driven digital marketing, website optimization, content strategy, social media strategy and traditional media outreach alongside industry and community leaders.

I organized a variety of networking groups and spoke regularly at events, on topics including effectively using Evernote to organize your life and efficiently using social media as a small business. I also worked hand in hand with fellow Directors and co-founders to manage proposal writing, RFP response process and new business management.

I also created and authored the weekly #PortsmouthLOVE Letter, a popular weekly newsletter which was sent out most weeks from 2014 through mid-2018. I still update the #PortsmouthLOVE Instagram account and occasionally publish web articles on PortsmouthLOVE.com.

You can see more of my professional marketing and digital media experience on my LinkedIn profile.

Advocate & Activist

crystal-c-span

Throughout my career in marketing and communications, I volunteered for a variety of community organizations, boards, projects and initiatives, both in communications and marketing advisory roles and as an outspoken advocate.

I have spoken out and taken action on a number of progressive and social justice issues, including organizing community conversations about the heroin epidemic, advocating for reproductive justice, writing about gun violence and taking ownership for how I spend my time and energies through values-centric work.

In 2015, I was named one to watch in the #10toWatch Awards by Catapult Seacoast and SeacoastOnline.

Organizer

Community organizer in Exeter, NH for NH Democratic Party, 2016 election cycle; Photo by @collingately for NHDP

In the summer and fall of the 2016 election, I devoted 100% of my time as a field organizer in Exeter for the New Hampshire Democratic Party, working tirelessly to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. In that role, I consistently led the state with the highest number of active volunteers. Amid a national election that was a startling GOP sweep across many of the other swing states, we ultimately won New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton, sent Maggie Hassan to the Senate, re-elected Carol Shea Porter and Annie Kuster to the House and gained seats for Democrats in the New Hampshire state house.

In 2019, I was named New Hampshire’s Progressive of the Year by the New Hampshire Young Democrats. I continue to be an active activist on political, sustainable community and feminist issues.

Strategic Consultant & Business Owner

In 2017, I started freelancing and consulting full-time, focusing on how I could invest my time and energy to positively benefit my community with my unique skills and strong voice. I started incubating the idea of creating community experiences and spaces for womxn. I moved to Somersworth and heard peepers outside my kitchen window for the first time. I organized the third annual Portsmouth PRIDE for Seacoast Outright, which drew an estimated crowd of over 3,000 LGBTQ+ community members and allies. I took my first Feminist Business School course.

In 2018, I founded Feminist Oasis, a business with a mission to promote intersectional feminism through experiences and spaces. Our launch event was Feminist Theory + Lemonade, a sold-out screening of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, followed by a discussion with feminist scholars on the intersectional feminist theory implications of the film. During the discussion at this event, I heard an attendee express her experience of the evening, articulating the exact vision I’d been carrying for over a year. That realized dream continues to energize and inspire me.

Visionary Community Leader

In 2019, I ran for office, winning an At-Large seat on the Somersworth City Council. Although I was a first-time candidate, I won the highest amount of votes, something I attribute to the strong community engagement we employed throughout our campaign. We reached out to members of the community who’d never been asked for their vote, we shared our vision for a more accessible local government and offered an inspiring and attainable plan of action to improve everyday life in our City. 

I took office in January 2020, and in just over two months, I was no longer the only new person on the Council — when COVID-19 hit, we were all new at leading a community. I asked the Mayor to create an Election Review Planning Commission to ensure that our 2020 elections were accessible and safe (he agreed, and appointed me as Chair); we changed the location of two polling locations to larger venues, installed a City drop box and put best practices into place that would allow for CDC guidelines to be followed. I served on 7 City committees, including Secretary/Treasurer of the Lamprey Waste Regional Cooperative — a coalition of 13 towns and cities. 

As Councilor, second-in-line to Mayor, I was thrilled to see key priorities of my campaign become realities. supported opening world’s first Little Indonesia, and I (along with my dog, Daisy) cut the ribbon on city’s first dog park. When City leaders proposed a sweep of unhoused folks in the City, I joined calls from the community to establish full-time warming center ops, which eventually passed. And when a COPS grant was proposed to commit additional funding to our police department amid a national call for police reform, I secured a commitment from our Chief that the new officer would be assigned to implement the ACERT (Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team) program to protect our community’s most vulnerable youth.

Forecasting the urgency of an upcoming 10-year Master Plan and identifying a lack of leadership and conflict of interest in our longtime mayor seeking re-election, I decided to run for Mayor in 2021, on a platform of Accessibility, Transparency and Vision. Somersworth was being outpaced by surrounding communities, and smart growth opportunities were going unclaimed by a too-short-sighted old boys’ network. I came in second in a close three-way race, and am proud of the surge in community response and conversation we raised.

You can’t be what you can’t see — I continue to believe in the more optimistic vision of what our City can be, and as a private citizen and homeowner, I’ve proudly remained engaged, and continue putting forth that vision.

Director of Strategic Communications & Community Engagement — NH Women’s Foundation

During several years of strategic consulting work, I joined the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, as the Women Run! & Community Engagement Manager. In 2021, I joined the Foundation full-time role as Director of Strategic Communications and Community Engagement. It’s exciting to be back at the organization, after once faxing merger papers to form one of its predecessor organizations, while working an admin job at an agency nearly 15 years ago. Full circle!

I’m thrilled that this new role gives me an opportunity to continue the advocacy work I’ve always done, even when my “day job”s have been unrelated. More folks find us every week, and our events, trainings, publications and grantmaking cycles grow each year. We’ve expanded our philanthropic tools to include two new field of interest funds that I’m passionate about: the Women and Girls of Color Fund and the Reproductive and Sexual Health Access Fund (launched in the wake of the leaked Dobbs decision). I love my team and my work, and am always on the lookout for ways to engage new coalitions and communities. If you have ideas, please reach out!

***

Photo Credits (from top, down): Will Zimmermann, @WalterElly, screenshot from C-SPAN, New Hampshire Democratic Party.

***

Photo and Bio for speaking engagements (updated July 2023):

Bio — Crystal Paradis-Catanzaro

Pronouns: She/Her  Pronunciation: KRIS’-tahl PAIR’-ah-dee cat-n-ZAIR’-ō

Crystal Paradis-Catanzaro is Director of Strategic Communications & Community Engagement for the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, where she leads the Foundation’s messaging and efforts to build Voice, Money and Power for women, girls and marginalized genders in New Hampshire. She is involved in the Foundation’s Women Run! program, recruiting and training women to run for local and state office in New Hampshire. Past work has included being an organizer with the 2016 Democratic coordinated campaign, organizing TEDx events, working at digital marketing agencies and founding an experimental social enterprise, Feminist Oasis.

Crystal served a two-year term (2020-2021) as City Councilor At-Large in the City of Somersworth, leading efforts around election safety and security as Chair of the Election Review Planning Commission, and in the fall of her first year, she helped cut the ribbon on Somersworth’s first dog park, a key priority of her campaign. As councilor, she was a member of Public Safety, Sustainability, Recreation and Economic Development Committees, and was Secretary/Treasurer of the Lamprey Regional Waste Cooperative.

She volunteers with a variety of local nonprofits and currently sits on the board of SOS Recovery Organization. In her spare time, she enjoys feminist birdwatching, and working on her 3-acre homestead (especially work that involves the tractor), where she lives with her wife and their three dogs.

Photo 

Please credit photographer Will Zimmermann where possible:

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This week, Somersworth became the first city in New Hampshire to raise the Juneteenth flag. Juneteenth, also called Liberation Day or the Day of Jubilee, marks the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation — two and a half years after it became law — in the final state of the union. Since it is also Pride month, and there are two flagpoles at Somersworth’s Citizen’s Place, the Juneteenth flag now waves next to the rainbow Pride flag, where they will wave together for a week (the Pride flag stays up all June long here in the Rainbow City).

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Crystal Paradis for Somersworth City Council At-Large, Somersworth, NH

Somersworth is New Hampshire’s smallest geographic city, and I grew up knowing about it mostly for being the home to General Electric (GE) and to my stepfamily, and for the WalMart that was seemingly the only place open late during my years attending high school in Dover. Later, I’d learn that, just like the city of Portsmouth where I was born, it’s also a mill town on a river, with a working-class legacy and lots of brick in it’s beautiful historic downtown. I lived in and around Somersworth multiple times in my life, and most recently relocated back here just under three years ago, just as it was starting to develop a new reputation — as New Hampshire’s “Rainbow City.”

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As I pass the baton of TEDxPortsmouth to two of the most capable people in our Portsmouth community, co-organizers Anna Goldsmith and Amy Sterndale, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on how TEDxPortsmouth, originally TEDxPiscataquaRiver, has played a significant role in my relationship with my community.

I was asked way back in 2012 to join a team that was exploring the possibility of bringing a TEDx event to Portsmouth. I knew about TED Talks, but this was my first introduction to TEDx — locally-organized events that brought big ideas to their local stages, in the spirit of TED’s Idea’s Worth Spreading. I said yes right away and joined co-organizers Evan Karatzas of Proximity Labs and Chris Greiner of 3S Artspace to assemble an advisory board that included 12 local leaders across various industries. This board would set our vision of what a TEDx event would look like that reflected our unique city of Portsmouth. It was the big idea of Sherry-Lea Bloodworth Botop to bring a TEDx event to Portsmouth, but it quickly became a truly community-led endeavor.

With Nick Allen (who would be my co-organizer at our 2014 event), Sherry-Lea Bloodworth Botop (whose idea it was to do a TEDx in Portsmouth) and Mary Jo Brown (who was on the inaugural advisory board) at our first-ever TEDx event, at what would soon be 3S Artspace.

On this team were folks like Lisa Butler, who led the speaker coordination efforts for that first event; Kate Martin, who coordinated day-of event logistics; co-organizer Chris Greiner, who was working on bringing his 3S Artspace idea into physical reality at Vaughan Street; and co-organizer and inaugural TEDxPiscataquaRiver licensee, Evan Karatzas, who extended that fateful invitation to me at the start.

I joined this incredible team, working alongside community members who were all putting in countless hours to create a TED-like day-long conference in our Port City. Eventually, we selected 319 Vaughan Street building, then just an empty warehouse with the future promise of becoming 3S Artspace, as the site for Portsmouth’s first TEDx event. What better way to help the community imagine what a space like 3S could bring to the community, then to transform it for a day into a dramatic and (hopefully) life-changing event?

And life-changing it was — for me, at least, and for many others as it turned out. My personal memories of that weekend were frantic long hours and late nights at 319 Vaughan (thanks to Mary Jo Brown for the Savario’s calzone delivery!), in a revolving door of mini-panics about name tags, license requirements, and coordinating with folks across the community including the press, folks on our guest list, lottery ticket winners and others. I couldn’t *wait* to find Evan and Chris after the event, thank them so much for the experience, and let them know that I wouldn’t be able to do it again next year. It was too much — no way was I doing this all again!

The the morning of our event came. Starting in the wee hours that morning, I was frantic about name tags (still) and guest lists and parking and a hundred other details. But then it happened. Show time came, the lights went down, and a quiet, anticipatory hush came over the crowd. It was in that moment that I realized that this room full of people had absolutely no expectations beyond excitement for what was about to happen. As we cold-opened on a wonderfully weird tech-device band, I saw people’s eyes light up. As our first speaker and then our second and third took the stage, I stood in the back, watching silhouetted heads nod along in resonance with the ideas coming from the stage, and my eyes welled up. That was the moment — I was hooked.

TEDxPiscataquaRiver’s opening act: iOS ensemble Giants in the Wood (Jon Briggs, Shawn Crapo, John Herman, Jeremy Murphy, Brian Sullivan) open TEDx PiscataquaRiver at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, NH on May 3, 2013

That 2013 event was the first of six annual TEDx events that I either co-organized or led over the next 6 years in Portsmouth, the city where I was born. There were many moments that stood out across those years, but that moment standing in the back of the darkened warehouse that we’d somehow managed to transform into a world-class theater/conference experience — that’s the one I remember most.

And that moment is the one I wait for every year, for all of my co-organizers and teammates to have. We dream big, putting months of volunteer work and love and passion and ideas into these events. But it’s not until it happens and you get to watch something you’ve been obsessing over for the entire year be experienced by your community for the first time — that’s when you’re really “hooked” on being a part of TEDx.

Setting up for our first event in 2013
With 2014 co-organizers, Kate Martin, Lisa Butler and Nick Allen
With 2015 co-organizer Halie Olszowy
With 2016 hosts
With 2017 team
With 2018 co-organizer Anna Goldsmith

Over the next five years I was happy to work with some incredible co-organizers: Kate Martin, Nick Allen, Halie Olszowy, Devan Meserve and Anna Goldsmith; and with many outstanding volunteer team leaders and members, some of whom got new jobs through their TEDx volunteer roles, or are now recognized as a world-class singer when they pick up their kids at Little Harbor.

After seven years of planning six life-changing events, I am thrilled (and sure, a little nostalgically sad) to be passing the license on to Anna Goldsmith, my co-organizer last year for our biggest event ever — the 2018 TEDx event where we moved to The Music Hall, changed our name to the much easier to spell “TEDxPortsmouth” and got to welcome more than triple the amount of attendees to experience TEDx in their community. Taking my place as Anna’s co-organizer for Portsmouth’s 7th Annual TEDx event will be Amy Sterndale, an invaluable member of our team for a few years now, and the force most responsible for the caliber of last year’s most acclaimed speaker lineup yet. Anyone who knows or has heard about Anna or Amy knows that this event is in the most capable of hands, and I am so proud to see this event continue on as I step back from TEDxPortsmouth and onwards spreading big ideas through my new business, Feminist Oasis.

With co-organizer Anna Goldsmith at the end of TEDxPortsmouth 2018, on The Music Hall stage.

I launched Feminist Oasis last year (with an event that was also on Vaughan Street, actually!) and have been so excited to see it grow over its first year. We’ve had hundreds of people attend our events, dozens join as members and have partnered with scores of other businesses, nonprofits and individuals to co-create our events. Please check us out at feministoasis.com learn more about what we’re doing (building feminist community and exploring feminist values in action), who we’re partnering with next (UNH Women’s Studies Program, NH Theatre Project, 3S Artspace, Teatotaller, Sue’s Space), how to join as a member (and get Feminist Action Plans, event discounts and member social invites), and all the other fun ideas we have to integrate solidarity, resilience, sustainability and systemic justice into our lives and work.

I’m committed to giving my all to grow Feminist Oasis into a sustainable social enterprise. I’m so glad to say that that feeling of watching my community experience something that I’ve worked on for months — that feeling that TEDxPiscataquaRiver got me hooked on — is continuing on: for me with Feminist Oasis and, gratefully, for Anna and Amy and their incredible team at TEDxPortsmouth.

With some of our incredible 2018 team at the end of the day

Thank you to all the people who have supported TEDxPiscataquaRiver and its growth into TEDxPortsmouth. The team members, speakers, sponsors and volunteers who have made these first six events possible is now well into the hundreds, and happily many have become dear friends of mine and with each other, all through this magical event based around ideas. I can’t wait to see where Anna and Amy take it — and I’m thrilled to be one of those silhouetted heads on September 13, 2019, as I show up with no expectations other than excitement for what is about to happen.

— Crystal Paradis

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lift each other up

I had a vision a few years ago, while in a Kundalini yoga class. It wasn’t like an other-wordly revelation or anything, just an image that came into my head as we were in the meditation portion of the class. It was an image that simultaneously felt so profoundly truthful, while making little logical sense.

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I was moved to write a letter to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during her testimony and subsequent questioning, on Thursday, September 26, 2018. I wrote this letter after she left the hearing, in the early afternoon, and sent it to her, in care of her lawyer. I am so glad that I wrote this before I saw the second half of the hearing — because it’s a capsule in time of what I felt after seeing her part of the day. Things certainly shifted after that, and have many times since.

Friday night, September 28th, I pulled together a Solidarity Gathering at South Church in Portsmouth, NH. I was compelled to hold space for everyone feeling like they needed community. Only a few people showed up, but many more expressed gratitude for knowing that it was happening at all. It felt important, urgent. It was totally necessary for me. We lit candles, we shared our stories, we shared our feelings, we talked about how we could change our culture from perpetuating the dangerous circumstances that make situations like these all too common. It was healing.

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The word “feminist” is on my business card. Not as a title I’m using to define myself, but because it’s in the name of my business. Even with its recent rise to acceptance in mainstream popular culture, the word “feminist” still prompts startled reactions most times I hand someone my card. Since I’m so frequently reminded of the baggage of this word, I’m also increasingly aware of my responsibility to define, and demonstrate by my actions, what I mean when I use the word “feminist.”

Feminist theorist bell hooks (no, the lowercase of her name isn’t a typo – she consciously declines to capitalize her name in favor of putting the emphasis on her ideas) defines feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.” Defining feminism as a commitment to end oppression is notable in that it is not (as it is sometimes misperceived to be) seeking to reverse it. Taking power from one group and giving it to another doesn’t solve the problem – it simply perpetuates domination and systemic injustice.

Feminist poet Audre Lorde wrote, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” The goal of a hooks and Lorde kind of feminist movement is to dismantle systemic power structures altogether in favor of equity for everyone – all genders, all identities.

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If all of the page copy on your website disappeared, leaving only your menu navigation items, would people still get a good idea of what you do? How you name and structure your menu items (“nav” items, for those in the web biz) should tell your story.

Depending on what type of website you have, the primary goal may differ. Whatever the primary goal of your site is should be reflected in the taxonomy (or naming convention), order and heirarchy of your primary navigation and menu items.

The Menu Basics: From About to Contact

The most common menu items include such staples as About, Contact, Team/Who We Are, Resources, etc. — and for a company business page which is mostly what we used to refer to as a “brochure” site, these may still be the best menu items. If your site exists mostly for people to get to know you on their way to becoming a customer, client or fan, this may be enough.

Menu Taxonomy: How to Write Easily Navigated Menu Items

Be consistent.

Reading across your menu bar should make sense, and should not change tenses.

Going for simplicity? Try “Team,” “Services,” “About” and “Contact.”

Want to get a little more friendly and conversational about introducing yourself? Your team page could be called “Who We Are,” and your services page “What We Do.” Your About page can become “Why We Do It” or “How We Do It” but is probably best left as “About” unless your About page specifically outlines your “why” or “how” or is more about your history (“How We Started” or “Origin Story”).

Starting with verbs that a site visitor can take? If your team page is named “Meet Our Team,” then your services page should be called “Work With Us.”

Pro tip: while it may be tempting to get cute or creative in your page names, straightforward is the best way to write your menu items. Trust me, I love a great pun, but potentially confusing a visitor who came to your footwear site with “A-Boot!” will likely backfire when, instead of the boots they were looking for, they get “gotcha-ed” by your hilarious about page. There are plenty of opportunities to show off your personality in the site copy, if you so wish. The navigation menus are neither the time nor the place for such shenanigans!

Effective Ecommerce Menus

Ecommerce sites should make one thing really easy: shopping (commerce!). This doesn’t mean that one menu item should say “Shop” — rather, your primary nav menu on an ecommerce site should be the top 3-5 categories that people are searching for when visiting your site. Some retailers split these top items by gender or department, others by item type, genre or attribute (size/color, etc.). The way you decide to categorize your top menu categories will vary depending on the types of products you’re selling, and how your best customers typically shop.

The Best Blog Menus

If your site is primarily a blog, your most popular categories should make up the majority of your primary menu. If your blog is super populated (like, say, HuffPo), you’ll probably need a mega-menu or at least a robust drop-down menu, for the many subcategories in your blog topic hierarchy.

These are just a few top considerations for a menu that clearly communicates your core business services to your next potential client. Next time: taxonomy for your blog categories!

 

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Commander Emily Basset of USS Manchester speaks to Women in Leadership: Next Generation luncheon at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH

Commander Emily Bassett of the soon-to-be commissioned USS Manchester, was honored at the Women in Leadership: Next Generation luncheon at Strawbery Banke. Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig was also a guest of honor, and the two both shared inspiring words to the local women leaders and their young women guests at the TYCO Visitor’s Center today. I was grateful to be at this lunch along with local leaders including city councilors, city officials, business leaders and representatives of the Shaheen family. (More on the Shaheen family’s connection to the USS Manchester here).

In her remarks, Commander Bassett outlined a four-step mental practice that she adapted from the Navy SEALS. The four steps are:

  1. Breathe
  2. Envision Success
  3. Repeat a Mantra
  4. Begin

She used this simple yet powerful 4-step practice when the USS Manchester was entering the Piscataqua River on Monday. The plan was to welcome aboard the Senator and her family, and the Governor and his family, by meeting the a smaller boat on the river and having them climb the ladder to get on deck. While navigating into the Piscataqua River with our world-famous powerful current, Commander Bassett reached Step 2: Envision Success, and got stuck.

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In her TED Talk, “The danger of the single story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns that knowing only one story about people different from you can result in a vast misunderstanding. A single story can never be representative of the entire group that the subject of the story represents. The power of stories is that they show one possibility. That possibility, if it resonates with beliefs we already have, is very motivating – for better or worse.

“Single stories create stereotypes. And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” Allowing single stories to speak for the identity of a vast group of people is, to say the least, problematic. But that doesn’t mean stories themselves are the culprit.

Adichie goes on to say, “Stories matter. And many stories matter.” Our job is not to stop telling stories, it’s to stop repeating the same tired stories, listen to new stories from others and start telling our own.

What does all this talk of stories have to do with guns?

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