February 14, 2023Comments are off for this post.

Building Bombilla® Podcast: How to Build a Creative Agency for Social Change

This podcast project is dedicated to folks who are #litonpurpose and taking bold audacious steps to start their own businesses for social change. Tune in to hear from other entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders committed to using business to create a more just, sustainable world. Host Ivellisse Morales is committed to a values-driven life, and her creative design agency, bombilla®, is on a mission to make the world a more just, equitable place through the power of design.

Episode 1: #LitOnPurpose with Lauren Rascoe of Lauren Rascoe Creative

Taking the leap to live the dream. bombilla® founder, Ivellisse Morales and Lauren Rascoe of Lauren Rascoe Creative started their own businesses to create the purpose-driven careers they always wanted. In this episode, they compare notes on their experiences as creative entrepreneurs, their feelings about the title CEO, and the realities of building a business that’s #litonpurpose. Lauren is also the podcast producer for Building Bombilla®. Thank you, Lauren!

Resource Links:

Episode 2: Lift As We Climb with Maureen Miller of Black to Yoga

In this episode, bombilla® founder, Ivellisse Morales and Certified Public Accountant and Black to Yoga co-founder Maureen Miller share how they’ve both lifted each other up while climbing as entrepreneurs of color in the Bay Area. And as bombilla's trusted CPA accountant, Maureen offers wisdom about embracing the value of your work and why it’s important to stay on top of your numbers, and bring on an accountant, from the very beginning of your business journey.

Resource Links:

Episode 3: In Equity We Trust with Ellie Tumbuan of The Justice Collective

Ellie Tumbuan is co-founder, co-owner, and Head of Strategy and Culture at The Justice Collective, a 100% women of color founded, owned, managed and led full-service consulting firm based in Oakland, CA. In her conversation with bombilla® founder, Ivellisse Morales, Ellie talks about making business choices that serve the greatest good rather than the greatest profit, and how the strength and wisdom of her ancestors gets her through the difficulties of building a business rooted in social change.

Links:

Episode 4: Our Collective Genius with Team Bombilla®

In this lively group discussion, Kimberly Cho, Lillian Kim, Samantha Vaughan, and Tiffany Threets, aka Team Bombilla®, share the different paths that brought them to this non-traditional creative agency, the ups and downs of working at a start-up for social change, and how each one of them has grown at bombilla by stretching themselves and developing new skills. We discuss business innovation, being resourceful, one year as employed team, building systems, processes, and innovating as a 100% woman-of-color-led team.

Resource Links:

Episode 5: Radical Optimism with Naima McQueen of The Alliance for Community Development

Naima McQueen is a business and racial equity consultant and the Executive Director of the Alliance for Community Development in Oakland, CA. Alliance is dedicated to increasing access to capital for underrepresented entrepreneurs. In this episode, we explore how we intentionally create internal cultures of sustainability and respect, the importance of investing in your own business, and the big difference a little capital can make for a business owner committed to social change. 

Resource Links:

September 27, 2022Comments are off for this post.

Shining at San Francisco Design Week 2022

In this workshop from June 2022 for San Francisco Design Week, the bombilla team walks us through a creative exercise to evaluate 3 ways we can immediately be #litonpurpose, bringing joy and light into our personal and professional lives.

Slide from #LitOnPurpose: How to Be Creative for a Change workshop at SF Design Week. © bombilla creative, inc. 2022

Anxious and angry about the state of humanity and the planet?

Transform that energy into purpose-driven creativity and career choices. It’s no secret that we operate in a system designed to distract and divide. Refocus by tapping into your personal power, using your gifts and reclaiming your story. Together, we will explore both the opportunity (and duty) we have as creative humans who are ready to take authentic action on issues that matter most to us. We’re all bombillas (lightbulbs) waiting to be lit on purpose. The world needs us — no matter what industry, creative discipline, age or level. We need players in all positions.

Participants will leave feeling inspired, connected and with clarity on three ways they can immediately be #litonpurpose, bringing joy and light to their personal and professional lives.

Slide from #LitOnPurpose: How to Be Creative for a Change workshop at SF Design Week. © bombilla creative, inc. 2022

December 18, 2020Comments are off for this post.

Scaling Soulfully Together in 2020

Scaling Soulfully Together in 2020

Dear Community,

Every day, I wake up blessed to be building the business of my dreams. Thank you for helping me make this all a reality. We're doing it through creativity, community and collaboration. It's amazing what unfolds when one steps into their purpose. 

One too many burnouts forced me to re-evaluate my creative career in corporate social responsibility. Like a flip of a light switch, I knew it was time for me to build my own purpose-driven agency. I left the corporate world in February 2018 - I needed to be the change I wanted to see. It’s been history ever since! To date, we have built a brilliant core team, a talented national collective and a bright constellation of world-changing clients.

Our goal in 2021 is to deepen our financial resilience and to keep shining bright. You can play a role in our story by: hiring us and referring us for mission-driven brand strategy, visual identity and graphic design. Think of us as the go-to creative agency for small teams inside organizations with big dreams. Check out examples of our kick-ass work on our website.

Thanks to your projects, connections and support, here are some major milestones we made possible this year. Join us in the celebration:

With your help, connections, and creativity, here are several major milestones you made possible this year:

September 28, 2020Comments are off for this post.

Reimagining the Radically Inclusive Future of Work at The 3 Percent Conference

Ivellisse Morales, CEO of bombilla, speaks at The 3% Conference.

This summer our Founder & CEO, Ivellisse Morales had the honor of speaking in front of thousands at The 3 Percent Conference hosted by The 3 Percent Movement. Since its inception, The 3 Percent Movement has helped raise the percent of female Creative Directors from 3% to 29%, while giving agencies a clear road map of ways to champion female creative talent and leadership.

The theme for this year's 3% Conference is "The Radically Inclusive Future of Work".

Themed "The Radically Inclusive Future of Work," this year’s conference aimed to address four key pillars about the future of work: agile work environments, wellness, conscious leadership, and multigenerational workforces.

Lit on purpose hashtag by bombilla

In her talk, "Three Keys to Be #LitOnPurpose: How to Be Creative for a Change," Ivellisse shares her secret to carving out a creative career in social impact, bringing in influences from literature, music, art and her entrepreneurial passion projects that helped folks in her family and community.

Missed the talk? Check out Ivellisse's interview with The 3 Percent Movement (originally published here):

What’s happening right now?

“alarm’s been ringing
it’s not too late
to wake ourselves up
from this senseless state
start asking questions
ask yourself why
use your own senses
and sniff out the lies”

^ a short poem I wrote one day when I felt deeply disappointed, depressed and yet radically optimistic about the state of humanity and the planet

What might happen next?

What a time to be alive! We are at an existential crossroads as human beings. We’re globally grappling with the raw realities of white supremacy, patriarchy and global capitalism. “What might happen next?” is a question I ask myself every day. Peering through the fog of fear, there’s one thing I do see with certainty. We’re living ancestors writing history. It’s time to reflect, reimagine, redesign -- collectively, without permission, and with urgency. Let’s lean into the transformation that we desperately need.

What exciting creative opportunities does this open up?

What would it look like if all humans were #litonpurpose? If we all harnessed our creative gifts and angled them towards social, economic, political and environmental justice to accelerate change? How might we reimagine and rebuild our world so we can all thrive? We’ll only get there collectively, and it starts with individual action.

To be #litonpurpose is to embody the change the world needs. Change starts with you (us). And we have powerful renewable resources in our hands: creativity, collaboration and community. In the words of Howard Thurman, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

I believe we all should be employed to solve the great social, political and environmental crises of our time. We’re the creative directors of our shared future on this beautiful blue planet we call home.

The future of our planet is sustainable. The future of business is responsible. The future of work is equitable. The future of humans is #litonpurpose.

We got this.

We are a proudly AfroBoricua-led small business, shining bright from sunny Oakland, CA. We are based in xučyun (Huchiun), on unceded territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people. 

We are a proudly AfroBoricua-led small business, shining bright from sunny Oakland, CA. We are based in xučyun (Huchiun), on unceded territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people. 

We are a proudly AfroBoricua-led small business, shining bright from sunny Oakland, CA. We are based in xučyun (Huchiun), on unceded territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people.

We are a proudly AfroBoricua-led small business, shining bright from sunny Oakland, CA. We are based in xučyun (Huchiun), on unceded territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people. 

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