Bursting Through - The Business

During a recent podcast, I was asked about the business of Bursting Through. The interviewer wanted to understand Bursting Through as a company.

This got me thinking about how often people don't know or understand what each other does for a living. I reflected on my 25+ years in the creative retail world of Visual Merchandising.  Then I thought about the many blank stares I got when I answered the question “What do you do?”

Visual Merchandising is essentially storytelling. Visual merchandisers take many pieces and parts and connect them to create an environment, experience, and narrative for the consumer.  

The focus of the story is merchandise but it is told by layering in various elements like mannequins, props, and graphics. Visual merchandisers connect all the elements to and through the product and the story emerges. 

In generic terms, the word display is often used but I never cared for that as it devalued work that often is quite complex, calling on multiple skill sets and knowledge of many different topics.

Perhaps in hindsight, I should have answered the question with “I work for Macy’s.” Everyone knows that Macy’s is a department store and it’s easy to understand how that leads to an income. It would have made the conversation easier but it answered where I worked and not what I did. 

Again, I find myself in a situation where I don’t have an easily understood answer to what I do or how I generate an income. The short, avoid-blank-stares answer, is I am an entrepreneur and a small business owner. 

The answer is accurate. Bursting Through is a small business.  It may not be what many view as a conventional business but it is my business, my full-time job, and how I earn income. 

Reflecting on my not-so-easy-to-understand former career and the many times I found Bursting Through as a business being misunderstood led me to want to share more.

I found myself thinking about how businesses can and should create a positive social impact, how Bursting Through is doing that and what is needed to keep Bursting Through in business.

I realize people will pick up different things from different channels when thay look and a company. Let's look a bit deeper into the business together.

Bursting Through is a for-profit business

Somewhere along the way, it became a common misconception that if a business does good it must be a non-profit, and if a person wants to use their professional skills to create change, it must be a hobby and not a vocation. 

This is simply not true and I can debunk those beliefs with one word; OPRAH.  

The Oprah Winfrey Show was on TV for 25 years. The show was successful, groundbreaking, and life-changing because it focused on literature, self-improvement, mindfulness, and spirituality during a time when talk shows were simply tabloid TV.  

Oprah was and is purpose-driven. She continues to educate and inspire countless people to live better and more empowered lives through her many media channels like O Magazine, HARPO Productions, and the Oprah Winfrey Network.

In doing all this, she not only became the most influential person of her generation but also the world's first black billionaire. 

Bursting Through has multiple media channels

There are many layers to every business and similarly to what I mentioned above about Oprah’s media channels, Bursting Through has more than one media channel.  

Our channels allow Bursting Through’s message to reach as many consumers as possible. Distributing the content through different platforms gives the consumer choices that fit their lifestyle and information consumption preferences.  

Bursting Through’s existing channels include:

• Bursting Through ONLINE 
• Bursting Through's website
• The Bursting Through Bulletin
• Social Media: Facebook, IG, Linkedin, Substack

Bursting Through’s future channels include:

• Bursting Through ON AIR podcast
• Bursting Through 1:1 TV show
• The Bursting Through Network

Bursting Through has a big vision

Bursting Through produces change through the power of storytelling and community building.  It is a distinctive platform that creates powerful life-changing content, narrows the space between us, and shares information you cannot get anywhere else.  

Bursting Through looks at the human experience through the lens of the Straight/Queer relationship because that is my lived experience as a gay man. It is by no means the only place where the power of storytelling can and will create a positive social impact.  

Bursting Through’s big vision is to extend the Allyship (love, support + action) conversation to other citizens of the United States whose civil rights are under attack, like everyone except white heterosexual men. 

Bursting Through is different and we need different. Every successful business started with a fresh idea, a vision of doing work no one else was doing, and people who viscerally and financially support that vision.

Bursting Through’s POWER is in members

Bursting Through is a member-supported media company. All media companies rely on the people who consume their products to help pay for that content.  

Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, and Google Music all have monthly subscriptions and all started with limited content. Monthly subscriptions allowed them to add more content and in some cases produce original work.  

Bursting Through is working fearlessly to create a better tomorrow for us all and all our welcome with a free membership. Paid membership sustain the business and help it grow. $10-a-month (or $100 a year) subscription allows for new content, for our reach to be extended, and for needed and necessary purposeful, life-changing work to be done.