Entrepreneur Sara Christensen's Cancel Culture crisis inspires new venture helping others navigate what nearly doomed her
Tenacious businesswoman reemerges with survival blueprint that grew out of the global backlash from a single social media post that went seriously awry.
MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A Minnesota businesswoman attacked by global Cancel Culture announced today that she is using her experience to help prevent others from losing their businesses and being forced to go into hiding for self-protection from death threats.
Sara Christensen has started a consulting firm that offers proactive crisis planning and damage control consulting for businesses and organizations that find themselves being the target of criticism and attacks from an increasingly-powerful phenomenon called Cancel Culture.
It was barely a year ago when Christensen was living in Austin, Texas, and was CEO of a vibrant business that provided support services for small business owners. She reposted a public Instagram photo of a job applicant in a revealing bikini along with advice for job seekers that sharing such an image was not professional. The repost did not include the woman's face or name.
The woman took a screenshot of the post and went to Twitter to accuse Christensen and her company of objectification.
Christensen immediately deleted her fumbled attempt at mentoring. Too late. The social media rocket ship had left the launch pad, and she was branded a body shamer and misogynist and the attacks on her business were in full force.
Christensen said, "within a couple of hours, it had gone completely crazy. My phone was ringing off the hook and my email was flooded. It was just a tsunami."
But it wasn't just nasty messages and comments on social media. The Cancel Culture mob attempted to hack her bank accounts and extort her for money. They contacted her clients and threatened them that they must stop doing business with Christensen. They left thousands of bad reviews on her podcast and infected her website with malicious code.
Mainstream media picked up on this story and within 24 hours, Christensen was featured in the BBC, NBC News, Yahoo! News, and many others. Whoppi Goldberg read her original Instagram Story on The View shortly after.
"In my 28 years of being a business owner, I have never seen or experienced anything like this. The Cancel Culture mob was able to destroy everything I had worked for day and night throughout my entire career. In a matter of hours, my reputation was permanently destroyed and my business was under a full-on ambush," said Christensen.
She immediately lost a large percentage of her clients and had no choice, but to lay off her team. Within a year, she had to shut down her entire business because. There was no rebuilding the permanent damage that had been done.
Christensen was also "doxxed" which means her home address was found and broadcast on the internet with malicious intent. The word comes from "docs," the abbreviation of "documents." Because of the doxxing, she received death threats credible enough to get the FBI's attention. Some of them were mailed directly to her home. The death threats were so bad that she and her family had to, ultimately, sell their home in Austin, TX and move out of state.
Christensen was forced to join the club of others over the years who have been under assault for admittedly messing up and paying a high price. Al Franken had to resign from the U.S. Senate for a sexual gag photo, and Roseanne Barr was fired from her own television show for tweeting a racist comment about a White House adviser.
And like Christensen, there are frequent Cancel Culture attacks on non-celebrities who aren't able to easily bounce back from the devastation.
Christensen says that rather than stewing in regret and remorse, her mission now is to teach that business leaders needs to be wiser about what to post and be ready for the swift and powerful backlash should a mistake occur.
Among the steps to take sooner rather than later: bury your address and family information from detection online; build a crisis response plan; have a publicist with experience in Cancel Culture on your speed dial; and don't stonewall the news media. Sara's proactive survival tips were recently featured in INC. Magazine.
Even former President Barack Obama's views fall in line with what Christensen is trying to accomplish as a cancel culture counterbalance.
"If all you're doing is casting stones, you're probably not going to get that far," he told an Obama Foundation audience in 2019.
Obama added that he has sensed some young people feel that being as "judgmental as possible" is the best way to force change, but he cautioned that the world is "messy and fraught with "ambiguities."
Andrew Parker, a Minneapolis-based civil litigation attorney who is on Christensen's team of experts, said that "the attack culture has taken over the marketplace of ideas, canceling out thoughts or ideas that the techno bullies disagree with. The dangers of this online tyranny threaten all that we have fought and died to preserve and all that we hold most deeply."
Parker added that he has been "inundated with contacts from people who have been destroyed by unrelenting attacks on social media, cyber bullying and the new cancel culture. I have seen total destruction of a person's business, reputation and ability to live a free life"
Attention reporters and editors: Sara Christensen is available for live or recorded interviews via Zoom or by telephone. She also can be booked as a cancel culture expert for private corporate events or public companies. For hassle-free coordinating, contact publicist Robb Leer at 612.701.0608 or by email at [email protected]. For more information, visit: http://www.sarachristensen.com.
About Cancel Culture: Cancel Culture definition from Wikipedia: a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles—either online on social media, in the real world, or both. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to be "canceled."
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Media Contact
Robb Leer, Leer Communication & Consultants, 6127010608, [email protected]
SOURCE Sara Christensen
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