Reading for Change with Renee Powers

Feminist Founders

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Renee M. Powers (she/her) is the founder of Feminist Book Club, an online media company and book subscription service that uses literature as a launchpad to educate, activate, and organize. Renee is lifelong Midwesterner, an Aries, an ISFJ, a 3 on the enneagram, a Ph.D. dropout, and a former theater kid. She’s been obsessed with feminist theory and feminist literature since her first Women’s Studies class in 2005. When not reading, you can find her sipping iced coffee in her Minneapolis backyard with her partner and their retired racing greyhound.

Website | Instagram | TikTok

Discussed this episode:

• How a Women’s Studies course changed the trajectory of Renee’s life

• The journey from reading thrillers for fun to starting a feminist book subscription service

• Monopolies and other problems with the publishing industry

• The democratic process behind Feminist Book Club selections

• Why it’s important to dig deeper than the “airport display of white male authors”

• Words of warning about self-publishing

• The challenges and opportunities of competing against celebrity book clubs

• Positive trends in the publishing industry

• Ideas for making communities more feminist

• Owning your mistakes, and using them as fuel for change

• Why safe spaces aren’t guaranteed, and cancel culture isn’t all bad

• Renee’s leadership philosophy

• Running an anti-capitalist, feminist business in a capitalist world

• Restructuring Feminist Book Club to make sure it remains sustainable

• Self-care and rest as essential parts of company culture

• The case for self-funding vs. VC funding

• The benefits of participating in a startup accelerator

Resources mentioned:

• Feminist Participatory Action Research Academy

• “The Case for Cancel Culture, How This Democratic Tool Works to Liberate Us All”

• Lunar Startups

• Tory Burch Foundation Fellowship Program

• “Rest is Resistance” by Tricia Hersey

• The Nap Ministry on Instagram

• The Real Minneapolis

Learn more about accountability coaching with host Becky Mollenkamp at https://beckymollenkamp.com