Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Latt.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Michael. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California where I lived with both of my parents and my older brother and primarily focused on football and baseball most of my years in school. After graduating from Chapman University, I moved back to Los Angeles where I live today and work as the Founder and CEO of Lead With Love, Inc. Deeply rooted in love, authenticity and community, my company is dedicated to empowering and amplifying women and artists of color and their stories as well as collaborating with many of our nation’s leading organizers, brands and artists to help build a future grounded in equality, justice and equity where we all have the access, tools and resources to not just survive but thrive.
The path that I’m on today was shaped and guided by many experiences, but the most influential was my introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation and the opportunity to work on my first film. While I initially took up Meditation and Mindfulness to help with my depression and anxiety, the practice quickly transformed all areas of my life.
In my meditation practice each morning, I commit myself to try to have all of my actions and thoughts come from my heart. The deepening commitment to my meditation practice was coupled with reading countless books on the power, essence and nature of love and compassion. This helped me further realize that I wanted to lead a life beyond fragmentation, loneliness and fear into a place of interconnectedness that opened the door to the rest of the world where I’m connected with something larger than myself. I’ve learned that there is immeasurable power, inspiration and strength in love as well as a limitless potential within myself to tap into this power to use it for good and bring happiness to others. Today, love and compassion have become the guiding forces in all aspects of my life and fuel the fire that drives my work to make a difference in the world and help others. Nothing brings me more joy than other people’s happiness and nothing makes me more passionate than fighting for justice, equality and love. Meditation helped me not only connect more deeply with myself, but my practice has helped me connect more deeply with others and the world around me. Meditation allowed me to connect with my intrinsic wholeness and who I truly am which helped me move beyond my past scars, feelings of isolation and self-doubt.
The books I’ve read over the past couple of years related to love and compassion have had a profound impact on my views of love as well as my life in general including Sharon Salzberg’s Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, Pema Chodron’s Start Where You: A Guide to Compassionate Living, James Baldwin’s Collected Essays, Tara Brach’s Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With The Heart Of A Buddha, Christina Feldman’s Boundless Heart, Susan Smalley’s Fully Present: The Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness and more.
When I was a senior in college, I began working on Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station which quickly opened my eyes up to how prevalent and insidious White Supremacy is in our country and illustrated the potent power of storytelling to change hearts and minds. The next year during the Ferguson Uprising, Ryan brought a group of us together at Charles King’s home to form the collective Blackout for Human Rights that is dedicated to fighting state-sanctioned violence and empowering communities through art. Leading the marketing for Blackout allowed me to see that I could use my skill set for social good so I dedicated the rest of my career to this work. Additionally, I started to read books like James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Dr. Angela Davis’ Women, Race & Class, Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and more, who further showed me the dissonance between what America portrays itself as and what it really is. Our past and present is much more brutal, bloody and unjust than most of us like to believe.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’m grateful to have been born into a very loving family, cultivated a supportive community of friends and colleagues around me, never worried about having food on the table or housing, and so much more throughout my life. I’ve also been afforded a lot of privilege as a white straight man in America. But like everyone else, suffering is simply a part of life and there have been many struggles along the way. At the beginning of high school, I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and ADHD and began attending therapy every week.
Although everything on the outside appeared to be great, I felt empty, isolated, flawed, hopeless and worthless on the inside everyday. My actions and thoughts were fueled by fear and shame. With thoughts that I wasn’t good enough, didn’t belong and was inherently flawed, I could never be at peace. The constant doubts about myself imposed rigid limits on my abilities and what I believed I was capable of. For so long, my negative thoughts and feelings were seen as universal truths and overwhelmed my perception of the present moment, disconnected me from others and fragmented my direct experience. This distorted view along with constantly avoiding painful emotions fueled the fears and negative beliefs.
Through ongoing practices of therapy, meditation and mindfulness as well as my deepening commitment to love and compassion, I gradually discovered a radically different way of seeing and being, and my relationship to people, the world around me and myself transformed.
In our culture and society, we are taught to push away and avoid our feelings but the only way to truly heal is by intimately exploring our whole range of emotions. The other side of resisting fear is freedom. When we open up fully to our pain and invite it in, we can befriend it and begin to heal. I realized that the places I feared to enter held the answers I needed. By moving beyond blame and other escapes to simply sit with the raw quality of my vulnerability, I entered a space where the best parts of me emerged.
Suffering can serve to open us to truths that might have otherwise remained hidden and illuminate our connection to others. Our suffering becomes a gateway to the compassion that frees our hearts. We are connected through our vulnerability and pain. By understanding my own pain, I was able to build a bridge to the pain of others and step outside of myself to offer help. Compassion transformed my pain into action to help others.
Over time, I’ve been better able to align my actions with my heart. I no longer have to react automatically in the same way every time I felt anxiety and instead could respond with wisdom that better reflected my true self. It wasn’t until recently that I began to feel that I was worthy of love and accepted as I am, without any need to prove myself. The more I tapped into the power of love and my unconditional goodness, the stranglehold of fear began loosening its grip. There is no progress without struggle. When I embrace myself with compassion and kindness, I see past the stories, conditioning and roles that distort my true nature. Some of the struggles are merely obstacles to see how badly I want something. We all deserve love, compassion and kindness from ourselves and others.
Lead With Love – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My company Lead With Love specializes in communications, creative direction and strategic planning to help artists, brands and organizations leverage the power of art, media and storytelling to spark meaningful and lasting change in society, empower and inspire communities around the world, build beloved communities rooted in love, compassion and justice and shift culture. Love, creativity, compassion and kindness are the guiding forces in all aspects of our business and operations.
Our campaigns for clients’ past projects have consistently engaged audiences on a multi-layered and multi-channel approach, unlocking a client’s full potential to make a difference in the world. The activations and engagements leverage the selected project to drive meaningful change, cultivate a passionate and deep connection between audiences and the campaign, spark dialogue, and generate word of mouth among a robust and diverse audience across the globe. We identify and build collaborations with many of the nation’s leading organizers and organizations who are on the frontlines of politics, grassroots organizing and philanthropy. We connect clients with these phenomenal and impactful nonprofits and individuals to formulate official partnerships, strategize and execute campaigns and facilitate creative collaborations with these leading groups.
We can also handle all of a client’s digital marketing and social media needs with an innovative and proven approach grounded in years of experience overseeing, managing and growing social media accounts for clients like Common, the Sundance Film Festival, Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station and more. We’ve built cohesive, engaging and compelling digital marketing and social media strategy that is deeply rooted in authenticity and love, guided by analytics and driven by captivating content and experiences. From executing live event coverage to building out year-long multi-layered digital strategies, Lead With Love has managed original content production, publishing, messaging, and creative direction for any brand, organization or public figure.
I’ve previously worked with companies and organizations that have included Sundance Film Festival, Sony Pictures, Fox Searchlight, ARRAY, Emerson Collective, Color Of Change, Campaign for Black Male Achievement and more. Additionally, I’ve worked on films and projects such as Fruitvale Station, If Beale Street Could Talk, Crazy Rich Asians, I Am Not Your Negro, Question Bridge: Black Males, We Rise Festival, #RESIST: Speaking Truth to Power, Just Mercy, ARRAY 360, Burning Cane and more.
I’m most proud of the work I do that has empowered and inspired audiences around the country and sparked meaningful change in communities including #JusticeForFlint, The Hope & Redemption Tour and MLK Now.
Over the past five years, Blackout for Human Rights has hosted their annual special MLK Day event to celebrate the radical legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that has become one of the largest MLK Day celebrations in the nation. MLK Now 2016 – 2020 events have taken place at the historic Riverside Church in Harlem and featured special guests including Harry Belafonte, Chris Rock, Common, Lupita Nyong’o, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Marshawn Lynch, Michael B. Jordan, Black Thought, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Octavia Spencer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ryan Coogler, J. Cole, Uzo Aduba, Tessa Thompson and more.
On the night of the Oscars in 2016, Blackout for Human Rights organized and hosted #JusticeForFlint in Flint, Michigan to support residents affected by the Flint Water Crisis and raised awareness about urgent issues the community faced. The event was live streamed from Flint and included special discussions with Flint residents, featured panel conversations and live musical performances by artists such as Stevie Wonder, Janelle Monae, Jazmine Sullivan, Vic Mensa, Musiq Soulchild and more. Blackout successfully raised over $150,000 for the people of Flint. #JusticeForFlint trended across all major social media platforms throughout the evening with the hashtag accumulating over 3.3 Billion Impressions on Twitter alone.
Since 2017, we’ve worked with Common to perform ten full concerts in ten different prisons throughout California as part of The Hope & Redemption Tour to bring joy, hope and love to the people inside men and women’s prisons and capture their stories to share outside the prison walls. Prior to the Tour, we visited two prisons to speak with the men inside, to hear how they felt we could best use Common’s platform to support them. Three things kept coming up: the lack of hope inside prison, the desperate need to have their stories told and policy change. To tell their stories, we brought in camera crews to capture content on each visit and built media partnerships for the distribution of videos that have now accumulated millions of views online. Common also wrote an op-ed and did several interviews to utilize his platform to shine a light on their stories. Additionally, Common hosted a special free community concert, Imagine Justice, on the grounds of the Capitol building in Sacramento with J. Cole, Andra Day, Ledisi, Goapele and more to advocate for criminal justice reform and share a message of hope, love and compassion for an audience of over 25,000 people. The day after the Imagine Justice concert, Common joined multiple leading local organizations in the State Capitol for meetings with the former Governor, numerous caucuses and other key legislators to discuss a number of criminal justice reform bills that were all eventually signed into law that September.
With the recent spread of COVID-19 and other outside forces like technology, both the entertainment and social impact industries will undergo a dramatic shift in how they operate and engage communities around the world. The ways in which we produce, consume and market media and content will undergo a radical transformation in the coming years. In the social impact space, I hope and believe we will see a radical positive shift away from practices rooted in White Supremacy and Patriarchy. Over the next five to ten years, I see major opportunities to lift up everyone in each industry and create equitable environments where we can all thrive if women and people of color are empowered to lead the way.
Much of the attention of folks in the social impact space right now and for years to come will be dedicated to combating the impact of COVID-19 on society. In my political work with Common, we’ve pivoted to focus on COVID-19’s impact on vulnerable communities around the country. Last week, we launched a nationwide campaign which we are calling#WeMatterToo alongside 75+ organizations. We aim to change the national narrative around COVID-19 and our criminal justice system, pressure public officials to take action to remedy the situation, amplify the stories of people who are incarcerated and empower communities to be agents of change. #WeMatterToo is a grassroots movement composed of organizations, artists and thought leaders who have dedicated their time and energy to supporting our brothers and sisters currently in prisons, jails and detention centers around the country during this challenging and uncertain time.
I hope and believe we will see a media landscape that is much more inclusive and representative of our society as a whole that showcases the humanity of everyone including indigenous communities, immigrants, women of color and more. Representation matters and we all deserve to see ourselves reflected on screen. I want everyone to feel that they are seen, heard, and belong, the same way I can. The stories we tell are imperative to how we view ourselves and our place in the world. The more we champion women and artists of color, the better the future will be for all of us.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define and gauge my success in work based on how much I can help people and the impact that I have. Depending on the campaign and client, there are different metrics and criteria for success but success on a project includes everything from helping pass progressive legislation for criminal justice reform to generating millions of media impressions for a content campaign to helping films have profitable opening weekends at the box office. When I help others win, I feel like I’m winning too. My motivation for personal success is rooted in the belief that the more successful I can be, the more people I can help. With everything I do, success is bringing more happiness and joy to people’s lives, empowering and inspiring communities and alleviating suffering for folks.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MichaelLatt.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaellatt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.latt
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/iammichaellatt
Image Credit:
Photos by Sade C. Joseph, Noemie Tshinanga, JT Gallery and Deneka Peniston.
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