112. Values, Visibility, and the Benefits of Belonging to a Community
Summary
Ready to integrate your values into your brand? Pause On The Play The Community members engage with this transformative work all the time. Erica and India invite community-curious folks inside their interactive hub to explore the benefits of membership. Learn more about resources and exclusive features that make this network a remarkable, judgment-free space where folks connect the dots between values and visibility.
Already a member? Erica and India share tips that help you make the most of your community connections and co-create what you want and need to receive.
In this discussion:
Community overview and origin story
The “Start Here Challenge” - an onboarding experience unlike any other
Not another Facebook group
Permission to participate authentically
Community above coursework
The app and additional digital tools
Keep The Dialogue Going
You’ve taken the tour. Now join us to connect, share, lead, and learn. Erica Courdae and India Jackson created Pause On The Play The Community as an interactive, shame- and blame-free space where like-minded folks engage in authentic conversations and create innovative, values-aligned solutions alongside each other.
Make a lasting impact on your business, your community, and the world. Build your network with Pause On The Play The Community.
Article
We talk a lot about Pause On The Play The Community around here. It’s time to give folks a tour of the virtual, values-based hub that Erica and India built from scratch. Newer members will benefit from learning more about the entire space to which they have access. Seasoned members can reacquaint themselves with tools that they may have overlooked. And community-curious folks will discover the benefits of membership.
Everyone Starts Here
Most programs feature an onboarding process, a series of guides or tests used to get new members up to speed. The Community isn’t a program; it’s an interactive destination for entrepreneurs and changemakers, a judgment-free space where members connect their values to their visibility, and we take imperfect action together.
Our members intend to build legacies; a standardized onboarding process just wouldn’t do their long-term goals justice. Erica and India didn’t invite members into this space to talk at them. Instead, they designed a personable walk-through. “We are literally welcoming you in,” Erica says. With the Start Here Challenge, members are fully engaged in the process from the beginning.
The Start Here Challenge helps members acclimate to the environment and get comfortable using Mighty Networks, the platform on which The Community operates. It also differs from basic welcome programs in that it honors multiple learning styles. “The Start Here Challenge is not your stereotypical ‘Oh, I'm going to come in and I'm going to read content, and you are going to tell me to do things.’ No, that's not how it goes at all,” Erica says. “It's very personable.” The video component, for example, utilizes Searchie, a superior tool that, again, allows members to absorb video content in a way that suits their style, including transcripts and closed captioning, which make the Start Here Challenge more accessible.
Challenge action items allow members to begin communicating with each other in a way that feels exciting and fun and, ultimately, transformative. One of the easiest ways of doing that is by asking all members to list three topics about which they could talk for hours. “We're not going to throw you in the DEI or visibility deep end quite yet,” Erica says. “Let's just go ahead and figure out what it is to just be in conversation.”
The Community is NOT Another Facebook Group
“I think it's important to recognize that we are not on Facebook,” India says. “We have our own app.”
One of the benefits of The Community’s app is that members can turn on notifications and trust that they will receive valuable information - not what Erica and India had for dinner. India appreciates the ability members have to personalize the frequency of these notifications, like opting only for a daily roundup of what’s happened in the space. Stay in the loop without getting irritated; that’s the beauty of a better community.
Who Are YOU?
The most impactful way for members to make the most of their time in The Community is also the simplest: introduce yourself! This is where members get to share what brought them to the space, what they’re working on, what their goals are, even a few fun personal facts. “It allows you to feel like you're a part of something bigger and that you're not just this new person lurking in the corner but don't know where to begin,” says India. A low-stakes introduction is an excellent opportunity for newbies to get comfortable and get some face time with other members via post engagement before participating in that first community call or event.
To further the reach of their introduction, members should dedicate time to completing their profile. The Community was created as a place for honest discussions about visibility, values, diversity, equity, and inclusion. A robust profile is an invitation to further those connections by visiting each other’s websites, engaging on social media, investing in a member’s service offerings, or referring each other to business owners beyond The Community.
“I mean, it's almost like, ‘Let me go ahead and give you everything that you might have a question about before you have to ask me about it,’” Erica points out. “To me, it just makes perfect sense. If these are people that you're in the room that you want to know and you want to interact with, and you want to build these relationships and these connections, why not go ahead and get some of those placeholder types of things out the way? It's already there. And you can get onto the more important pieces of the conversation that you really want to have.”
Inspiring Connections and Reciprocal Support
Members who plan - and prioritize - their participation accomplish their goals. While Erica and India don’t expect members to attend every event they create, they understand the power of setting an intention to participate when they can. “If it's not on the calendar, you're not going to come,” India says. Write it down. Set that alarm. Show up.
Additionally, members who regularly post in the space consistently find opportunities to forge new connections and support others. In India’s experience, “the things that seem the most random or unrelated to what you saw being posted by somebody else are actually the thing that will get the most engagement because it was on somebody's mind or heart too.”
“So often people will assume that they're in a space for business or personal, and our space isn't just about one or the other because you can't separate those two,” adds Erica. “The professional informs the personal and the personal informs the professional. So we are not about let's separate these things out. If you're posting something and it feeds into what matters to you, guess what? This is the place to do it.”
Our members regularly refer to the relationships they’ve built inside The Community. That connection is why Erica and India created this space. They’re proud that The Community continues to foster an atmosphere of reciprocal engagement beyond the confines of their virtual hub.
“You would be amazed at how much the other community members can support you in some of the goals that you have, or some of the feedback you may want or need on things that you're doing,” India says, explaining that the breadth of knowledge and experience that comes from people who may not be directly related to the same industry as another member is an invaluable resource within The Community.
“Sharing that you are looking for a specific type of podcast guest, or you're looking to add more diversity to your team, or here's a job announcement, they will go and share this in their newsletter or with their community and, before you know it, you have an incredible list of candidates that have applied to work with you, or an incredible list of pitches to be on the podcast that are completely different people than you would have found on your own.”
Within The Community, members are encouraged to share their accomplishments and challenges along the values integration process.
We’re Building The Community Together
“The cool thing about our community that I need to reiterate because I think people hear us say it, but being in it and fully acknowledging and owning it and integrating it into how you think about our space are two different things,” India says, “So, I want to remind you that our space is not like many other spaces. We are co-creating our space with you. The beauty of that is that we are always open to any suggestions. We are always finding new ways to include community members and all the things that we are doing or creating. And so really take advantage of those opportunities.”
The Community’s evolving list of values is one of those resources. It's not a course, per se. “We call it tools, but it's structured like a course, and our community members are able to contribute additional values that they'd like to see added to that list,” explains India. “This list is incredibly helpful for when people are finding the language to explain their brand values or formulate their brand values and also really kind of look at their personal values as well. You're able to contribute to that.”
Members are also privy to topics and guests scheduled for upcoming Pause On The Play conversations. Additionally, community members have an opportunity to share specific questions or topics that they would like covered in future discussions. “Truth be told,” India says by way of sneak-peak, “we're kind of making some episodes specifically for our community members, and it's giving them access to an incredible roster of experts and allies.”
“I think that's such an amazing benefit that comes from being in The Community because you're co-creating what you want and need to receive,” agrees Erica.
Members should also note the just-launched book club for rebellious readers, which grew out of a hobby that India renewed while during the pandemic lockdown. Here is another area in which members co-create the kind of structure they want to participate in - from title selection to talking points to engagement frequency.
“When we do the book club, not only is it very different from that stereotypical come and read a book and come and sit and talk about it for an hour. It is very much like you do this in the way that works for you and you come back and you share, [and] when we suggest that you go and buy the book, it is linked to a Black-owned bookstore,” Erica says, adding, “So, for us to know that we can talk about information gathering and sharing, and we're directing people back to direct some of their funds to Black-owned businesses, that's a win and fully values-aligned.”
Advancing Values-Aligned Actions
Profiles. Participation. Cause selection? Yes. Belonging to The Community means showing up outside of it. Our members are invited to select two causes or organizations that they wish to support and amplify.
Of course, those selections can change as members engage with new-to-them causes along the way; it’s all part of the dialogue happening within The Community.
While algorithms are not always helpful, “the beautiful part of our community's algorithm is it prioritizes showing you content from people who’ve selected the same cause as you,” India says. She lists examples such as domestic violence prevention and financial equity. Education, healthcare, and mental health service access are also popular choices for our members. Choosing options help the algorithm in connecting members with the same focus. “I selfishly also hope that that encourages them to have more conversations with each other of how they can combine their efforts for the changes they want to see instead of just doing it alone,” she adds.
Resources Worth Revisiting, Again and Again
Live trainings, coaching + consulting calls, and access to searchable on-demand conversations are all part of The Community experience. There’s so much gold here! Everything from DEI foundational tools to marketing expertise to that aforementioned evolving list of values, The Community continues to add to its already extensive resource library. Members can explore everything from the top 10 mistakes businesses make when trying to become more sustainable to discussions about reframing scholarships to awards programs to create a genuine impact.
Members also have access to visibility expertise that prompts deeper connections from a content creation standpoint. Members are encouraged to use this exclusive knowledge base and engage with other members about the topics that most excite them. “You have a room full of people willing to help you figure out how to connect those dots between learning and actually doing in a way that makes sense for you,” India says.
“Honestly, the biggest thing for me is Pause On the Play The Community is not built for passive use. It is not built for you to show up, and any answers are given to you. It is meant to be interactive. It is meant for you to be in conversation with other people in the space,” Erica says. “It is meant for you to be vulnerable and open and honest, it is meant for you to say, ‘Hey, I have a question,’ and to be able to sink in to receive that feedback, but to also know that you can provide that for someone else. So, you can keep that conduit of ‘paying it forward’ going. It is meant for you to know that this is a safe space to come in, shame- and blame-free, to ask questions.”
“I think one of the most beautiful things is when you're within that energy, you will find that the people around you will completely celebrate you and notice what you're doing,” India agrees, “and while we're not here for the cookies, I do think that sometimes being amongst people who are going to encourage you to keep going is the accountability that we all need to keep going.”
So the only question is, what are you waiting for?
Quoted
Erica Courdae
“So often, people will assume that they're in a space for business or personal and our space isn't just about one or the other, because you can't separate those two. The professional informs the personal and the personal informs the professional.”
“This is a space to be able to talk about and to navigate your process.”
“You're co-creating what you want and need to receive.”
India Jackson
“The things that seem the most random or unrelated to what you saw being posted by somebody else are actually the things that will get the most engagement because it was on somebody's mind or heart too.”
“Our space is not like many other spaces. We are co-creating our space with you.”
“While we're not here for the cookies, I do think that sometimes being amongst people who are going to encourage you to keep going is the accountability that we all need to keep going.”