142. Not Just Networking: How Community Can Transform Your Business
What Community Means
The start of a new year feels like it gives a lot of possibilities and opportunities to figure out what you want to do, what you want to partake in, and what you have access to that you weren’t aware of or hadn’t thought about, and that includes community.
Erica and India answer some of your frequently asked questions about Pause on the Play® The Community.
Listen on your favorite podcast player or keep reading to learn:
How private communities can minimize the social media noise
Why ommunities can be so much more than a traditional networking groups
How making live and pre-recorded content more accessible is a part of imperfect allyship
What types of member events and workshops can support your DEI evolution
A Safe Space Without the Noise
On the Pause on the Play® Podcast, Erica Courdae says she’s excited to talk about The Community and the choices she and India made about its structure and content and what it means to be a member.
India notes that during her recent time off, she was actually excited to have some extra free time that she could spend in the community space, which she doesn’t feel about any other form of social media right now.
Erica says they deliberately chose to create Pause on the Play® The Community off of Facebook because they didn’t want the conversations to be lost in the algorithm or the additional noise of being on Facebook. They also wanted to be sure it was a safe space for members to have open discussions and make contributions.
The Community functions as its own social network container on the Mighty Networks platform, so they were able to keep the same level of accessibility as a Facebook group that is available by phone, tablet or computer.
India says “Being able to invest in software and a service like Mighty Networks allowed us to essentially have our own Facebook, that’s our own closed social networking container.”
The Mighty Networks platform still allows members to access The Community from their phone, tablet or computer, so it offers the same accessibility as a Facebook group but without the noise of non-community content and advertising that’s in your regular social media feed.
Hosting The Community this way also allows workshops and other educational content to exist all in the same platform, with the same login and the ability to ask questions and get feedback on that content without having to leave the network.
Erica adds that having workshops, educational content and discussion forums integrated “really does help to minimize the noise and allows your attention and efforts to be focused.”
India also acknowledges that as much as both she and Erica loved in-person events pre-pandemic, having The Community online was a deliberate choice to make sure that anyone, anywhere has access to the network and to be able to do that in a way that fits their life.
Not Just a Networking Group
Entrepreneurs and people in leadership roles naturally look to expand their networks, have opportunities to share ideas and get feedback and referrals and there are many traditional groups that cater to those needs.
Pause on the Play® The Community is, as India says, “so much more than transactional.”
While members do share referrals and opportunities, she says that happens in a context of a deeper understanding and relationship with the other person “that goes so much deeper than just networking…and that can translate into business, but it also translates into coming together and finding ways to support each other.”
Erica adds that “community is about being with, shoulder to shoulder, other people that may or may not look, live or love the way that you do,” with space to disagree and have differences of opinion and reconsider your normal.
Pause on the Play® The Community “is about what makes us different and how can we combine in a space with shared visions for the impact that we want to make in the world.”
Tangibly, India says that translates to things like co-working sessions and accountability, community conversations, and getting feedback from other members on offerings or projects.
Making Events Accessible
One frequent question that comes up is about time zones and scheduling for workshops and Q&A sessions.
India says they have instituted a few solutions to scheduling issues for folks whose schedules conflict with live events.
Members are able to submit questions ahead of the event or conversation and the replays are available for the life of the membership. Replay videos are also keyword searchable, so members can find the exact piece of the conversation they need and they can adjust the playback speed.
Comments on the replay videos also stay open so the conversation can continue.
Erica adds that videos include closed captioning and searchable transcripts.
Co-Creating Content and Community
The events, workshops, tools and trainings that members have access to continues to expand and there are exciting things coming up for 2022.
India says you can expect replay videos of a little bit of everything, from live panels and multi-day virtual events, to guest speakers and experts from inside and outside of The Community on a wide variety of topics.
“Part of the reason why there is such a big range is that we co-create our community with the members.”
Coming up in The Community, North Star Messaging will be discussing branding your voice and maintaining authenticity when hiring help for content creation in January and Cynthia Davidson of Intuitive Essentials will be facilitating a workshop on Human Design in February.
Because the replays remain available for the life of the membership, Erica adds “there’s so much that you have access to and the thing that is so beneficial and beautiful about it is that you don’t just have the, you have the space to…be able to workshop that with others,” in The Community. “You have 24/7 access to your fellow members to be able to keep the dialogue going.”
Ready to join us?
At Pause on the Play® The Community we are talking about what's essential and digging into this so that we can reconnect to what really matters most.
Learn more and join us at www.pauseontheplay.com/community
Listen to the Flaunt Your Fire® Podcast where India Jackson and her guests explore visibility and the art of owning your power as you align your brand, have conversations that disrupt industry standards and defy stale marketing advice. If you are ready to amplify your influence and create lasting impact, this is the podcast for you!
Resources:
Pause on the Play® Episode 140: Alternative Spiritual and Wellness Tools for BIPOC with Cynthia Davidson