Today I’m writing having just come away from another month of co-hosting a virtual chat focused on collaboration, not competition. This space, originally borne out of wanting to foster connection among Mezclada’s digital community, in celebration of hitting the 1000-follower milestone on LinkedIn, organically morphed into this once-a-month gathering with my now dear friend and colleague, Lisa Munniksma.
This has become a special hour, both for myself as co-host and also as a participant, and I know attendees feel the same way, as they’ve told us so. The ask is simple. Show up, introduce yourself, share what you’re working on, what you want to collaborate on. Perhaps the simplicity is what has fostered so many miracles – both during the calls and after.
On the first call, one woman broke into tears during her introduction because it was one of the first times she felt hope for a while – hearing about what others are doing in the world to make a difference – through food systems, writing, and more.
On another call, someone mentioned that they felt like it was the first time they had permission to ask for what they needed.
And this month, while the introductions were rather short, we engaged in one of the richest conversations I’ve been a part of around the subject of spirit, and the role that it plays in making business decisions.
There are some interesting patterns that I’m observing in facilitating these calls, which I believe are worth sharing, as I have a feeling there are a lot more folks out there reading this who will resonate:
- This space has been dominated by women (not intentionally, just has happened naturally), and often the conversation touches on the subject of working in ‘alternative’ ways – counter culture to capitalism, consumerism, productivity- and results-driven outcomes. This month, one of our attendees mentioned that she does ‘heart work’, and that resonated on a soul level with what I’m feeling called to do right now, even though it may go against conventional wisdom or what my business coach is teaching me about sales strategy.
- Many folks have been in a place of transition. As in “I currently do X, but what I want to be doing is X”. I think that if we stay stagnant, we lose what makes being human awesome. Evolution is in our DNA, but it’s a challenge when being asked to introduce yourself. We’re often taught to limit ourselves to the elevator pitch, the 30-second summary, to convey who we are. I identify with this struggle because a lot of times what’s published online, through my website, social media, and even my podcast episodes don’t accurately reflect who I’ve become as a person, business owner, and the transitions I’m making in the services that I offer. As women we play so many roles in different spaces, and it feels that in allowing folks to introduce themselves in a way that feels good to them, in all of its complexity, we are also opening the door to be accepted as multi-faceted entrepreneurs, community organizers, activists, storytellers, mothers, planners, and more. To honor the interconnectedness of it all.
- The generosity of this space is also quite evident. It’s like this beautiful cup that’s overflowing with resources thrown in the chat, everywhere from suggestions for job boards to podcast recommendations. Each month we come away with a rich set of new links and more people to follow up with 1:1.
I, probably like my co-host, Lisa, feel a deep sense of warmth after these calls. It’s like the welcome hug from your grandma that you’ve been waiting for after a long, hard day. Where you are just accepted as all of you, and it doesn’t matter if your mascara is running or the tiredness shows in your eyes. You just get to be you. This is what these calls have meant for me. And how special to get to show up each month to see new faces and not know where the conversation will go!
In many ways, I feel like what we’re creating – while we never intended or set out to from day one – is modern-day sisterhood.
This isn’t quite sitting on the front porch with your girlfriends from middle school in rocking chairs. This is creating one-of-a-kind, never recorded conversations across the digital ethers, stitching people’s lives together from all over the planet.
I never grew up knowing what sisterhood was like. I self-identified as a tomboy, always viewed relationships with girls as too complicated and boring, because in my experiences they were always dramatic, manipulative, and preoccupied with, in my opinion, ‘the wrong things’ – hair, makeup, boys. I preferred to focus my time and energy on volunteering in the community, getting involved with environmental causes, working so that I could pay for school, gas, car insurance, etc.
Today, I can say that things look very different. I’m a part of two women’s entrepreneur groups, Lisa and I are building this community (not knowing where it will go but trusting in the process), and I have a small group of close girlfriends who send me 7-minute long voice notes on a fairly regular basis. These women lift me up when I am down, they inspire me to go the extra mile and not look back. And I can’t wait to see what we will achieve – together.
When asking myself what my intention is coming away from this month’s collaboration chat, this is what came up for me:
To listen to that inner guidance and wisdom more often → but more than anything, to create SPACE for that wisdom to come through. What does that look like right now?
- Turning my phone off or on airplane mode at least 1x/day
- Re-committing to my daily meditation practice
- Paying attention to my dreams, the little nudges and whispers from the Universe, or my wiser self
What I already know needs to change:
- My living environment. From urban → rural
- My work environment. From computer-based → nature-based
- My geographic mobility. From taxi-dependent → Car owner
So cheers to connection, collaboration, and the next steps ahead. And if this sounds like something you’d like to participate in, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or good old-fashioned email: hello *at* mezclada.co. I look forward to hearing from you!
*Please Note: In what we see is an ever-increasing amount of AI-created content these days, it’s important you know that this blog post was written 100% by the author, Emily Reno, is 100% her own voice, and used 0% artificial intelligence in all part of its writing and publishing*
