To Post Or Not To Post

📈 We Don’t Get Energy, We Create It

What happens when 150 students + 15 coaches hang out in the mountains for 3 days? We create energy. 

This past weekend, I went to the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina to co-facilitate The Sullivan Foundation’s Ignite Retreat for college students interested in leadership development and impact. While there are sessions for all the students have the choice of attending 3 tracks:

• Personal | What are the big questions you’re asking about yourself and the world, and where might they lead you?

• Problem | What problem are you trying to solve, and can you define it clearly?

• Project | How do you solve the problem you’ve defined?

These students are full of big ideas and often have no one to hear them out. One of the most impactful interactions I had this weekend was speaking with a student who was unhoused for several years as a child, and who wants to start an initiative on campus that partners with the food hall to donate all excess food to unhoused people in the neighborhoods around campus. Very honestly, I didn’t do much; I just listened to her idea. I encouraged her, and I helped her mold her story. We exchanged numbers and she sent me this text after getting back to campus:

Believing in someone doesn’t take much…often just a few minutes of your undivided attention. And the world might just change if we do it enough.

This is the 3rd Ignite Retreat I’ve been a part, and even though the weekend is designed for students, I always find myself feeling like the weekend is a gift for me. My friend and colleague Reagan Pugh said it best: “We don’t get energy, we create it.”

The Ignite Retreat is a place to create energy, and to lean into becoming an expert in human interaction. Have you engaged in spaces like this that have changed your perspective? I’d love to hear about them so drop me a line.

If you’re looking to support creators of these kinds of spaces, I highly recommend following Spud Marshall and purchasing his book Designing Creative Communities. Shout out to Spud for seeking me out and inviting me into the facilitation space back in 2019. I didn’t know it then, but the Ignite Retreat kicked off my work as a storyteller and facilitator and here I am 4 years later turning it into my full-time career 🙂 

✍️ Real Talk: To Post Or Not To Post

There have been many moments in my career as a marketer and in small business where I don’t know if or how to keep promoting a business in the midst of global conflict. These moments have included Black Out Tuesday and the January 6th riots. The thought in the marketing sphere is 2-fold:

1. Continued marketing during moments of conflict / crisis can be seen as insensitive to their audiences;

2. Marketing efforts from brands during these moments compete with feed/bid space for media that is trying to spread information.

The flip side is…what do brands do during these times to hit revenue goals to make sure they can sustain their companies and employee livelihoods? And is it better for brands to acknowledge global events and take a stance, or better to ignore? Consumers are increasingly looking to align with brands that align with their personal values and morals. So what is the right choice for a brand?

Like many of you, I am at one of these crossroads this week. My organization Potluck Stories has an event scheduled tomorrow afternoon, and a lot of me wants to cancel so that my org doesn’t take away from larger advocacy efforts across LA this weekend. But, we are locked into a venue and have 4 confirmed speakers and 3 pop up vendors attending.

So, after some conversations with my team, we decided to move forward with our event because our purpose is to give a voice to marginalized communities, create empathy, and build community. We have reduced our online marketing, and are ready to host an intimate event instead of doing a big last-minute push to increase attendees. Given the escalating violence against Palestinians, we’ve adjusted our programming to be conducting activities around deep listening and empathy. This weekend for the first time I’ll be conducting a new facilitation technique I learned about called “OpenSpace” in which participants choose the topic they want to discuss…so, we’ll see what comes up 👀

 🔎 Spotlight

🎧 The Gaza Crisis: What’s Unfolding - I’ve been entrenched in the news this week. Amidst allllll the content out there, here’s one rec. In this 30-minute episode, The IMEU’s Host Diana Buttu walks us through in detail what it’s like on the ground in Gaza. “It’s like you have to do everything to meld in so that you can’t be Palestinian….you can’t be Palestinian.” This episode came out 3 days ago and the situation has only gotten worse.

🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏻 October 14th | Potluck Stories: Firsts - So here goes, my first time facilitating a storytelling community event in the midst of one of the saddest times in history. Join us for deep listening, connection, open dialogue and stories around “firsts” tomorrow at Child’s Pose Yoga from 3:30 pm - 7 pm Saturday, October 14th. RSVP now, and if you can’t make it, follow Potluck Stories to learn more about our work and the power of storytelling.

Thanks for reading, and until next time ✌🏽

Arshiya