Our best emerging insights from celebrating 100 newsletters
Thank you readers for being part of the conversation and community to our 100th post!
So, it’s time for some storytelling – how did we get here?
Beginnings
I wanted to write a blog. In 2017, I attended a workshop about creating a business newsletter. And then I sat on it for about six months, wondering if I could do it.
A 2018 New Year’s Resolution was to take action. Our first post, on meeting agreements, came out in January 2018. We had a bit more than 50 subscribers at that point.
In 2018 and 2019, we posted intermittently – sending out just eight posts in 2018 and seven in 2019. During that time, we added prior contacts as subscribers so the list grew to about 1000 people.
Riding the roller coaster
In late 2019, we worked with a business coach who encouraged us to create a new website and an updated brand.
As it turned out, our timing was “interesting”? The Ross Collective launched on March 11, 2020, the day that the World Health Organization declared an international pandemic.
I thought to title the post, “We Have a New Website!” but the coach wisely suggested that the title should be, “In Support of Our Community.” 😊
2020 was a tough and sad year – for so many of us in so many ways. In terms of The Ross Collective, since much of our business had been focused on facilitating many in-person meetings, business literally evaporated.
I used the (copious!) extra time to participate in a one-year/four-retreat training on Mastering the Technology of Participation (MToP). We explored tools for virtual facilitation, which turned out to be valuable.
The business coach was right about creating a new brand, which she followed up with another (what turned out to be a terrible!) idea that I should try to launch a course on Board Equity in November 2020. I attempted to launch the course, but there were not enough participants to run it. Knowing more about business models and marketing now, I understand more about why we did not get enough interest. But at the time, I was disappointed and wondered if I should give up on consulting completely. Oh, and I stopped working with that coach!
That was a low point – and I wondered whether The Ross Collective should close down.
Committing and Rebuilding
A live coaching conversation with Tara McMullin, a business coach and community builder, was life-changing. I sent Tara a couple of posts and asked her opinion about the blog. Tara shared that she felt the content was high-quality and valuable, and she felt that it would work to amplify my business if I could post consistently, once every week or two. I did not think I could write a weekly post, but I could commit to posting every other week.
I committed to posting every other week and have held to that over the past three years. And here we are at post 100! 🎉
(Another version of the story appears here, written when we got to the 50-newsletter mark a little over two years ago.)
Do our voices matter?
We have almost 1,500 current newsletter subscribers. The majority of you are engaged readers!
These posts are written as a conversation with the world – to work something out.
There is a question behind these posts: Does my voice matter? Does what I have to say matter?
Writing and sharing affirms that my voice matters and that each of our voices matter. In that sense, writing and sharing these pieces with the world is an act of healing.
And that is also the work we do as facilitators leading group conversations – to show, through the way we lead conversations, that the voice of each person in the room matters. The blog is an authentic, genuine expression of The Ross Collective’s work and values.
Thank you SO MUCH for reading along and often writing back to comment and engage. Each comment is tremendously appreciated.
Writing and sending these is not easy. Every time I hit send on the newsletter, I feel vulnerable: Will anyone actually read this?
I do not always know which posts are going to get the most response. My only rule is: the more I cried writing the post, the more likely that I am going to hear from readers. That rule has held up consistently. I am often sharing something that many of us connect with emotionally. I feel heartened to know that these ideas and stories resonate with many of you.
Six of our favorite posts
There are a lot of good ones so it is hard to pick our favorites! But here are a few:
How to celebrate the powerful gifts we already have feels very connected to the winter holidays and this time of year.
Why every meeting should mention race and equity is a foundational part of our approach.
Lessons from a cross-racial team about building belonging, co-written with Christal Cherry, describes our observations collaborating to lead.
How to hire a strategic planning consultant that is an excellent fit was written after reflecting on a client that was not the best fit! And what we tell prospective clients going forward.
Nonprofit Board Strategic Planning Retreats: 7 Tips to Make them Remarkable was originally written to explain our process – and is available as a white paper.
Nonprofit Strategic Plan Examples shows the kind of strategic plans we are creating with current and past clients.
What’s Next: Bringing out the Light
If this blog had a tagline, it would be, “Finding Hope in Challenging Times” or “How can we build a hopeful shared future together?”
We would be the first to say that it is rough out there in so many ways.
Our work is about leading inclusive conversations and building plans that create hope, compassion, and equity in organizations and in our larger world.
What we have noticed, again and again, is how good people feel when their voices and perspectives are included in the direction of the work going forward. If you are curious how we might lead an inclusive strategic planning process for your organization, reach out.
The majority of our work is now strategic planning. Over the past year, we have been proud to complete planning work for six different organizations in Northern California and around the country – SOS Meals on Wheels, AEOE, interACT, National VOAD, Bike East Bay, and Pittsburg Arts and Community Foundation. Three of these were led by a consultant team.
We continue to direct the CSUEB Nonprofit Management Certificate program and teaching strategic planning and board governance for the program.
We are still speaking ~monthly and will continue to do so in 2024. Some highlights this year included presenting at the Nonprofit Technology Conference and the Stanford Social Innovation Review Nonprofit Management Institute.
A goal for 2024 is to write a book about our work and process – which would support many more leaders to work in this way.
This week, we are celebrating Hanukkah and lighting more candles each night. Hanukkah is about bringing each of our inner light out so that it is visible to the world. Through the work we are blessed to be able to do, our light shines a little brighter. And our hope for you is that you, too, find ways for your light to shine a little brighter this season and into 2024.
In closing, we write in the spirit of curiosity about you and connection with you. What is bringing you light right now? And how are you seeking to expand your flame in the coming year? Hit reply to share and I’ll share top responses from the community next time.
Sending light.