Pause On The Play

Impact. Much like diversity, it's a word that’s often (and sadly) overused.

Erica lends clarity to a term that has become a buzzword in some circles rather than a meaningful intention. She also challenges imperfect allies to make moves that extend beyond their brand, their business, and their social media engagement. 

Small acts rather than grandiose gestures are the true momentum-builders of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In this discussion:

• What does impact look like in action?
• Taking action even when no one’s watching
• What is saviorism and how to avoid perpetuating it
• Witnessing the kindness of others
• Rewarding folks for their quiet, meaningful efforts
• Supporting those who often go unseen

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

We often get stuck in our own cycles of inactivity because we can't quite figure out where to start on our own. At Pause On The Play The Community, you’re invited to explore imperfect action together with entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, and change makers. Create lasting impact in your business, your community, the world with conversations, resources, and expert guidance from Erica Courdae and India Jackson.

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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; and
• The app and additional digital tools.

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

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.

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Personal integrity and professional success are not mutually exclusive. If you’re searching for a real-life example of whole-hearted values integration, look no further than Amy Young. As a coach and leader, Amy supports wide-awake women in accessing their innate feminine power through a process of patriarchal de-programming she calls "The Undoing." 

Erica and India welcome Amy to share details of her journey away from the safe, false persona she’d created into the filter-free, transparent business owner and advocate she is today. Amy’s transformation demonstrates how guided self-reflection, the resolve to incorporate feedback, and the ability to quit even lucrative relationships benefit anti-racist, anti-bias outcomes and ultimately support innovative business practices.  

In this discussion:

• Identifying our core values via deeper personal assessment;
• Questioning early lessons about our productivity vs. our worth;
• Breaking up with hustle culture;
• The perils of spiritual and emotional bypassing;
• Accepting people’s rejection of the authenticity in our message, our methods;
• Business evolution and the DEI journey;
• The privilege to explore discomfort; and
• Permission to play with business structuring and conduct profitable experiments.

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Website: https://amyyoungcoaching.com/

Amy Young is a coach and leader who supports wide awake women in accessing their innate Feminine Power. She does this through a process of Patriarchal De-Programming she calls "The Undoing".

Amy’s journey represents the kind of transformation synergies we foster at our From Implicit to Explicit: Leading Through Your Values Masterclass. We’d love to see you at our next virtual small group session on June 9th. Join Erica Courdae and India Jackson as they:

• Help you evaluate the intersection of your personal and professional values and ethics,
• Allow you to identify the values and ethics of your clients and your team,
• Identify which values need to show up in your brand, and
• Pinpoint specific traits your ideal clients hold based on the alignment of your values.

Move into that space where you’re finally able to innovate and make leadership decisions based on your values. We’re honored to help you get there.

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What have you learned in the year since George Floyd’s murder? Has your allyship evolved beyond performative activism like posting a black square on social media in solidarity with Blackout Tuesday? Or reflexively adopting initiatives for fear of being “canceled”?

A lack of intentionality causes more harm than good, and actions that aren’t 100% aligned with values don’t promote lasting change. 

Erica and India take this anniversary to examine the co-opting of Blackout Tuesday’s original intent and offer examples of genuine, supportive actions that imperfect allies can take instead. 

In this discussion:

• How uninformed use of hashtags and other campaigns distort social media algorithms and drown out the Black and Brown perspectives you wanted to amplify 
• Are your efforts raising awareness or assuaging your guilt?
• Debunking “cancel culture” myths
• Calling out urgency, again
• Decolonizing your thoughts, actions, and reactions
• Why your values must inform your responses
• Allyship can be fun!

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Stay purposeful! Join us at Pause on the Play The Community for encouragement and accountability. Our vibrant, virtual space is a hub of entrepreneurs and change makers connecting at the intersection of values and visibility.  Receive the guidance you need as well as on-demand tools to support your imperfect allyship.

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What does it mean to suddenly identify with a group you never thought you’d become part of - and how to begin turning those challenges into opportunities for greater communal consciousness?

Erica and India are joined by Hannah Lowe Corman, co-founder, and president of L-CMD Research Foundation. According to Hannah, 7,000 diseases currently classify as rare, meaning fewer than 200,000 cases recorded in the US. Her son, Austin, is one of those affected.

Hannah shares the ways in which Austin’s reality has shaped her allyship both with families navigating rare diseases as well as with fellow members of Pause On The Play The Community.

In this discussion:

• About LMNA-related congenital muscular dystrophy
• Navigating the logistical aspects of setting up a non-profit
• Humanizing foundations
• Exploring the energetic ties that bind communities and inspire action
• Riding the “bar graph of emotional capacity”
• Reframing mission statements to purpose statements 
• Resources for vetting and giving to non-profit organizations

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Website: https://www.lcmdresearch.org

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lcmd.foundation

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoundationLcmd

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LCMD.foundation

Hannah Lowe Corman is the co-founder and president of the L-CMD Research Foundation, which she helped establish in order to urgently translate scientific research into treatments and ultimately a cure for this fatal childhood disease. She is also an independent artist and yoga teacher living and working in Houston, Texas with her husband and two sons. In what seems like a prior life, she was a healthcare banker helping nonprofit healthcare institutions obtain financing.

Visit pauseontheplay.com/community for details about our latest workshops and information on how you can join us. 

Learn more about LMNA-related congenital muscular dystrophy and give if you can at lcmdresearch.org.

Activate Amazon Smile on your Amazon app! Every time you shop, Amazon donates to your favorite organization at no additional cost to you.

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You’re fired up! But who, exactly, is that rage on behalf of?

Erica and India unpack the myriad issues lurking beneath heaps of social outrage carried out in the name of advocacy for underrepresented or marginalized communities.

What can imperfect allies do to prevent creating more harm than good? Get curious about their motivations before slinging unsolicited vitriol! Erica offers three questions to help folks evaluate rather than act on impulse. 

In this discussion:

Why allyship is not a self-centering pursuit;

Checking assumptions about what marginalized communities want and/or need;

Is your anger justified or just personal?;

What the woke white wave gets wrong about calling each other out; and

Communicating empathy over sympathy.

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Catch up on these related POTP discussions: 

POTP103: Four Questions To Ask When You’re Feeling Outraged

POTP105: Focus On The Right Things

Join us in Pause On The Play The Community.

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Erica and India are back with guest Steve Disselhorst to explore the simple, creative ways that educators and allies can build more inclusive school environments where same-sex parenting and adoption are normalized.

As a specialist in personal and professional leadership development and consulting for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Steve brings a wealth of career-based knowledge to the conversation. However, his role as father to two adoptive children is at the heart of the experiential wisdom he shares with Erica and India. 

Steve is the author of the memoir Determined To Be Dad: A Journey Of Faith, Resilience, and Love and currently serves on the San Mateo County LGBTQ Commission. This is more than an anecdotal conversation; this is a lesson in cultivating DEI for generations to come. 

In this discussion:

Recognizing and celebrating intersectional identities at home and at school;

What is heterosexism, and how does it undermine DEI;

Why visibility is important both within marginalized communities and outside of them;

Creating collaborative environments in schools;

COVID-19 effects on DEI activities within school systems; and

What allies can do today to foster more inclusive classrooms within their communities.

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Get Steve's book at your local bookstore or from his website, Determined To Be Dad: A Journey Of Faith, Resilience, and Love. https://www.stevedisselhorst.com/book

Join us in Pause On The Play The Community.

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Nearly a year after this discussion from episode 62 of Pause On The Play, the question remains: why haven’t we seen or heard more stories about people of color by people of color? 

A lot has happened since Erica and India first welcomed Cher Hale, a Taiwanese Black American and owner of Ginkgo Public Relations, to discuss the necessity of centering Black and Brown voices – in business and elsewhere – to allow for diverse perspectives, fair pay, and self-determination of our legacies. 

The conversation may be from the archives, but Erica and India return to provide updated context, inviting everyone to revisit this long-standing and ongoing issue.

In this discussion:

• the vulnerability of being a speaker or creative service provider and asking for fair compensation
• what makes a thought leader or influencer and who determines who gets that label
• the cautious optimism needed to create and sustain meaningful change
• microaggressions, tokenism, and incorrect assumptions about similarities in experiences

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Part of “publicity” is allowing people who need to have their stories told to tell their stories! How do you hold space for other people to share their stories? What does publicity look like for you? We explore these multilayered questions in Pause On The Play The Community.

If you’re ready to have deeper conversations around such topics as publicity, we’d love to have you in our virtual space, where you can engage with others and create a more holistic strategy going forward. What a relief to discover that you don’t have to do this work on your own.

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Are you concentrating on the issues that truly matter? Or rehashing trivial controversies?

Take a moment before answering; consider the nonsense over which some folks have expended so much energy lately (refer back to this recent conversation for a prime example). These decoy “debates” flood social feeds and shift focus away from the issues that continue to put Black and Brown bodies in literal danger. 

In this solo conversation, Erica returns with guidance to help you combat the lure of Trojan horse outrages and return your awareness to the right things. 

In this discussion:

• Recognizing the harm caused by media distractions
• Cutting through the noise to get at what’s really going on
• Acknowledging feelings of discomfort and fear
• Returning attention to the issues that matter

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Keep The Dialogue Going

Need support on your journey? Pause On The Play The Community can help.

Join our virtual space where similar conversations are taking place, where you can engage with others who are butting up against some of these same challenges. In The Community, you’ll work with members who are also taking steps forward. What a relief to discover that you don’t have to do this work on your own.

If you're seeking that support, please come on over to Pause On The Play The Community. We genuinely are a community; we want you to be a part of that with us. We want you to be a part of removing stigmas and creating real change and connection so we can all cross lines and recreate boundaries to support and not separate. 

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Here we are again: another Black man murdered; more excuses made on behalf of the “fine, upstanding” officer who pulled the trigger. This latest tragedy begs the question: how big are the blinders that prevent folks from taking an accurate measure of their family members, friends, or peers?

In this solo conversation, Erica offers steps for auditing our personal and professional connections. She reminds us that passive affiliations are just as important as those we actively cultivate - and “not knowing” someone’s temperament or true character is no longer an option.

In this discussion:

• Attention focused on Minnesota, again
• Calling out institutional gatekeepers
• Confronting your complicit associations
• Three questions to help you assess your connections

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Visit the website for the full articles at https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Keep The Dialogue Going

We do this deep work daily here at Pause On The Play. You can too. We love being able to cross lines and recreate boundaries with you, supporting you and not keeping us separated. Let's continue together, getting more people to drop the veil and challenge their thoughts, feelings, and actions. 

Our From Implicit to Explicit masterclass is coming up. If you want to work directly with Erica and India Jackson - as well as your very own small-group cohort - to audit your personal and professional connections, define your values, and create lasting change, join us over at PauseOnThePlay.com/events.

Be sure to rate + review the podcast!