An orchid on Mars

During yesterday’s forum about bringing (at least the Kelly-and-Connie-in-leadership-chapter of) Coaching Corner to a close, Pooja described the unlikeliness of our community. (Pooja helped me edit her words for readability.)

I just want to recognize what a miraculous thing [Kelly and Connie] have done here with this community.

If you’re honest, our relationships have a hierarchy of prioritization. And it’s usually our closest family and friends that come first. And then clients and all those little seedlings that might turn into clients go second… Then your friends from other eras of your life… Then the people that are in-person…

And then somewhere further along that list is an online Slack community that I signed up for one time, you know what I mean?

And yet even on Slack, [Kelly and Connie] still created something freaking amazing.
You fueled it with like your love and your heart and your commitment. I feel like you grew an orchid on Mars. How did you make an online community of strangers feel like this, against all odds?

Kelly and Connie deserve a ton of gratitude. They created a container for connection that feels natural, authentic, and inspiring. They brought fresh ideas and kindling every time the fire of enthusiasm dwindled. They gave it oomph, but they also stayed out of the way to let others initiate and experiment.

I’m particularly proud of Kelly and Connie for picking up a cue from Mason who Connie recalled saying “I want to like say goodbye to things before I fall out of love with them.” I’m proud of them for respecting the work — as well as themselves. They’re not slinking away, they’ve planned a terribly thoughtful sequence of events — which collectively provide a “container” in which to close our loops, make some choices, collect some contact info, sign each other’s yearbooks, and find our sense of “completeness”.

• Brainstorm: A Community of your Own — a space to speak directly about your hopes, visions, and — honestly — capacity for Coaching Corner’s future. Or, perhaps, your preference for closing it.

• One Last Book Exchange — a beloved tradition that we had to do one more time!

• One Last Dance: A Community Gather — a time for celebrating.

So thoughtful, right? I quite appreciate that there’s an excuse for buying another book… one discrete occasion for planning / negotiating / deciding and facing the uncertainty… and a different space for basking in the glow of what certainly is and was. 🪵🔥

…but then, of course, there’s also a layer of suspense and uncertainty here.

Here’s Pooja again:

I’ve been in at least two other online coach communities where the moderators stepped away and it turned into a self-moderated community. What happens if you don’t tend that?

I’ll tell you right now: It turns into a series of transactional singular posts.

“Does anyone have a recommendation for a good VA?”
“Launching this program, you guys should check it out.”
“Please engage with my LinkedIn posts.”

Crap, unless you tend it in some way.

So I just want to recognize how much work you [Connie & Kelly] have done to really, really prevent that from happening…

…and then also share that if anyone else wants to keep this community going in a self-moderated way:

Think about that apocalyptic hellscape I just described, and then think about what you might want to do to contribute towards this group to have it not be that.

Not afraid to show my hand here: I’m with Pooja (🙋🏻‍♂️), and hope the community continues on (even if I feel very clear that I’m not interested/willing to grab this particular baton). Perhaps a small team of our community members will step up; there’s nothing inherently stopping our HBO limited series from becoming a multi-season show with a long arc.

But we don’t know yet. For now we’re in limbo, where all we know is that something’s ending.

So as we sit in this moment of uncertainty… I’d like to invite you to bring at least one more log’s worth of curiosity to our fire pit. Bonfires are great ways to mark endings… whether it’s the close of a chapter or of a community.

Anyone got marshmallows?

-MJ

PS. I’ll be back with regular emails until (at least) the end of the Liu-Liu Era (October 30), and I’m planning on crafting some kind of interactive or submission-based scrapbook project. Instructions coming soon.

PPS.
Q. Where can you turn if you need help running a cash register in Norway?
A. Coaching Kroner.