My amazing friend Katie Orr has been an absolutely invaluable asset to me in my job as the (in)courage community leader coordinator for the (in)courager community groups. When you’re trying to offer a welcoming space online for women around the world, there aren’t too many people who really “get” what you have to do.
Katie is one of those women. You might expect two groups like (in)couragers and HelloMornings to be competitors. In fact, if we were running corporations and not community groups, it would definitely be the case. I would look at HelloMornings, target the women who were part of that group, and find a way to convince them all that what they REALLY needed was encouragement – not accountability.
Goodness. I don’t miss the corporate life.
When God put a vision in my head for some big changes to the (in)couragers format, I called Katie. And she let me brainstorm and brain dump and ask questions about what they’ve done, why it works, and what she wishes she could do differently. And we did talk about the fact that we reach a lot of the same women with our groups. In the process of chatting, I cheered for her as she shared that they were offering specific HelloMornings groups based on “season of life” instead of just time zone (a very (in)courager-ish thing to do). And she walked me through their registration process and helped me find a way to make it work for our groups.
We aren’t competitors. We’re community builders who share a passion for Christ. At the end of the day, she knows what HelloMornings is – and isn’t. And I can say the same about (in)couragers. And we’ve both referred women to the other group – in fact, I’m a huge supporter of HelloMornings and have been a member in a group since my daughter was 4 months old. We know accountability and encouragement are essential – and we also know we’ll reach more women by cheering than tearing one another down.
It’s not a competition. It’s community.