Welcome,

With all that in mind, here are some general guidelines that may help us make the most of this group. No doubt there will be learnings as we go and so there might be changes to these guidelines in the future to support the best vibes for all involved.

And, while this may not be a community, we can be community-minded in the ways that we conduct ourselves. 

The Basics

1. POST THINGS IN THE PROPER PLACES

There are currently a few different options for forums, so please take the time to post in the correct place.

2. PRIVATE MESSAGING: 

Again, no hard rules here and we've had no problems with this but it might be more courteous to not send a direct message to anyone without their expressed permission to do so. If there's a conversational thread going and you see you could contribute something that you'd rather not post publicly you could just say, "I have some thoughts on this. Could I send you a direct message?"  Use your best judgement here.

3. OFF TOPIC POSTS: 

Keeping the main feed as clean as possible will help keep us all sane.  In general, on this platform, let's keep all posts related to growing your businesses. There are enough shiny objects online. If you think there's another space needed (beyond those listed in the left sidebar), message the MfH team and we can explore that.

4. HOW WE MANAGE YOUR DATA

Upon written request for deletion of personal information, we will remove your identifiable data from our active systems while maintaining anonymized records as required by law for accounting, tax, and regulatory compliance. This includes retaining transaction histories and financial records with personal identifiers removed. We will process deletion requests within 30 days and provide confirmation once completed. To request deletion of your personal information, please contact our Core Admin at core@marketingforhippies.com. Note that certain information may be retained as required by applicable Canadian federal and provincial laws.

Interacting

Interacting in an online group can be both a joy and a challenge. A joy because it’s so convenient, and for certain kinds of interactions, like looking at written work, it’s just outstanding.

It’s a challenge because so much is missing from our communication. As you probably know, the vast majority of communication between two people is non-verbal- the tone of voice, facial expression, body language.

This is why miscommunication can happen so easily in an online group. We may not realize that someone has posted something that is tender for them, and so our response may miss what they are needing. And, we may not realize when we post something how tender we were feeling until we read the feedback and end up upset.

WHO IS HERE?

My guess is that everyone in this group is familiar with Marketing for Hippies and has a big heart and cares deeply about the issues of our times.

I imagine we are a diverse (in many ways) group of people who share the desire to develop heart-centred businesses, with the intention of making the world a better place. Whoever you are, we celebrate you.

Here’s what we’d like from us all in communicating in this group: 

1. BE KIND AND COURTEOUS: 

We're all in this together to create a welcoming environment. Let's treat everyone with respect and dignity. Healthy debates are natural. Dehumanising comments will be deleted. Name-calling is 'first strike and you're out' a deal breaker. We've never had an issue with this and I suspect we won't. 

Check out Marketing for Hippies Values and Agreements here. The MfH team created these values and agreements as a team and we hold ourselves accountable to adhere to them. 

2. IF CONFLICT ARISES...

MfH Facilitators and contractors are there to maintain a professional, supportive and an encouraging environment to facilitate challenging yet positive interactions that support the growth of the participants. Individuals are responsible for the comments, opinions, and ideas that they share.

Disagreements, differences of opinions, misaligned values may not be considered as disrespectful behaviour as long as they are expressed respectfully and the other individuals are not forced to conform. 

We deem the following behaviours to be serious misconduct. Any individual showing such behaviour will be addressed by the Core Admin to find a way forward.

• shouting 

• threatening 

• intentionally provoking someone 

• name-calling 

• aggressive comments  

• comments that overtly and explicitly denigrate and dehumanize someone based on who they are (e.g. homophobic, misogynistic, misandrist, racist, etc.)

In order to take swift and necessary actions, we would require for you to report such incidents within 24 hours to membership@marketingforhippies.com. Please complete the incident report form to record and report them. 

And, it must be said, we are not well-resourced to deal with this. If you are looking for an online community with room and capacity to deal with the depths of human emotion, reactivity and work to resolve the deepest social issues of our times - this is not that.

If, after being communicated with by the Marketing for Hippies team, someone continues to be deliberately hurtful, or otherwise acts in ways that undermine the good intentions and connection in this group, they will be removed from the Membership. 

3. ON DIVERSITY & VILLAGE MINDEDNESS:

The general rule I have is this: everyone is welcome but not everything is welcome.  Some behaviours don't belong here (or anywhere where people are trying to create goodwill and get work done).

The team at Marketing for Hippies is committed to honouring diversity on our team and within our clientele. We want to live in a world that recognizes the inherent strengths that come from different viewpoints, backgrounds, cultures and experiences. 

We don't have a village here. Or anything close to it, but we can practice what might be called 'village mindedness' in which we proceed with each other's feelings, needs and realities in mind.

With regard to race and ethnicity, we reject the idea of “colour-blind” and instead want to live in a “colour rich” world, where each experience helps to weave the tapestry of strength and love. As a white-owned company, with a majority white team, we’re going to miss seeing things that would be obvious to someone with different experiences. If you are a reader, client or colleague, and you ever see us missing something important, we invite you to tell us.

If you'd like to read more of my thoughts on this all you can read some essays from my blog Healing From Whiteness.

4. ON FUNDAMENTALISM:

We live in a time full of a lot of unresolved trauma and a world that is often traumatising. This leaves most of us leaning, in our nervous system, towards a kind of either/or fundamentalism. 

I recall a Cree friend of mine sharing what an elder had once told him, "Our minds are supposed to be fluid." I resonate with that. It's easy for ideas to become fixed (as we try to fix the world). It's easy for our minds to become concretized, ossified and calcified. 

But many of us find ourselves embarrassed to admit the things we believed a decade ago (or even last year (or yesterday). 

This group is not dogmatically left or right on the political spectrum or any particular political analysis but we are adamantly for rigour in thought, deep listening, kindness, care, and respect.  

We can't imagine what life is like where you live nor could we prescribe to you the best approach to take or analysis to have on the issues that beset and bedevil your communities. Nor would we propose to. This isn't the focus of this group. 

But, if this group can help you build your business up strongly, then we trust this will be our humble contribution to your capacity to contribute to the place and time in which you find yourself. We can love each other like that.

5. ON CONFIDENTIALITY:

People will be sharing some vulnerable things here. The agreement is that, if you think it would hurt them or their business, don't share it. If they share a new business idea that they're concerned someone else might rip off and take, don't share it around. If you are going to share any stories, please remove any details of where the person is from, their name etc. that could indicate who said it. 

The flip side of this is to share with care. You are responsible for what you share. This is a group of relative strangers. If you wouldn't want something shared beyond these virtual confines, I would strongly suggest not sharing it. 

I'm okay with people talking about their experiences and sharing them. If I hear something interesting or think that something on a membership call is juicy and worth sharing, and could help others you can be confident I will share it up. It may end up in a video I do. And, I'll make sure that, if I think it could cause any harm to you or your business that I won't share it or will share it in a way that it couldn't. 

I don't consider this a client/therapist role where absolute confidentiality is required and the therapist never talks about their sessions outside the sessions. We're a bunch of resourceful entrepreneurs trying to make our businesses work and I've got in mind the larger network of entrepreneurs beyond the walls of this membership.

Final Thoughts:

We cannot promise that every post will be read or responded to by the team (but we will try). Thankfully, the Membership is full of experienced, knowledgeable members who can share their wisdom and insight.

And, if we miss your post/question, or it is not yet clear to you from the feedback you got from other members in the Membership --- and want some more input --- you might consider coming to the weekly/monthly calls. We hope that having multiple avenues to get help will ensure your most important questions are answered.

Again, if you have any feedback for us that could help us make this Membership Program even sweeter and more useful for you, let us know, you can email membership@marketingforhippies.com.  

We couldn't be happier to have you here. Your work matters in this world. If there's any way we can help you to hone it, to lift it up in the world and have it be discovered by more people, we'd like to at least try. 

Blessings on your typing fingers and sometimes bleary eyes from too much screen time. Let's all make the best use of this time and these tools as we can.