The COVID pandemic has shown us that now, more than ever, that authentic connections are needed. Beyond networking, people need to build a conscious community. In this episode, Stephen Jaye sits down to talk to the founder of Conscious Business Connections, Kristin McGinnis. Kristin delves into the effects COVID has had on how we work and do business, and why we need community in these trying times. Tune in and learn more about the conscious community movement and be inspired to build your own.
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Beyond Networking: Building A Conscious Community With Kristin McGinnis
We're going to talk about community. Community has been a common theme throughout my life. At a young age, I read the Robert Putnam book Bowling Alone which came out in 2000 and talked about what happened to our communities from the middle to the end of the 20th century. As you're all probably aware of what has happened since with the social media and all this other stuff has only seemed to further weaken our communities, even accelerate the trend a little bit.

One of the things I'm trying to cover on this show is different people who are trying different methods of bringing back our communities for various purposes. Our guest Kristin McGinnis has started a group called Conscious Business Connections, which has a pretty extensive mission and even goes beyond just the business. There are some events that are a little bit more social in nature. It seems to cover the whole range and spectrum. Kristin, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Stephen. I'm glad to be here.

Thank you for joining us. Let's start by orienting the audience to what you're doing. What is Conscious Business Connections? You've put all of yourself into this pursuit. What inspired you to start Conscious Business Connections and what made you feel like this was the thing that you were supposed to be doing right now?

It was during the pandemic when we were in lockdown and I was taking time to understand what my passions were in life, what my calling was in life. I was doing a lot of reading during that time. We were all staying at home, so I had a lot of extra time. I did a lot of soul searching. I have so many interests in life and so many passions.

I wanted to find a way to continue my current career but also wrap in more of my passions for philanthropy and animals. A lot of different elements from my event planning experience and my finance experience. I came up with this concept as I was seeing the world shut down and I saw all of these amazing people with beautiful gifts, namely in the coaching, yoga and hospitality world.

The pandemic has people finding their true passions in life and doing what they love and having meaning and purpose behind that. Click To Tweet

It's all these businesses that were struggling to stay open and make money during the pandemic. With my gifts of entrepreneurship, I thought my skills could help their passions and I can help them start businesses. I started a yoga business and practiced that out a little bit and have some retreats. The belonging that was growing from the community I was building with this yoga business was just beautiful.

That has since dissolved when I started Conscious Business Connections on a larger scale. I have a much larger dream around Conscious Business Connections. I've taken that yoga model and expanded it even further. I'm hosting amazing events and yoga is one of those. It's a way for people to network and do things that they love while they're connecting.

Combining their interests, what lights them up in the world with fun things we want to do and then naturally, we have conscious conversations. We're connecting in ways that are supporting our businesses, bringing target market to you, bringing clients to strategic partners, people that are going to help you keep your mind on and that's the tagline of my email address and my website.

Keep your light on because that,