What is the Yay Collective?

7 years ago, when I started out on my own officially, I named my business The Yay Collective. Why? My dear friend and future client, Jen Maxwell said, “Hey, let's go register our businesses at City Hall in San Francisco.” I had no idea that was a thing, but it being my birthday and Jen being highly enthusiastic about it (dare we say Yay? We dare!), I said hell yes and…being a strategist and a namer, I couldn't not have a name. 

And another friend and former colleague, Chris Anderson, had recently launched her hand-made jewelry business as the good collective, which I dug for all the reasons. At the time and for a few years after, my mantra was already “wake up and say yay”, so that day the combo of Yay and Collective felt right. And it stayed with me. 

There are countless chapters and side roads to this tale, and surely I will need to come back and share with you a few more of those story spurs…for now, onto the Story of The Yay Collective: 

In one sense it’s a loose collective of people doing marketing or business projects of some sort. Whether I’m the catalyst or one of the players. I often bring folks in as wheels and spokes to make projects turn freely and pick up momentum. People with complementary skills and Yayful personalities. I sometimes call them friendsperts, to signify that they are both friends and experts. The older I get and the more I learn about what I do not know, the less comfortable I get with the word “expert”. I’ll talk more about that in a future post.

To quote my own poetry, I believe, witness, and experience that: 

Yay doubles up when you share yours with mine
And ripples out as pebbles creating good treble
in a pond of venn diagrams of who, where, how, and when

By the simple act of you being here now
the work we create becomes a cohabitation
Even more than it already was

An impartation of meaning and meditation

A deep bow to your wow
A double Yay

The idea behind the Collective is also a vibe, a state of mind, a state of being. A connection to something bigger than each of us and at once inclusive of all of us. It’s moving beyond “like-mindedness” and tribe to people who invite you to be your full, freaky, glorious, rad/ical self. It’s rad which is a favorite Cali soul word for people like my dear dude and founder of the Duende Collaborative, Krista Bloome. And radical because to be our full/whole/emerging/emergent selves is radical, human, lifelong work. 

It’s also recognizing that networking itself is hard work that could use a little reimagining and a modicum of undoing. Perhaps even Un-networking, which is what my friend and one of my soul coaches, Ber-Henda Williams calls it. 

I could write about people in the Yay Collective all day long, but for now, I’ll give one last shout out to another dear friend and client, (are you getting the sense of how the collective works yet?) Jamie Cromer Grue who created Windows to Wisdom, Psychology-driven, transformative learning programs for heart-centered women.

For now, the Collective remains a loose thing and chances are if we’ve ever worked together in an enjoyable, fruitful, and successful fashion, you’re already in it. You may already be working on the next adjacent version of it as we speak. I’m talking to you Hilary Wells and you Nell Waters. 

And I’m happy that you are reading this and considering me and our overlapping Yay to create positive ripples in the ponds and places we dwell and move in for our spell on this earth.

So that’s the Yay Collective now. And as I’ve moved into embodying The Lisa Clapper as my presence and brand, it will evolve and continue to be a place and idea that can elevate and resonate in as yet untold ways. 

And this core belief: when we understand, embody, and tell our stories in the most Yayful way, we create movements of positivity that add up to tectonic shifts in the world — touching and enlivening each other with truth and meaning and joy and presence.

That’s Yay and why it matters. Especially now (and it’s always now).

I’ll be back on LinkedIn and this blog a couple of times a month to give longer #shoutouts to people in the Yay Collective. That could be you. 

In upcoming post/pieces/poems, I’ll talk about other collectives and circles I dig, that you might want to check out yourself. I’ll tell you more about Yay and how that’s evolving and emerging too. Yay! Meanwhile, reach out via text, phone, comment, or email and let me know what struck you about this piece. It’s as easy as Connection can be. And if you’d like to talk more about creating collective stuff, experiences, and vibes, I’d love to chat.