Transcriber: Diana Otero
Reviewer: Walaa Mohammed All right. Hello. I'm Melina, and I am so happy
to be here today. If you can’t tell with
my sparkly shoes even. And, you know, I was thinking about as I walked out how good it feels to
feel welcome when you walk into a room to feel like you really belong.
Isn't that such a great feeling? And one of the things that I love
the most from my favorite researcher, Brené Brown, is what she talks about
with belonging and connection. And this definition really says it all. It is the energy between two people
who feel seen, heard and valued. And I believe one of the best ways
to get that is through community. Now community is a group of people based
on location or shared interest. It could be as small as your family of
origin, your friend group, your workplace, social and civic organizations. Or take today, for example, we are a part of the TEDx community
together within the university, within our state, within our country. And you know how we feel about being a member of those communities
could vary greatly. And so I want to talk about how
to feel happy in a community. Now, why does happiness matter? Well,
of course it is a positive emotion. It can mean feeling content and satisfied. And it's just really a great feeling. And so why does that matter
for our communities? Well, if we're happy with a place, then we're going to definitely
spend more time and energy. We're going to want to be involved and
active and really make an impact. And so that's what we want to do today is
combine happiness and community together. So how do we do this? Well, I have spent
my whole life working on this, both as a community leader,
as a business owner, and helping my brands that
I work with grow. And I also work with women
business owners in a leadership organization where our
purpose is to gather and grow. So I've taken all of those experiences
to come up with five C's to cultivate a happier community. I believe it starts with collective spirit So when I'm thinking back like
when was the first time that I felt really happy in a community was
when I was a little girl in a small town, and every fall it felt like on Friday
nights the entire town came out. That's right. Here comes the pom pom. We would get in the stands together Friday
Night Lights and we would cheer on our team. We were wearing matching
shirts with our colors that were red and white. We had our mascot
and we cheered our team to victory. And you know, when the team won,
we didn’t say you did it. You won. No, we said we did it. We won.
It was like it was a team effort. And it's such a good feeling that game
days are still some of my favorite days of the year. That's what Collective
Spirit is all about. You know, you've probably heard that
saying there's no I in team, and I really love the acronym. That team means that together,
everyone achieves more. And I can tell you those football players
love that we are out there cheering for them and supporting them too, because a happy community
is one that cheers together. Our second "C" is cause. So this is our philosophical one.
It is your why. It's kind of why we do what we do. It's your vision and values
and passion and purpose. And it's really what I like
to look at as a magnet. So I don't see community as a closed
circle, but as an open one. So you have new energy, ideas and
people coming in and out of it, and your cause should be the reason that
people are going to be attracted into your community. So when my son, who's
now a senior in high school, was a little guy, he wanted
to join the scouts. Now, this was something that I didn't have
any experience in, but we joined. I became a co-den mom for several years, and the mission was to create young
leaders who would become good citizens. So it was an amazing growth
experience for him. And he made a lot of connections and he's
still best friends with some of the boys that he was in scouts
with all that long time ago. And then, you know, my daughter and
I were sitting around watching a dance competition show on TV, and
she looks at me and she says, mom, I think I want to dance. And
so she joined dance where the values are teamwork, hard work,
discipline, commitment. And she grew so much through that
experience. And I really enjoyed it too. And then she made wonderful connections
and she wanted to continue on for palm. So I became a palm mom for several years, and she is still really good friends with
those girls that she met back then as well. And so really ask yourself,
you know, what is your why? And that we're organizations that you're
in and how can you individually make an impact because a happy community
lives by its values. And how do we know what the cause is?
Number three communication. This is how we share our passion
with our audience. And you know, I first learned about
the power of communication when I was in high school
in that small town, I hosted a high school radio show called
Inside Out with Molina Brown. And I had local reporters from
the different high schools, and they would call in, and, tell everyone all good news
that was happening in their community, in their high school,
inviting people out to support them. And that's when I really saw the
power of connection through the different communication channels. And
wow, look at where it's gone today. We have more ways than ever to connect
with our audience thanks to the internet, you know, websites we can DM people. Now we've got social media, and it's really important for our
communication to be clear, concise and consistent and also positive because we always want to encourage
people to come out and be a part of things. And what I love
the most about all this, these advancements in technology, is
that it's more two way than ever, because now I can hear back
from my audience, and so it's up to us to reach out
and give our ideas to help make the community better. And then I'm going
to take that feedback and, and do that. And so to keep evolving. And so that's
really the power of communication. And you know, a happy community is really
one that's in the know okay I love this one. Creativity. Now what
do I mean by a creative community? I believe it's really one that is open
and flexible, continues to evolve. And it really utilizes the skills and
talents of all of its members. So then I feel like I'm contributing and
I'm finding meaning in my life and a really good local example
of this is that we have an arts institution that pairs local
artists with local businesses in our downtown district. And so the
first Thursday of the month, we get together and you can go out
and you can support the arts, you can eat local, shop local. It is a
fun night with lots of high energy. And it's really a win win for everyone.
And that's what it's all about. So we're living our values by doing that, and we're also having a really
good time because a happy community encourages collaboration Okay, you guys know that's probably
my favorite one. It's celebrate. And, you know, I was thinking back through
all my years of when I felt the most celebrated, and I
believe it was when I was an incoming freshman at university. Coming from a small town,
I didn't know many people. I wanted to make some connections.
I wanted to get involved. And so I decided to go through
sorority recruitment. Now, this is a week long mutual
selection process, and at the end of the week they
have what's called Big Day. So you get your bid, and you literally run home to your new sorority with a bunch of strangers who are now sisters, but you all have matching t shirts on. You get to the house. And you guys, it is so exciting because
there is cheering and screaming and there are signs with your name on it. Sometimes in glitter, and you feel so
welcomed and loved being there. And I will tell you that
that experience really, really shaped my life so much
because from then on, I learned so much about leadership, about
how to get along well with others, um, the love for volunteering
and philanthropy. And really, that stuck with
me all these years later. And it's why I'm still active in my
sorority as an alumn and as a mentor. And think about these things
on the bigger scale, too. How can our community provide more
events to help bring us together and celebrate together? Because, you know,
I will say too often in our society we celebrate the end of things, right?
We celebrate We have going away parties, we have
going out of business sales. At the end of someone's life, you have a celebration of life
and everyone gets together. They get to see each other and
eat great food and all that. But we don't get to experience it because
we're gone. So let's not do that. Like let's celebrate each
other while we're here. Let's celebrate all the milestones
along the way. Let's celebrate the big and little wins. I think it's so important
to celebrate together. So in our community here, we have
a huge 4th of July celebration. It's actually renowned around the
country because it's more than a week long festivities and it's all kinds of activities, so there's really
something for everyone. Everyone feels like they can be involved. Everything from a classic car show to
picnics to a big 4th of July parade so you could be in the parade,
or you can watch the parade. And then that night there's a
huge fireworks celebration. And it's something that I look
forward to every year. So the thing is that we want to create
special memories together, and that's what bonds us together. So think about in all of your
organizations and in your community, what kind of things could you do to
make other people feel special, to create traditions that you're going
to look forward to for years and years to come? You know, a happy
community really celebrates one another. I love that. So I hope that I have
given you some really good ideas on how you could grow personally and professionally in your life through
being a part of community. I know it can be scary. There's always
a first time for everything, right? This is my first time to do this, but by
saying yes and taking a chance on things, by trying out, by joining the club, by
attending the meeting, by networking, I promise that is going to bring
you so much happiness. And, you know, I really wanted to leave
you guys with something today. And so I brought everyone some
smiley face buttons. So they're going to hand those out. But I want this to be a reminder to you
that you deserve to be seen, heard, and valued in your community, and also that it is up to each of us
to make the world a happier place. And you know what? I'm cheering
for you. Thank you guys so much.
