Authenticity, Integrity, Connection, Discovery, Empowerment- Our Core Values

How did we get to these 5? In the spirit of authenticity, let me tell you the real story...

Lindsay and I are growing a business while also parenting. Not easy. You know what I mean. Because we knew we had to buckle down and focus, we decided to hit the road. We went aaaalll the way to Winston-Salem, about 30 minutes away. Our little staycation ended up being so productive and so good for us as friends and parents too. We stayed in a hotel, we ate good food, we drank good wine, we even stayed up past 10pm.

We've been on vacation together before, but this was different, we were both having fun and being purposeful. We took our devices and our branding workbook with us everywhere we went-shout out to Jordan at https://www.branded-by-jordan.com/ for giving us a roadmap and simplifying this process for us. Here we are getting after it:

We had long wonderful conversations about the precision of words we wanted to be the backbone of Arboro. Jordan gave us a long list of words that we sifted through on our own and in true Lindsay and Jenna style, when we compared our lists they were practically identical. By the way, I'm very proud of us for not showing up in exactly the same clothes by accident like we regularly do. Although, now that I think about it, I was wearing colorful vertically striped pants, so we probably did match more than we realized...

After an evening of digging into our mission, vision, values, and all the branding goodies, we woke up the next morning and revisited it at Bitty & Beau's Coffee. What a perfect place to talk empowerment. You could really feel it the second you walked in. Their branding is clear and unapologetic. A breath of fresh air and a high bar set for us to strive towards. Serendipity struck when we realized the person the employees (all individuals with disabilities) were getting pictures with while we were there was the founder herself, checking in on the shop, and more importantly, supporting the people running the shop.

Looking at our core values after a night of sleep (R.E.M. and everything), we were both feeling fully confident and excited about what we selected- Authenticity, Integrity, Connection, Discovery, and Empowerment.

Why these?

Authenticity- We want people to let down their guard, embrace the humanness of imperfection and feel the solidarity of knowing that we are all doing the best we can with what we've got.

Integrity- Life is full of choices, integrity is about having the courage to make the ethical choices that will help and not hurt.

Connection- We want Arboro to be a catalyst for connections to others, to new ideas, and to empowering resources

Discovery- We want to curate opportunities for personal growth to take place through the process of discovery. We can offer options and resources to discover but the process of embracing an idea or discovering a possibility is within your hands.

Empowerment- Let's evolve with joy. Let's lift each other up to better their lives and situations not just for themselves, but for everyone within their sphere of influence. To us, empowerment is about strengthening others in a way that will impact them in bigger ways than we can fathom.

Imperfect in Arboro,

Jenna

Comment below and tell us

-Which of our Core Values is your favorite? Why?

- Which of these values have you noticed in Arboro's culture and how does it show up?

-Which of these do you hope to foster most within yourself this year? How can we help?

- Tell us about a time you empowered yourself with a change of scenery to gain perspective or to increase your productivity.