Nona Jones on How To Create Community Using Social Media

Episode Summary
In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, Doug Smith interviews Nona Jones, Head of Faith-Based Partnerships for Facebook. In the episode, Nona Jones shares her incredible story and how to build community using social media.

About Nona Jones
Nona Jones is considered a global thought-leader at the intersection of faith and technology and has also served as a voice of hope and healing to victims of trauma due to her own history as a survivor of physical and sexual abuse. Her highly anticipated books are equipping church leaders and individuals to harness their potential toward realizing their purpose.

Shownotes available at L3Leadership.org/Episode268

Links Mentioned
From Social Media to Social Ministry by Nona Jones
Success from the Inside Out by Nona Jones
https://www.nonajones.com/
Facebook For Faith

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 0:07

Hey, podcast, family, and welcome to episode number 268 of the L three leadership podcast, where we are obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host. And today's episode is brought to you by my friends at Henny jewelers. They're my jeweler of choice. And if you are in need of a good jeweler, check out Henny jewelers.com. And if you are new to the podcast, welcome, I'm so glad that you're here. And I hope that you enjoy today's episode, and I hope that you subscribed to the podcast. And my hope is that every episode will add value to your life and leadership journey. And if you've been with us for awhile, it would mean the world to me. If you haven't already please subscribe and please share this podcast with three to five other leaders who you think would add value to. It's a way that we multiply our influence and impact here at LTU leadership. So thank you in advance for that. And today's episode you were in for a real treat. You're going to hear my interview with Noah Jones. For those of you who may not be familiar with her, let me just tell you a little bit about her. She is the head of global faith-based partnerships at Facebook. No big deal at all. She's one of the world's foremost experts on building the kingdom through social technology. She's the author of success from the inside out and from social media to social ministry, a guide to digital discipleship, and she and her husband, pastor Timothy L. Jones, senior lead door ministries in Gainesville, Florida, and NoDa is incredible. And in the interview, you're going to hear us talk about how she landed a job at Facebook, which is incredible. It's an awesome story just to hear, and you're going to hear her advice to churches and organizations that are trying to make an impact in the digital space. And we talk about why it's important for leaders to focus on becoming healthy on the inside before they ever lead on the outside. And you're going to love this interview, but first I really want to challenge you, you know, it's the beginning of 2021, and I'm sure you've set your goals or you're in the process of setting your goals. And I'm sure you're excited about all the opportunities that lie ahead this year, but here's my challenge to you. If you really want to 10 X your growth, I truly believe, and I want to challenge you to either launch or join an L three leadership mastermind group. If you're unfamiliar with mastermind groups, they are groups of six to 12 leaders that meet together on a consistent basis for at least one year in order to help each other grow, achieve goals and do life together. And I know for me personally, mastermind groups have been the number one source of growth in my life over the last six years. I can't imagine my life without a mastermind group and I will never go through life without a mastermind group again. And so if you'd be interested in learning more about either launching your own mastermind group or joining one of ours that already exists, you can simply go to L three leadership.org forward slash masterminds. Again, that's L three leadership.org forward slash masterminds. This episode of the podcast is also sponsored by my friends at bear tongue advisors, the financial advisors at bear tongue advisors, help educate and empower clients to make informed financial decisions. You can find out how bear tongue advisors can help you develop a financial plan for your financial future@beartongueadvisors.com. That's B E R a T U N G advisors.com securities and investment products and services offered through Waddell and Reed, Inc member FINRA, and SIPC bear tongue advisors, Waddell and Reed, and L three leadership are separate entities. And with all of that being said, let's dive into the interview. Enjoy my conversation with Noah Jones. Oh no, no, thank you so much for being willing to do this interview. And why don't we just start off with you just telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do,

Speaker 3: 3:32

Man. So, uh, I am a wife, I'm a mom, uh, my husband and I, a pastor, a local church in Florida, and also I write books. I love leadership and, um, I guess I work for a very small startup. Uh, it's just kind of finding its way. Uh, it's called Facebook where you heard it really. Okay. You must be, you must be thinking deep in the recesses of the app store. I, uh, lead faith partnerships, uh, at Facebook and, uh, love what I do in ministry. So that's what,

Speaker 2: 4:06

Wow. I want to dive into Facebook and building community and things like that. But, but first you have a crazy, awesome story. And can you just kind of give us an 80,000 foot view of your life story? Because I think it's remarkable.

Speaker 3: 4:16

Oh man. Well, yeah. So just very briefly, um, whenever I'm asked to just describe myself in a few words, I always say I'm a statistically improbable product of grace. Um, I had a childhood that, um, definitely does not speak to the person the Lord has allowed me to become today. Um, a lot of abuse, a lot of, um, verbal abuse, discounting, um, physical abuse. And I was labeled actually as a problem child from an early age because the things that were happening at home manifested in the classroom. And so I ended up unfortunately getting into some trouble, um, as a kid. But, um, you know, even though I didn't grow up in a, in a Christian home, I was invited to church by a classmate in the sixth grade and it was there that I heard the gospel and, um, discovered that I was actually created by a God who purposed that I would exist and gave me a purpose. And I think that changed the entire trajectory of my life. It changed my identity. And so yeah, you know, who I am today, uh, is in no way reflective of who I could have been, had it not been for the grace of God.

Speaker 2: 5:25

Wow. And, and from that point on, did you just kind of go all in with God and it kind of went up to the right from there? Or did you have an up and down journey from there?

Speaker 3: 5:34

Yeah, no, I, I dug in pretty, uh, deeply with, with the Lord and I decided, I think I was about 12, um, to make Jesus Lord of my life and to got really serious about, you know, the Bible got serious about prayer and, you know, I think at some point probably in, I don't know, college, I had my, my moments or, you know, I was kind of like, okay, you know, the Jesus is cool, but you know, I, I like these parties over here. So I had had that kind of quick detour, but it didn't last long. I ended up meeting my husband my junior year in college, uh, and he, his father is a pastor. And so, um, yeah, the rest is history.

Speaker 2: 6:14

Well, thank you for sharing that. And I do want to just fast forward to, obviously you mentioned you work at Facebook and I love the story of how, how this opportunity even came to you. And so can you just share about how you got to Facebook before we talk a lot about what you do?

Speaker 3: 6:27

Yeah. I've, I've had people ask me a lot, like how do you get a job at Facebook? And I'm just like, I don't even know. And they're like, you work at Facebook, of course, you know, but to make a long story short, I, um, uh, was in prayer in, um, in the spring of 2017. And I felt like the Lord told me to leave the job that I was in at that time, which I loved that job. Um, and so I did, and on the day that I resigned, um, 25 minutes after that meeting ended Paul from Facebook out of the blue asking if I was interested in learning about an opportunity to help the company build its strategy, to support communities of faith. And I thought it was like an advisory board or a committee or something they were putting together. Like they never said, Hey, we have this job. It was never said that way. So I was like, Oh, sure, just send me some information. I'll look at it over the weekend and we can talk next week. And then when I opened up the email, um, there was a job description, uh, and I thought to myself, this can't be real. Uh, so yeah, when I talked to the lady that following week, uh, she, uh, authenticated it, it was in fact real and three and a half years later here I am.

Speaker 2: 7:37

Wow. That's incredible. And can you talk about what you're responsible for on a day-to-day basis?

Speaker 3: 7:41

Yeah, so, um, my role is both external facing and internally facing. So externally I really represent the company in spaces where, you know, faith is a conversation. Um, I work very closely with a lot of associations, um, denominations, very large influential, uh, churches. Um, my team is multi-faith so we support, you know, churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, all of it. Um, I really anchor, I think, more heavily on the Christian faith and partly because I am a Christian. Um, but also because I believe that, um, social technology is an incredible lever for discipleship. And so, you know, that's really the lens I bring to the work. So externally, uh, represent the company, um, to all these different entities. And then internally, I really try to deliver insights and feedback to our various product teams, as well as policy legal teams, comms teams, to help them understand, um, how we can better support faith practice and the various institutions and communities, uh, that are built around faith.

Speaker 2: 8:53

Wow. Um, you talked discipleship. I think this is really, really interesting, obviously in the year we've had with COVID. I think all churches and organizations have had to make a pivot to online. And a lot of churches are figuring out how to do streaming on Facebook, but can you talk a little bit more about, uh, what advice you would have for churches and organizations to build disciples or even build community, uh, online? Cause I feel like we're all being forced to whether we want to or not. So how can we do that? Well,

Speaker 3: 9:20

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it starts actually not with a tactic, but with a philosophy, um, before for many years, for hundreds of years, somehow church has come to be defined as a place you go. Um, a thing that you do on the weekend, a program that you watch. And I think because of that, it's become incredibly limiting. So even this year, when, you know, every church on earth was forced to learn technology in order to continue to exist. What kind of happened is I think many churches simply replicated their building experience, um, online. And so you would find, you know, live and streaming were, were very, very central parts of an online church strategy and that's important. But, uh, what I've really encouraged leaders to think about is, is churches not a thing you do is who you are 168 hours per week. And therefore, while streaming is important, um, you also want to be very intentional about creating other ways for people to connect with each other ways for people to explore the word of God together, to pray together and to grow together because that is definable ship. Discipleship is not what happens when, you know, my husband stands on the platform and preaches on a Sunday, or I stand on a platform and preach on a Sunday. That's not discipleship. That's definitely, you know, education that could be inspiration, but discipleship is the relational maturation of your faith requires being in relationship with other people. And so, um, I think it's shifting the mindset, shifting the philosophy from church as building to church as community. And by doing that, now we're thinking a bit differently about social technology, not as a lever for marketing and getting people to the building, but as a lever for ministry and getting people to the cross. That's, that's a very different mindset.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Yeah. So talk to us about using Facebook. So there's Facebook pages and then there's Facebook groups, you know, what encouragement would you have for organizations and what have you seen work really, really well when it comes to building disciples and building community specifically through Facebook.

Speaker 3: 11:34

Yeah. Well, you know, if you think of your Facebook presence like a house, um, your page is your front porch. So that's the public edifice. People can see it. If they're driving down the street, uh, they don't have to know you to see your front porch it's publicly accessible. So your page is your front porch. Think of Facebook live as your front door. So when you go live, you're opening your front door, the people who happen to be on your front porch can come see maybe the interior of your house. They can kind of, you know, check it out. Uh, they can maybe talk to you on the front porch, but it's not that deep, right? It's, it's still very surface. Um, your group though, Facebook groups becomes like your living room because it's the space where people can come and they can sit and they can get to know each other and they can ask each other questions and you can actually structure, um, uh, an experience for them to learn together, which is where discipleship happens. And that's why in my book, from social media to social ministry, um, I argue that really there are so many different social platforms or platforms that are called social. Like we talk about YouTube and Twitter and Snapchat and all these platforms are social, but in fact they're really more transactional. They're more broadcast than social because social platforms should facilitate communication and relationships between and among people, Facebook groups is really the place where you can create a social experience. And so that's the place where discipleship can happen. So that's how I try to distinguish between all of those different surfaces. So people can understand if you want to build a community, if you want to build an online church, you really need to be thinking about how to do that through groups.

Speaker 2: 13:17

Yeah. And you work with some of the largest churches in America. And, um, I'm just curious what, who who's really doing really great job with this. And what specifically are they doing that you would encourage other people to, to follow suit with in building community, in these groups?

Speaker 3: 13:29

So, so here's what I'm going to say. I get asked all the time. Part of the reason why I don't name names is because the, the big secret to social technology that I want people to know is like, nobody's doing it amazing because it's all experimentation. It's, it's literally like, all right, Facebook's going to give you the tools. And you decide based on your goals, based on your, uh, community's character, you decide how best to use those tools. So for example, there is a feature that was released, um, a few months ago, I think, early in the pandemic rooms, Facebook rooms. So it's video chat, right? And, um, in many ways people compare it to zoom, except it's built into Facebook groups. If you have a group that's less than a thousand people, now you can use that tool many different ways, but it depends on the character of your church. So for example, if you have a very social church, you might use rooms to have a game night to have virtual game nights. Uh, if your church is, is more kind of, um, cerebral, and you'd like to think about doctrine and theology, well, you might use rooms to do a text study, right? Uh, but, but the, the tool enables you to use it in whatever way, best fits you. Some of the, that I would recommend though, and I'm going to get to live because I think live is the tool that everyone's using. One thing I want to see people stop doing is stop doing 15 minute countdown timers. Um, because the thing is that may be important when you're in a building, because people are like physically, you know, in a lobby or the other side of the building, or they're walking out of the parking lot on Facebook. They're there. Like, they're, they're just waiting for you, but they're not going to wait forever. And so you do, you don't want to say, all right, everybody, 15 minutes, let's, let's wait 15 minutes because by then they're at somebody else's service because everybody's in the same place. As an example, you may have a group of, I don't know if 200, 300 people, well in that space, you know, you may have like one person knows three people, another person may know 10 people think about how can you create an environment where all 300 people can see each other and get to know each other. I just pose that as a question, as opposed to giving you a tactic, because that's how you get good at digital discipleship is you start asking yourself questions like, okay, I want this community to feel small, even though it's pretty big, how do I do that? And it's the same way that we think about, you know, real life church, right? We, we ask the question and then we start to experiment. So I don't want anybody to think that you're doing it bad, which is why I try to stay away from naming names, uh, because you just have to decide what is your goal? And then how can you use the tools to get you to your goal?

Speaker 2: 16:31

So good. No. Now I want to move into talking a little bit more about leadership, but I'm just curious. Is there anything else you would encourage people with when it comes to building community and disciples through online platforms like Facebook?

Speaker 3: 16:41

Yeah, I think the last thing I would say is, and this is just again, philosophical. Um, it's so important to me, especially in the work that I do, that we don't get hung up on building our following because we get so hung up on that number. How many people are following our page, following our Instagram, following us, it doesn't matter how many people are following you if they're not following Jesus through you. So just remember that you're a conduit, um, and that you want lives to change because of your presence on social media. So I'll, I'll just stop there. Cause that's, that's, uh, something that can take me on a million tangents.

Speaker 2: 17:18

It's so good. And you've mentioned, you know, you wrote a book on this subject. Can you just give everyone a plug for the book real quick?

Speaker 3: 17:24

So it's called from social media to social ministry. Uh, you can order it anywhere. Books are sold. You can go on my website, Nona jones.com. I have a page dedicated to my books. I have two of them. So feel free to pick it up there too.

Speaker 2: 17:37

And it was just out of curiosity. Do you guys offer any consulting to churches or is that a service that Facebook offers?

Speaker 3: 17:43

You know, not really. Uh, I wouldn't say I would recommend, um, we do have a page it's Facebook for, uh, definitely like the page. There's a group linked to that page as, as you would expect, uh, it's called Facebook for faith group where, uh, you will get educational content and you'll get to connect with other communicators in the faith space. Uh, my team actually monitors and manages that community and that page. And so definitely join both of those.

Speaker 2: 18:12

Yeah. Um, noted for time sake, you know, when I look at your resume and your leadership journey, uh, you, you got promoted to an executive leadership position at 23 years old, which is super impressive. Uh, I know you were a part of a presidential leadership program. I'm just curious, you know, what do you wish people knew about your leadership journey that they may not know? You know, you will all of a sudden get a call to know where to get hired at Facebook. You know, what encouragement do you have for leaders based on your story?

Speaker 3: 18:37

Let me tell you, um, the headline ain't got nothing on the byline. I mean, it's, it's always funny to me, you know, I, I, I'm preparing, I have a leadership Academy that I do where I have a cohort of people that I take through various, uh, learning modules as part of my success from the inside out program. And, uh, I often tell them, you know, we see the headline and everybody wants the headline, but man, the byline is, is the thing that gets buried, you know? And, and that's all the stuff that's behind the headline. Um, what's most important to me. And this is what I think my calling is. I believe that the reason why I had the upbringing that I had and the reason why I've been very blessed and fortunate in my career in business is because there are a lot of people in leadership roles who are very successful. They're very accomplished, but they don't feel peace and they don't feel joy and they don't feel contentment and they don't know why. And so, um, what I have been building over the last couple of years is an approach to leadership that I'm calling trauma informed leadership, which is, you know, trauma has a way of changing you, changing the way you see the world changing the way you show up in the world so much so that it can create a sense of longing that you try to fill with stuff and achievement and more, but on the other side of more, there's never a sense of finally I've arrived. I have all the stuff that I thought I wanted that never happens. And so, um, I learned even from the early age, when I got into that first executive role, that there's nothing you can accumulate around you, that's going to fill the deficit within you. And so even more than trying to make more money and get the bigger position and scale the company and get all the board, we have to get whole as leaders, we have to do the work to figure out what is broken on the inside of us. That's making us think not enough. That makes us think if I just get that thing over there, if I get that shiny thing over there, then I'll finally matter. That's where I want to take leaders. I want to take them to that place because what I've discovered myself, especially over the last few years is once you get to the place where there's nothing else that you can add to yourself to feel peace, man, you can finally enjoy all the stuff you have and the stuff you don't, uh, you no longer feel slighted by the invitations you didn't receive, or the customer that didn't didn't choose you. It's like whatever, you know, you have peace. So that's, that's, I think the most important lesson that I've learned, um, that I'm hoping to help other leaders learn too.

Speaker 2: 21:31

That's amazing. And actually, you know, I was telling you before we started the podcast, I just went through an incredibly tough season with panic. Uh, went through therapy, anxiety, all kinds of things, but it was really, really interesting, like how much trauma has informed that. And my core belief is I'm not enough. I mean, I feel like you just spoke to the entire season and I'm just working through. And, uh, you know, I wish I had someone helped me work through that earlier. I'm just curious, you know, what's your advice to leaders to start actually working on that or even recognizing that it's an issue because VR often, and even in my case, I realized that by the time I realized that I needed to work on that issue, thankfully it wasn't too late. I'm still here, but man, if I would have learned some of these lessons a little earlier, it would have been really helpful. So what advice do you have for leaders?

Speaker 3: 22:13

Yeah, I think we have to build. Um, and first of all, let me just say, I'm so grateful that you are honest and transparent about that because that, I think that's part one, uh, part of the reason why I'm so transparent about my past and things that I've been through is because I've learned that there are so many leaders, very successful people who, um, similarly are dying privately and silently and that's just not, that's not God's best. It's not his way. Um, and so I, I think there's, there's a need to build space into your life where you can reflect. And, uh, the, the, the kind of path that I think about it on is, you know, you can't change what you don't acknowledge, but you can't acknowledge what you don't observe and you can't observe what you don't reflect on, which means when, when you get in those moments and I I've had this happen, this is, this is why I'm not speaking out of fear. This is, this is my own lived experience. When you've had those moments where, you know, you got the cover of the magazine, you, you got, uh, you got the promotion, you got the new car, you got the thing. And then, you know, the fairy dust of it all fades and you're left feeling empty. At some point you have to stop and reflect and begin to ask yourself, why do I feel this way? And what happens is you begin to, um, you begin to observe your thoughts and you'll notice your thoughts kind of come in in a pattern. And for me, um, some of the thoughts that would come to me were things like, you know, um, I'm not, I'm not good enough. Nobody wants me or cares about me. There's nothing I can do that will make people think I matter. And as I started to, uh, observe those thoughts, then I began to realize that acknowledge that those thoughts came from, um, the trauma that I experienced as a child. And, uh, the thing I didn't share in the story earlier is that, uh, when I told my mother, I told my mother about what her boyfriend was doing to me. She had him arrested and I was about seven. He went away to jail, but then on the day of his release, she took me with her to the jail to pick him up and bring him back home where he started to abuse me again. And I think that experience layered with her physical and verbal abuse. It really gave me the sense that I didn't matter, that I didn't have value. And so whenever things would happen, uh, let's say I got the award. That's great. But of course somebody else is going to get an award at some point. And I would start to be like, well, but why didn't I get that award too? And then it's like, Oh, because I don't matter. And it's just this spiral. And so I think leaders have to begin to unpack that, and that's hard and that's painful, but once you can do that, you get to a place where you realize, wait a minute, I'm not that thing. And because I'm not that thing, the thoughts of that thing really are not my reality. And I don't have to accept that. And so you can begin to start the process of healing, but I think what, what, what, uh, hinders that is as leaders, you know, we often feel like we have to be the best that we have to be the strongest. We have to be doing 3 million things in order to get people to think that we matter. Um, but it's, it's not, it's not true. And so, uh, that's, that's been my journey and that's why I'm so passionate about this work, because here's the thing I've read books. Like I'm, I'm an avid reader. I

Speaker 2: 25:54

Side note that you have, like the coolest bookshelf I've ever seen. I'm just going to throw it out there.

Speaker 3: 26:01

It's funny because I have all these books, but I have even more books on my iPad. Like my iPad library, like this thing, doesn't hold a candle to that. But I thank you for that. I've read books by amazing people. Like, you know, Bernay Brown and Miguel Ruiz and, you know, talking about like healing and hope. And then I've also read books by people like, you know, John Maxwell and Tony Robbins and all these incredible leadership, uh, writers. But, but what what's been missing is, is at the nexus of the two. And that is the healing part so that I can lead like you and give me the strategy all day long. And that's great and I'll, I'll execute and it'll be awesome, but then I'll still be broken. And so I, um, I'm like kind of building this approach to leadership. That's like, we need to heal what hurts so that we can actually build type of success that fulfills and doesn't leave us feeling empty.

Speaker 2: 26:58

Amen. Oh, as I've listen to your story, no-no um, I just I'm thanking God for whoever your friend was in sixth grade that invited you to, to the service to hear the gospel. I actually had the same thing in seventh grade. I had a friend invited me to a Baptist camp and gave my heart to Christ. And my whole life looks completely different because of that. So thank God for that person. Uh, as we wrap up our conversation today, is there anything else you want to leave leaders with?

Speaker 3: 27:21

Oh man, I would say, just know that you are more than, than what your resume says. Um, you have an intrinsic value, whether you accomplish another thing or not. And, um, I, I just hope that you see that and you know that, um, I talk a lot in my memoir. It's called success from the inside out, which is really what my trauma informed leadership approach is about. I talk a lot about the necessity of healing, what hurts because hurt people, hurt people. And so you end up in a situation where you get the privilege of leading other people, but you lead them from a place that's toxic and hurtful. Um, and you show up in ways that you didn't intend to. And so I just encourage you to, before you get another degree before you get another certification before you read another book, pray and ask God for wisdom and clarity on where you need to heal so that you can do the work.

Speaker 2: 28:24

This is so good. Well thank you for the time today. Thank you for doing the deep work in yourself. So you can bless all of us with what God's taught you through that. And thank you for everything you're doing for the faith community, through your work at Facebook. And, uh, I can I look forward to continuing to watch your journey from a fire and cheer you on? So

Speaker 3: 28:40

Thank you for having me. This has been a blessing

Speaker 1: 28:46

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 28:46

Well, Hey everyone, thank you so much for listening to my interview with no-no. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did, and you can find ways to connect with her and links to everything that we discussed in the show notes@lthreeleadership.org forward slash two six, eight. And as always, if this episode helped you in added value to your life, please share your takeaways on social media, share it with other leaders and encourage them to subscribe to the podcast. It really means the world to me and helps us grow our influence and impact, uh, dramatically. So thank you in advance for that. And as always, I like to end every episode with a quote and I'll quote, John Maxwell today, and he said this, he said, the real question of leadership is this, are you making things better for the people who follow you? That's it, are you making things better for the people who follow you? And I hope that you asked that question every single day as you lead in 2021. Hey, thanks for being with us for another episode. And we will talk to you in episode number two 69. I can't believe it's been almost 300 episodes. Let's go see you guys.