We recently connected with Claudia Erickson and Kim Cavallo and have shared our conversation below.
Claudia Erickson and Kim Cavallo, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Claudia – Kim and I both dove into the field of Digital Wellness as we felt strongly that excessive screen time was becoming a problem that was not getting enough attention. Making that shift has been risky in so many ways. First off, this is a relatively new field and people are still trying to define what it is and how to realistically go about helping people create healthier digital lifestyles. How best to reach people can be a challenge as well.
Both Kim and I transitioned from more traditional jobs into this space — my background is in public health and I had worked with non profits in maternal/child health for 20 years. I left that to form an LLC called Unplugged Village™. Kim came from non-profit fundraising and event organizing which led her to the creation of Lilspace-Unplug for a Cause®. Both of our previous careers had historic structure, established guidelines and a community of recognized experts to refer to. Our new ventures into the digital wellness arena meant we traded that for a blank canvas which was exciting and daunting all at the same time. Fortunaty we are both hard-working, bring complimentary skills to the table and when something feels risky to one of us the other embraces it. Digital Wellness is a very unique and amazing space to be in and one that energizes us to continue the journey.
Another real challenge for us is finding our audience. We aren’t anti-tech and acknowledge that there are many beneficial digital tools available. In fact, we often use them to reach out to people. That said, it can be tough to get the tech balance message across using the very tools we are talking about. To compound matters, algorithms don’t favor unplugged activities so our posts may not get as much traction as we would like. Then there are also the individuals who tell us they follow our posts but never comment as they “don’t want us to think they are on their technology too much” so engagement is an issue. Lastly, many people are suffering from tech fatigue. It may be harder to reach those individuals (a blessing and a curse) as they have shut off the TV news or are tuning out on the overwhelming amount of emails in their inboxes. The complexities and irony of the situation is very unique to this field.
Despite these obstacles we continue to keep our message positive and stay away from tech shaming. We hope to inspire creativity and are really here to raise awareness and provide online resources for offline experiences to those who are interested.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
While the Digital Wellness field is seeing an explosion right now, what sets the Unplug Collaborative apart is that we focus on finding leaders who will spread digital wellness efforts throughout their community. The NDU campaign has been around for almost 14 years and we are an awareness campaign first and foremost. We serve as a resource center featuring over 200+ activities on our website with everything from nature scavenger hunts, inspirational rock painting and other hands-on activities or mindful experiences. Our signature “We Unplug to____” signs and SmartPhone Nap-Sacks have made it across the globe and have been endorsed by celebrities such as Kristen Bell, Tiffany Thiessen, Arianna Huffington, Constance Zimmer and Mayim Bialik.
National Day of Unplugging Membership is open to any educator, organizer, parent or individual who wants to spread awareness about how to maintain healthy life/tech balance. To date, there are more than 135,000 people who have participated in NDU programs organized by over 1,000 schools, religious institutions and businesses worldwide. In addition, 40 cities have begun the process of breaking ground on their Unplugged Village, galvanizing the energy of passionate people eager to see more real life connection and to spearhead the movement in their communities.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Claudia – I left a position with the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2018 to form the Unplugged Village™. So many people seemed to share my concerns about excessive screen time and they offered support. This led to the mission and naming of the company as I felt with the support of “a village” you have a better shot at truly making changes and creating healthier digital habits. I began with offering presentations but quickly found that many people are either too busy or overwhelmed (ironically part of the problem) to attend or nervous at the thought of making changes to their lifestyle and the devices they depend on so greatly. It was quickly apparent that I had to pivot and find other ways to reach people. I experimented with offering various activities such as Unplugged Dining Nights, Comedy Nights or Farmers Market activities. It turned out that if people participated in events that were fun and meaningful (and that just happened to be unplugged without a big message attached) the more successful it tended to be.
Kim – One of the greatest pivot’s we had to make was due to the challenges from the mandated lockdowns. March of 2020 was the start of the global pandemic, when plans for in-person gatherings were questioned. While we adapted with online programming, it became apparent that NDU 2021 was going to be different than it had ever been. How could we encourage people to get off of their screens when technology had become their lifeline to any human connection?
We spent a great deal of time discussing and brainstorming and finally landed on programming that encouraged people to participate in NDU with a list of over 50+ ideas of suggested socially distanced activities. We asked people to find ways to unplug within the small groups they were locked down with or to get outside where weather permitted. While people were online more than ever, we were pleasantly surprised to see such a dramatic response to our efforts. People were participating in “Unplug and crochet for a Cause” programs, setting up Little Free Library Scavenger Hunts, or taking part in a fort building competition. Many people have come out of the pandemic valuing in-person community and connection more than ever before. That made our efforts all worthwhile.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Kim – I met Claudia in 2019 and we immediately found synergy in the way we view the life/tech balance conversation. We are the same age and although we grew up in different parts of the country (Me- an LA native, and Claudia – a San Diego transplant from Iowa) we shared some common experiences. Having grown up in a time before social media when we would hang out at the mall, ride our bikes freely and compete over who was teen idol Leif Garrett’s #1 fan (I clearly won with a letter to prove it) to raising our kids who are now digital natives. Our similar perspectives and mutual drive in helping people find offline life as enticing as what’s presented online, landed us in the position to take over coordination of the long standing awareness campaign National Day of Unplugging (NDU). For those not familiar with NDU, it is similar to Earth Day in the sense that every year, the first weekend in March, people participate all over the globe, collectively unplugging together and doing various activities that feel meaningful and fun.
We were blessed to be at the right place, at the right time. Prior to 2020, my company, lilspace had an official partnership with Reboot, the Jewish Arts & Culture nonprofit and team that started National Day of Unplugging in 2009. As the NDU campaign was going into its 12th year, Reboot was looking for someone to take the already successful international campaign they had built and expand beyond its roots as an outgrowth of the Jewish Sabbath known as Shabbat. In June 2020, Claudia and I co-founded Unplug Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that has become the new home to NDU starting March 2021.
In addition to keeping NDU alive, we took the concept that Claudia successfully operated in San Diego with her LLC and launched Unplugged Village™ as a global year-round initiative. Our small and mighty team helps communities around the world elevate human connection over digital engagement with group programming and neighborhood events. If you are interested in getting your community involved we would love to have you reach out to one of us!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nationaldayofunplugging.com www.unplugcollaborative.org
- Instagram: @nationaldayofunplugging @unplugcollaborative
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hometonationaldayofunplugging https://www.facebook.com/unpluggedvillage
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-cavallo/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-erickson-a0a2a524/
- Twitter: @TeamNDU
- Other: Tik Tok – @natdayofunplugging
Image Credits
Photo credits -Tiffani Amber Thiessen, Kim Cavallo and Claudia Erickson