CORTEX EVOLUTION, LLC

STRIVE HIVE COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

Version Date: June 29, 2022

Overview

Welcome to the Strive Hive! By becoming a Striver, you join an inspiring network of people who serve even as they are served, teach even as they are taught, and grow even as they foster growth.

Our mission is to create a unified community where people passionate about learning and/or personal development form invaluable, potentially life-long connections with each other. These relationships and the activities undertaken together will cultivate mutually beneficial personal support systems, opportunities to teach and learn, and friendships built around shared passions, all leading to greater personal growth, life success, and happiness. 

We aim to transform self-improvement from a niche interest that is often slow, unguided, misunderstood, and lonely into an effective, structured, and collaborative societal movement that will simultaneously change the lives of individuals and society at large. 

We request that all participants align their actions with these purposes in order to create this life-changing community. Please help us keep the community safe, friendly, and full of respectful, meaningful interactions. These Community Guidelines will help you understand how to act and what to expect from others within the Strive Hive environment. Responsibility for positive behavior lies with each participant – you alone are responsible for your actions. We cannot and do not monitor interactions between customers, and cannot be held responsible for them in any way whatsoever. 

Cortex Evolution reserves the right to at any time suspend or permanently terminate users’ accounts for a violation of these rules or for any other reason, with or without warning, and without liability to the user.

To ensure that you and everyone else can enjoy maximal benefit from being a part of this transformative group, please read and adhere to these Guidelines.

By participating in this Community, you agree to the following Core Values and their associated Guidelines as described below:

● Safety and Privacy

● Respect and Tolerance

● Reliability

Questions, comments, concerns, or feedback? Please contact us at [email protected].


Core Value: Safety and Privacy

PROHIBITED BEHAVIORS

People passionate about self-improvement are usually wonderful people. In case you run into anyone that doesn’t act so wonderfully, we enforce the following rules to keep you safe. If you ever don’t feel safe or if someone breaks any of these rules, please let us know at [email protected]. The only thing more important than your success is your safety, so let’s work together to make this a comfortable, safe community.

These rules apply to all interactions associated with the Strive Hive — in all your communications with your Improvement Partners, all live calls or sessions, and all Group challenges, gatherings, and events.

BREAKING THESE RULES WILL RESULT IN A LIFETIME BAN AND ANY CLASSES THAT THE OFFENDER IS OR WILL BE TEACHING WILL BE CANCELLED IMMEDIATELY:

You agree not to use our services including, without limitation, any communication system we provide (e.g. email, chat, SMS text, groups, forums, communities, etc.) to transmit, distribute, or post any user content that is abusive, obscene, profane, threatening, intimidating, harassing, prejudicial, discriminatory, offensive, inaccurate, incomplete, or illegal. 

The following includes, without limitation, examples of things you shall not do:

1. No nudity, sexual acts, or sexual harassment. No nudity, no sexual acts, and nothing sexually suggestive at all.

2. No flirting or inappropriate comments. Don’t be flirty or make suggestive remarks. Keep the conversation focused on productive topics. Don’t ask for your partner’s full name, exact location, age, or anything else that’s personally identifiable. Avoid profanity.

3. No inappropriate attire. Casual clothes are fine, but you should be appropriately covered up, as you are when you leave your house, including wearing a shirt and shorts/pants/skirt at all times.

4. No hateful conduct or harassment. Don’t harass, bully, intimidate, stalk, demean, defame, or shame anyone. Don’t do anything that promotes discrimination or violence on any group or individual, including on the basis of gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, religion, or veteran status.

5. No threats, violence, or harm. Don’t threaten or abuse anyone in any way. Don’t harm someone else or yourself, verbally or physically. 

6. No content that exploits children or minors or that depicts cruelty to animals.

7. No illegal activity. Do not engage in, discuss, or instruct in any illegal activities while interacting with your fellow Strivers in any way. Do not attempt to scam, defraud, mislead, or otherwise deceive anyone in any way. Do not do anything that is defamatory, slanderous, or libelous. Do not attempt to obtain through any means any materials or information not intentionally made available to you. Do not impersonate any person or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity. Do not transmit any information, software, or other material that contains a virus or other harmful component. Do not purchase, download, or copy any unauthorized products or services from Group.

8. No spamming or sales pitches. Do not promote commercial activities including sales, advertising, business offers, contests, sweepstakes, and bartering. Do not transmit, distribute or post any spam, including advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation.  

As you share experiences and learn together, you may discover that your Improvement Partner(s) could benefit from a particular product, service, or brand. Strivers may also ask the broader community for recommendations of products or services that could help solve a particular problem. You may briefly suggest commercially available resources, products, or services to your Improvement Partner(s) or other Strivers ONLY if you have good reason to believe (ideally through personal experience) that they will directly aid your peers in progressing toward their goals or overcoming their challenges. In this case, you must disclose any personal affiliation or connection with the brand being recommended. Other than these limited instances, do not solicit other Strivers for personal, self-benefitting purposes. Lengthy or pushy sales pitches to other Strivers will not be tolerated. If it starts to feel like a sales pitch to you or your peers, you’ve gone too far. 

9. No plagiarism. Do not claim as your own any intellectual property that does not belong to you. If you got a good idea from someone else, give credit to the person who came up with the idea, if known. Do not Infringe upon someone else’s trademark, copyright or other intellectual property or other rights

10. No unauthorized use of intellectual property. We’ve put in substantial time and effort to create content, ideas, systems, structure, and processes for the benefit of the Strive Hive community.  Any use of these items outside of the Strive Hive community or any attempt to claim ownership of these materials without prior written authorization is illegal and prohibited. 

11. No privacy breaches. Respect the privacy and personal information of other Strivers. You must not share any information about your Partner(s), including their contact information, without their express consent. Messaging/email and use of personal contact information made available through to you through participation in the Strive Hive – including names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social media accounts, student information, and employment information – for any commercial, advocacy, promotional, or political purpose is prohibited. Prohibited activities include solicitations for business or personal services, fundraising, cold-calling of any kind, mass-mailings, or broadcast e-mails. Also, do not transmit or post anything that depicts people in places where they expect privacy without their knowledge and consent, such as someone’s home, a bathroom, dressing room, locker room, etc.

12. No recording. In order to protect your privacy and create an environment that encourages sharing, vulnerability, and openness, you must not record, in any manner, interactions with other Participants or with the Group.

13. Miscellaneous misconduct. Any other conduct besides those already listed that violates the purpose or safety of the Group may also result in warnings, suspensions, cancellations, or bans.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ENCOUNTER BAD BEHAVIOR

1. Care for yourself

If you ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable, please tend to your own needs first. Trust your intuition. Feel free to abruptly end calls or video chats if you feel distressed. Then take a break, vent, get support, etc.

2. Block the offending member

Feel free to block that person immediately on your phone, computer, Facebook, or wherever you’ve been interacting.

3. Report the offending member

Please report any violations of these Guidelines so that we can take action against the offender, prevent more people from having bad experiences, and create a safer environment. Plus, we can connect you with a new Improvement Partner as soon as possible. You can report the behavior by emailing [email protected] or by completing one of our regular check-in surveys. You may also wish to report the offender to legal authorities.

What happens when you report someone?

● Your report will remain completely confidential.

● We’ll review the situation and respond to you within 24 hours with a description of how we will handle the incident. You can expect a much faster response for severe incidents. We may remove the offending content or class, suspend or terminate the offending account or teacher, and notify law enforcement. Please note that we have no obligation to delete content or class material that you personally find objectionable or offensive if it adheres to these rules.

● Depending on the severity of the offense, the person you report will be warned, suspended, or banned. 


Core Value: Respect and Tolerance

Even when the safety guidelines above are followed, the way you treat others has a large impact on everyone’s comfort and success. It affects how much you both benefit from your Partnership and even affects whether your Partner(s) will be inspired to keep trying, growing, and succeeding or pressed to simply give up. Don’t be the reason someone abandons their dreams and goals – be the reason they stick with them!

To that end, we ask that you responsibly use all forms of messaging, email, calls, and face-to-face communication. Your Partner(s) contact information is provided to you in order to allow maximally effective communication, collaboration, support, planning, and accountability. Some appropriate examples of ways to utilize this communication include:

● Share a powerful quotation or useful resource that relates to your Partner(s)’s goals or struggles.

● Schedule times to video chat to practice skills or review study material together. (We recommend limiting live interactions like phone calls and video chats to less than 1 hour at a time.)

● Share upcoming goals and your progress on past goals, and follow-up on your Partner(s)’s.

● Offer a listening ear, empathy, encouragement, and advice when your Partner(s) faces setbacks.

● Make specific requests of how your Partner could best support you, and honor their requests.

THROUGHOUT THESE INTERACTIONS, BECOME THE MOST HELPFUL PARTNER YOU CAN BE BY DOING THE FOLLOWING:

1. Be tolerant towards other’s viewpoints and choices. Respectfully disagree when opinions do not align. Remember that they, not you, are responsible for their life choices.

2. Be kind, empathetic, encouraging, and positive. Remember that you may be the ONLY person that your Partner has to turn to for support, so be the best influence you can be. Use uplifting language – focus on what each of you wants instead of what you don’t want.

3. Be professional. Treat your Partner as if they were an important client, mentor, or colleague. Remember we’re a professional community and not a dating site. In any virtual interactions, treat others as you would treat them in real life.

4. Stay focused. Before any live calls, create a focused environment for yourself and your Partner(s). Remove distractions, including your phone, if possible. Don’t check your phone or socialize with other people around you. 

5. Respect your Partner(s) time. Work intentionally and efficiently on live calls. Strive to start and end all meetings promptly and at the scheduled time.

6. Communicate with courtesy and respect. 

There are also many inappropriate ways of contacting and interacting with your Improvement Partners. Remember that something can bother other people even if it doesn’t bother you. Besides making every interaction between Strivers safe, we also want to be as pleasant, positive, comfortable, and productive as possible. 

THEREFORE, IF YOU DO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING, ESPECIALLY REPEATEDLY, YOU WILL RECEIVE A WARNING, SUSPENSION, OR BAN:

● DO NOT contact your Improvement Partner(s) more often than you both agree upon in your Partner Expectations.

● DO NOT consistently give very delayed responses to your Partner(s) or no response at all. Never “ghost” anyone.

● DO NOT contact your Improvement Partner(s) using any means of contact that they have not previously agreed to.

● DO NOT dominate the conversation – there should be approximately equal give and take so that you can both benefit. This rule also applies to community-wide forums, conversations, and events.

● DO NOT cause your interactions to drag on longer than your Partner wishes, as agreed upon beforehand.

● DO NOT message your Partner(s) late at night, early in the morning, or at any time that they have requested to be left alone.

● DO NOT pry into your Partner(s) personal lives or private information, including any personally identifiable information (such as their full name) which they do not wish to disclose.

● DO NOT engage in any conversation topics that your Partner(s) does not wish to discuss, possibly including politics, religion, dating, family life, or any topic that is irrelevant to the improvement and progress of you and your Partner(s). 

● DO NOT tell anyone else any information which your Partner(s) wished to keep confidential.

● DO NOT share your account with anyone else or allow others to interact with your Partner(s).

● DO NOT contact your Partner(s) after your Partnership has ended, UNLESS you both agree to stay in contact.


Core Value: Reliability

Your fellow Strivers are relying on you to help them improve and progress, just as you are relying on them to do the same. Therefore, we expect consistent engagement with your Improvement Partners according to whatever you each agree upon and commit to in terms of your interaction frequency, duration, medium, manner, and content. 

Honor your commitments. If your Partner(s) has made space in their schedule for you, it breaks their trust to show up late, cancel last minute, leave early, or not show up at all. If any scheduling adjustments are necessary, make them as far in advance as possible.

Respond to important communications promptly. Do you hate it when people don’t answer important messages for a long time, if ever, leaving you with no idea what to do? So does everyone else. 

o If you know that there will be a period of time in which you cannot contact your Improvement Partner(s), you must let them know in advance. If at any point you don’t respond to any communication attempts by us or your Partner(s) for two (2) consecutive weeks, we reserve the right to suspend or permanently cancel your membership. 

If you are avoiding communication because you feel uncomfortable or hesitant to respond to your Partner(s)’s communications for any reason, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] for support and advice.

Of course, nobody is perfect and life is complicated, but you must make reasonable efforts to fulfill your side of the relationship, including staying in consistent contact. Inform your Partner(s) of any temporary special circumstances that will make things difficult. If your partner seems to be struggling, be patient and sympathetic, but also clearly communicate to them your expectations, desires, and what you hope can be improved going forward.

If life circumstances consistently make fulfilling your “Partnership Expectations” difficult, you should discuss possible adjustments to your “Partnership Expectations” with your Improvement Partner(s).

If you are not happy with your matched Improvement Partner(s) for any reason, you may contact us and request to change Improvement Partner(s) up to every two (2) weeks. Sometimes it just takes a little time to click with someone or find your groove for how you both want to do things. Two weeks is long enough to try to make things work, but short enough that you don’t need to feel stuck. The exception to this rule is if your Partner(s) engages in any of the Prohibited Behaviors above, in which case you may contact us and we will provide a new match as soon as possible.


Conclusion

The Strive Hive is what you make it. We trust you to do your part to make the Strive Hive a positive experience for everyone so that our community can live up to its incredible potential. If needed, we will take action to ensure that one person’s choices do not ruin the experience or hinder the progress of any other person. Sometimes that just means giving someone suggestions or explicit warnings; other times it means revoking certain privileges or accounts entirely. Besides completing our check-in surveys, we request that all community members report behavior that violates our Guidelines to [email protected]. 

Please follow all of these Guidelines so we can best help you succeed. Welcome to the Hive, fellow Striver!

AGREEMENT

BY JOINING THIS COMMUNITY, YOU AGREE WITH ALL OF THE COMMUNITY GUIDELINES LISTED ABOVE AND ANY ALTERATIONS THAT MAY BE MADE IN THE FUTURE. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MODIFY THESE RULES WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE AT ANY TIME. THEREFORE, REVIEW THESE GUIDELINES FREQUENTLY. 

Copyright 2022, Cortex Evolution, LLC. All rights reserved.