🌍 The Origin Story 🌍
From The Sacred Pause to Strategic Action
In February 2020, our founder, Annie Paraison, did something radical: she chose herself.
She walked away from the security of a long-standing role, without a clear next step, into the unknown. She carried nothing but a whisper from within: live in alignment with your values. What felt like uncertainty at the time was actually a profound act of self-trust, a first step toward a legacy rooted in authenticity, courage, and collective care.
That year, the world shifted, and so did Annie. Amid the global stillness of 2020, she found clarity in quiet walks through the park, just thirty steps from her doorstep. It was a time of deep reflection and spiritual transformation. She began to ask different questions:
Who benefits when we conform? What does it mean to live freely? How can we create systems that center healing rather than harm?
In this sacred pause, Love Before ALL was born.
LBA is more than an organization; it is a movement. It is a vessel for personal and collective transformation, built on the belief that people thrive when they are seen, valued, and held by someone willing to mirror their possibility.
We center a world-shifting kind of love; the kind that transforms systems, bridges divides, and names injustice. We exist to challenge value systems that marginalize authenticity, growth, and courage. Through strategic consulting, educational initiatives, and community-centered healing, we are guided by one principle: People first. Always.
We believe in a world where freedom is the standard and love is the strategy. A more loving world is not a world without conflict; it is one where we are empowered to confront harm with humanity and navigate struggle with support.
Vision
We envision a “Beloved Community where all humans are skillfully regulated and in nurturing and harmonious relationships.
Mission
We activate relationship power to optimize wellness and increase the global capacity for compassion.
Love Before ALL was created on the belief that love is the most powerful lever for transformation. As such the company's goal is to grow compassion from the inside out by helping people, organizations, and communities build relationships, systems, and cultures rooted in love, wellness, and freedom until Beloved Community (as defined by Kingian Nonviolence), becomes our shared reality.
We practice activating relationship power to optimize wellness and help our partners create cultures of alignment, wholeness, and belonging. We organize coaching, facilitation, professional development, conflict management, and strategic planning under our growth framework allowing transformation to occur at the micro, meso, and macro levels by operationalizing love.
We host a mini series titled “Love as A Strategy” aimed at teaching applicable life and leadership skills as well as the Talk to Me: Conversations on Relationship Power Podcast to demonstrate the various ways to lead with relationships at the center.
Love is not simply an idea or a sentiment, it is a strategy we live by.
All Children Excel Nashville
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University of Tennessee Knoxville
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From Roots to Wings
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Harlem 9
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Raising Readers Nashville
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Prince George's County Public Schools
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Read To Succeed (UWGN)
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Nashville Public Library
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Vanderbilt Child and Family Center
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Connecting Our Resources for Educators (CORE Network)
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Unique Kids
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Konscious Youth Development & Service
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Golestan Kids
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All Children Excel Nashville ✳︎ University of Tennessee Knoxville ✳︎ From Roots to Wings ✳︎ Harlem 9 ✳︎ Raising Readers Nashville ✳︎ Prince George's County Public Schools ✳︎ Read To Succeed (UWGN) ✳︎ Nashville Public Library ✳︎ Vanderbilt Child and Family Center ✳︎ Connecting Our Resources for Educators (CORE Network) ✳︎ Unique Kids ✳︎ Konscious Youth Development & Service ✳︎ Golestan Kids ✳︎
The Why
Our Beginning and Belief
Love Before ALL (LBA) was created to remind the world that relationships are not peripheral to the work, they are the work. The world is facing a deep relational deficit. As human beings who are hardwired for connection; we are paying for this disconnection with declining health among adults and children and with a rise in loneliness during a time when technology keeps us more connected than ever before. We are leading and living from fractured relationships, which leaves our systems reactive and unjust. When relationships are rooted in love, care, and awareness, transformation becomes possible.
💎 LBA Organizational Narrative💎
The What
Our Impact and Expression
LBA offers coaching, professional development, facilitation, culture design, conflict management and strategic planning. Each service is intentionally crafted to create change from the inside out by cultivating compassion that strengthens individuals, aligns teams, and transforms communities. We measure success by the quality of relationships built AND key performance indicators. Our work has supported schools, nonprofits, coalitions, and leaders who are ready to embed love and wellness into how they lead, create, collaborate, and grow.
The How
Our Approach
LBA activates relationship power and the capacity within people and systems to create harmony and healing through connection. Our framework, built on growing compassion from the inside out, guides this transformation. We help our partners move from insight to embodiment by facilitating the design of strategies, structures, and cultures that sustain wellness and justice over time. Through this approach, growth becomes relational, intentional, and lasting.
The Vision
Our Future and Invitation
Our goal is to increase the world’s capacity for compassion in this lifetime through love, learning, and collective action. LBA envisions skillfully regulated adults guiding people, organizations, and communities through harmonious and nurturing relationships that are primed for Beloved Community (as defined by Kingian Nonviolence). We invite leaders, caregivers, and communities to grow with us to build relationships, systems, and cultures that honor the truth that we belong to one another.
Our Framework
At Love Before ALL, our work is rooted in a simple yet powerful truth: lasting change begins from the inside out. Through our Grow the Me, Grow the We, and Grow the Collective framework, we help individuals, teams, and communities transform unconscious patterns into conscious compassion by operationalizing love. We focus on activating relationship power and cultivating compassion to create the conditions where people thrive, organizations flourish, and communities move closer to Beloved Community.
GROW THE “ME”
Change begins within. "Grow the Me" focuses on cultivating self-awareness, emotional regulation, and purpose alignment. This work helps individuals lead themselves with clarity, compassion, and courage so they can bring their best selves to every relationship and responsibility.
GROW THE “WE”
Transformation deepens through connection. "Grow the We" strengthens “Me” in the relationships, cultures, and systems that shape how people work together. Through collaboration, communication, and care, teams learn to build trust, align around shared values, and create cultures where everyone belongs and contributes.
GROW “THE COLLECTIVE”
Sustainable change expands outward. "Grow the Collective" strengthens the “ME” and the “WE” by activating partnership, shared vision, and compassion across organizations and communities. This work connects efforts, informs policy, amplifies impact, and nurtures the conditions for Beloved Community where justice, wellness, and love are woven into the fabric of how we live and lead together.
Our Organizational Goal
Love Before ALL grows compassion from the inside out, helping people, organizations, and communities build relationships, systems, and cultures rooted in love, wellness, and freedom, until Beloved Community becomes our shared reality.
