Building Community

Nobody accomplished a magnificent feat on their own.

Even you. You didn’t, you haven’t and you won’t.

That’s not me being negative, it’s me saying you need to build a tribe, a community.

Work together and go further, faster.

You’ve heard that saying, we all have and if its cliche its often because its correct.

Your favourite sprinter didn’t just run fast and just continue to get faster.

They had a team of coaches, nutrition experts, mentality trainers and so much more, just so they could run faster.

The work of 10 people, to help build 1 person.

Crazy innit.

Finding Tribe vs Building Tribe

When I say ‘Tribe’, the word is interchangeable for community.

“A community is a group of living things with a shared socially significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity”

So, to accomplish great things you can and should start on your own.

(Waiting around only makes you say ‘I wish I would have started sooner’ later on)

Then as you progress through your journey, many people will come and go.

Some will help you.

Some will take from you.

Some will advise you.

Some will be advised by you.

There’s not a blueprint you can copy.

You just have to keep searching.

Ironically, its when you’re not searching is when the people essential to your journey appear.

Finding Your Tribe

If you actively seek out people who share common values, interests, aims, whatever, you will find them.

• Cold DMs on Instagram

• Reddit communities

• Twitter groups

• YouTube

• Live events

You know where your people hang out because you’re one of them.

If I played Chess and wanted more Chess friends, I would:

• Play more games on Chess.com

• Go to local chess matches

• Look on r/Chess r/Chessplayers

Actions like these are how you start to find your people.

Finding your tribe is great but it doesn’t always work.

It works, don’t get it twisted. If you seek out people, you’ll find a few.

However, they may not be around long term.

Having loads of temporary communities members is cool but ideally, you’re playing the long game, whatever that looks like to you.

I’m not saying its bad.

What I am saying is find your tribe but combine it with actively building your own.

Building A Tribe

Using myself as the example, if you read the last newsletter you know what the goals I have this year are.

Most are doable alone but not all of them are.

This is where the community comes in.

A community does not have to be big.

Big = harder to manage.

Yet you can break it down into sections

Close members > Friends > You know that person from online > Acquaintances

Not an overall accurate flow but you get my point.

My Community

You’ve probably seen the following on my social media somewhere:

• PB

• NBFO

• CTMRTTS

• LFG

• GM

• The pretzel emoji 🥨

These abbreviations and emojis have meaning to those in my community.

Whether they know what they stand for or not.

But most people can attribute them to me.

I’ve met people and they’ve asked ‘what do all those letters mean?’.

I laugh because I know exactly what they’re referring to without having to say it😂.

It’s what I’ve built just through repetition and knowing what the long game looks like for me.

Thats me, Mayday, my own community but it extends beyond that.

As an example, part of my community also looks like Grime artists from Birmingham - I made a playlist showcasing us all.

Your community can be whatever but being an active member and contributing to your community is often where you’ll get back as much as you give.

It Takes Time

You’ll come across people you think are meant to be a part but they’re not.

It happens.

They just weren’t a fit.

Just keep searching.

I’m still building as I grow.

Things will change.

The community will continue to expand. It’s how it goes.

If you’re worried about ‘How do I get into that community?’ first of all, don’t, build your own.

But if you REALLLLLLY want to be a part, I’ve found the following produces the best results for me:

Give, provide value, do things without asking FIRST

Then ask for whatever it is you need.

Humans have an ‘I owe you’ nature.

If you give me a gift, do me a favour, help me out, innately I feel indebted to you to repay it.

It’s a human thing.

NOTE: Don’t take this as me saying ‘oh yeah just give give give then anticipate they’ll give you something’, they won’t, nobody owes you anything, its nice to be nice.

However, if you keep providing value, contributing, your name will be the first when it comes to being a go-to person for whatever it is and that will present you with many great opportunities.

Be the example of people you want in your community.

Wow, that’s the most I’ve wrote on here so far.

Impressed myself 😂

See you next week!