40 RSVP’d to our first event with just a few texts and one post.
Most heard about it from a friend, not from any marketing.
That’s when I realized community far outweighs strategy...
Hey friend,
Sorry, its been a few weeks since I’ve hit your inbox!
I’ve been building more than writing lately.
I wanted to share what I’ve learned about community over the past 6 months:
- What it means for building impact businesses
- Why it matters more than you think
- And the messy reality of doing it right
What community means (as a builder, and human)
The last decade has been a whirlwind: 3 cities across three continents, 7 new roles, 5 projects launched (with varying levels of success).
The hardest part wasn’t the career pivots or new projects.
It was rebuilding community every time I moved, finding people who actually feel like home.
Sometimes teammates became family overnight. Other times, it took months of awkward events and feeling like I just wanted to move back to be with my family.
Finding my community in Melbourne has been harder, but in the past 6 months I really feel like I’ve found my people.
And they show up big.
You may know (even though we’ve been terrible about sharing publicly), I’ve been building a community-based business with my dear friend Angel for the past 6 months.
We’re officially launching in the coming weeks.
It’s called Make Space: a place where impact builders gather to connect, share, and grow together.
No pitches, no transactional networking, just real conversations with people doing meaningful work.
For our first in-person Melbourne gathering, we sent a few texts and made one post.
40 RSVPs rolled in.
Most people said they heard about it from a friend.
This is what real community looks like.
Side note: let me know if you want to join the next Make Space gathering, we're currently running global circles online and in-person ones in Melbourne and Berlin.
Community > Strategy
I'm now convinced community far outweighs strategy.
Don't get me wrong, strategy is important. (If it wasn't, I'd be out of a job.)
But strategy changes constantly.
You try things, they fail, you learn, you pivot.
It's reactive, fluid, always evolving. Many ways to win means many points of failure.
Community is constant. Steady.
It roots for you. It grows around you and wraps you in support, love, and motivation when you need it most.
What Angel and I are building with Make Space has a lot of potential.
But it's already getting the chance to succeed because of our community, not because we have the perfect go-to-market strategy or growth model.
I'll take that over a "solid strategy" any day.
The people making this real
I've been immersed in community building lately, learning from masters like Jem and Abbey.
But I'm also learning from the people showing up and making this real:
Holly has attended every Make Space gathering and even hosted our Under 30 in Impact takeover.
Her care and intention behind the work she does is inspiring.
She's got extensive experience in Impact Investment and Venture Building, and is open to freelance work right now 👀. I couldn't recommend her enough.
Alex and I have been supporting each other's work for most of this year.
She co-hosted the Under 30 gathering with Holly, helping us co-create what great Make Space partnerships look like.
Check out the Creative Innovative Network she's building, their events are unique and filled with genuine connections.
Brianna has generously shared her experience building community around Five Bucks and consistently shows up for me, even when she has a million other things going on.
Five Bucks is pushing for new members so they can give away $150k to charity next year.
I'm a Buckaroo myself 🦘. Trusted giving on autopilot with fun, informative updates. No brainer.
I'm spotlighting people from my community because part of what makes this fulfilling is that I genuinely feel better when they succeed.
It's easy to put my community before myself.
The realities of building community (around a business)
In this journey, building community both for myself and for the businesses I'm part of, a few realities have really hit home:
It's messy (in a good way)
The lines between friends, partners, and colleagues blur. The best moments in building this community happen when we're not talking about impact or entrepreneurship at all.
It's a reminder that we're whole people with wide lives. I want to know more about you than just the impact work you do.
It's a grind (if you do it right)
There are "quick fix" communities for sure, but they mostly feel like bolted-on marketing channels for businesses.
The reality is that intentional community building is a long, time-consuming journey.
But it's time very well spent.
It's deeply fulfilling
Not just for me and the projects I collaborate on, it's deeply fulfilling seeing people connect and succeed.
A common phrase in Angel's and my meetings lately: "reciprocal value."
We want community members and collaborators to get as much, if not more value than we're getting.
I feel like this is A. good practice to maintain integrity and relationships and B. just feels good.
It feels good helping others. That's why we do this work. That's why you're here.
The more we can remember that, even when the business world wants you to exploit every opportunity in front of you, the better.
As someone with a background in startups, product strategy, and SaaS, I never thought I'd be building a community business. But it's one of the most rewarding things I've worked on.
We're hosting our next Make Space gathering soon.
Reply to this email and I'll send you the details.
Because the best strategy is building with the right people.
