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Creating Community is Crucial to Any Business

I talk a lot about community on this podcast because I truly believe that community is the foundation to getting things done in your business. For me, community is not only my foundation, it’s also my lifeline. When I feel like I want to quit or give up, I reach out to someone in my community and ask them for help. Community keeps me going. It also inspires me. It inspires me to try new things, to know that I’m not alone, and to truly believe in myself and make things happen. Without my community, my business would fail. So in today’s episode, I’m sharing all about creating community in your business.

Mindset Matters

A few episodes ago, I talked about the mindset shift you need to accomplish anything. Showing up as if you’ve already achieved your goals is going to be a seismic shift in your business. I truly believe that! Mindset matters even more than strategy, in my opinion. You can have all the best strategies in the world, but if you don’t have the right mindset, it’s doomed from the start. So what do you do when your mindset is not in the right place? What if you don’t believe that you can accomplish your goals? What if you are having a hard time and the negative thoughts are surrounding you everywhere? You go to your community and ask for support. Let’s talk about some places to find community.

The Rising Tide Society

I’ve said it before and I’ll never stop saying it. Most of my community comes from The Rising Tide Society. It’s a FREE group of creative entrepreneurs and small business owners gathering in the spirit of community over competition. Their mindset is “a rising tide lifts all boats” and they believe when one person in the group wins, we all win. They have chapters all over the world, and you can find one local to you. You can go to honeybook.com/risingtide to find a group near you or you can reach out to me at greenville.therisingtidesociety.com to help you find a group near you. If you listen to the podcast episode or download the transcript, I tell you how this community works in my life practically.

Monday Mindset Calls

Another place you can find community for free is by joining my Monday Mindset calls. I host these every week at 10am Eastern time. We gather for one hour and let go of negative thoughts/feelings that are holding us back. Then, we spend some time brainstorming and prioritizing goals. It’s a great way to kickstart your workweek and get on the right foot from the beginning. It’s a group of women in business ready to lift each other up & cheer each other on. The best part? It’s totally free. I would LOVE to see you there. Consider this your personal invitation. You can join at christijohnsoncreative.com/monday

Local Social Groups Online (Facebook, Meetup, etc)

Another place to find community is in local online groups. You can find local affinity groups online like book clubs or people interested in a certain topic. In my city, I’m in the general group for our city on facebook, a young professionals group, a social group for 20s & 30s, and a female empowerment group. These are all local groups. Some of them have meetups consistently. Look for groups like that near you. If they don’t have meetups hosted by the groups themselves, then you can look for posts of people asking for community. Or write one yourself! Just the other day I saw a post in one of the groups where someone was looking to connect with other business owners who want to support each other. I was able to tell her about our local RTS meetup.

Business Networking Groups

You can also look into business networking groups. I’ve found these to be hit or miss for me. Some of them are truly community oriented, and some of them are more transactional instead of relational. Most groups will let you visit a couple of times before joining officially, so you’ll be able to see if they pass your vibe check. Don’t know where to find your local networking groups? Ask someone you know! You can ask a business owner you know personally, or ask someone at a local business you love how they network for their business.

Take it One Step at a Time

It might take a little bit to piece together your community, and that’s okay. Keep showing up! I seen that one relationship can lead to another relationship, which can lead to another relationship. And then another one. Eventually you’ll find that little piece or that one person that leads you to something else, to where all of a sudden you realize, oh, I have that community. I am building this for myself little by little. And you’ll be able to see all the steps that youtook to get there. And one day you’ll be surprised at how your community will show up for you if you have the right people. 

Start a Group Yourself

If there are no groups around you that are the right fit, why don’t you start one? You could be the person that starts that amazing community that other people are looking for. All it takes is getting together with one other person. They can invite someone, you can invite someone else, and then it can grow from there. The Rising Tide Society started with just four people meeting at a coffee shop. They got together and said “Are we alone? Is there another way to do networking than this transactional approach?” They realized there was another way, and they weren’t alone. And now there are over 70,000 members across the world. So if you can’t find a group that’s what you’re looking for you, what if you started it? What if you were the one creating community for others?

That’s what I’m doing with these Monday Mindset calls. I created the group that I wanted and now we have a group meeting ever Monday. And you can join us too! Get all the details at christijohnsoncreative.com/monday

If you need more help finding community, please reach out to me. I’m always happy to help. You can email me at christi@christijohnsoncreative.com or DM me on Instagram.

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