+10. Love this, Alex. It's the heart of the matter... community can't be done in "ones", it's can't be "strategically planned" on paper, and it can't be done in a vacuum. It's chaotic, wonderful, messy, energizing, time-consuming, and quite often a meandering path of surprises. It's not about the *do*, but the *be*.
Thanks to all of you who are focusing on community in what you do! Thanks & God Bless, Joel Bennett Veel Hoeden On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 11:15 AM, Alex Hillman <[email protected] > wrote: > Hey Lisa! > > Community building feels most elusive when you're getting started because > you want to *do* something. You want to *start* something. But like you > said...you want it to feel natural, not forced or fake. > > The counterintuitive answer is that the community you're looking for is > all around you. It's people. They're already there, already doing things! > > Step one is to meet them where they are. Get curious. Don't start > something new of your own....go look for *any*where that people are > already gathering. And focus on getting to know who they are. It's a lot of > one-on-one work. It feels slow at first. That's normal. > > Then, as you start to get to know people, you can start to notice patterns > in what you learn about people. The things they do, professionally and in > their free time. Where do they hang out? What kinds of lives do they live? > What goals do they have? What do they enjoy the most? What do they enjoy > the least? > > Looking for patterns gives you the opportunity to start bringing people > together > <https://dangerouslyawesome.com/2014/04/community-management-tummling-a-tale-of-two-mindsets/> > in > ways that feel natural, and require SO much less effort than workshops and > network events. > > The last step that I mention in my most basic community building playbook > <http://dangerouslyawesome.com/first> is to lead by example. Sometimes > all people need is someone else to step up and say "that's a great idea, we > should do that together." That's where you can be the catalyst. > > Just remember that the *temptation* is going to be for you to do > everything. And yes, you'll need to take the lead on some things. > > But successful, sustainable community building is more about noticing > things that are about to happen and encouraging them than trying to > pressure-cook things into existence. :) Make sense? > > -Alex > > > > > ------------------ > *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* > Better Coworkers: http://indyhall.org > Weekly Coworking Tips: http://coworkingweekly.com > My Audiobook: https://theindyhallway.com/ten > > On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 11:58 AM, Lisa Dimond <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hello! My name is Lisa Dimond. My family and I opened ecafe, a >> coworking coffeehouse, in Overland Park, KS, in October 2016. Here's our >> website (which is a work-in-progress): www.ecafecoffee.com. We also >> have another website, www.visitecafe.com, which is in the process of >> being merged with the coffee one. Originally we thought we needed to be 2 >> separate entities, but we are now presenting as one. >> >> I mainly run the coffee shop portion of our setup, but I am starting to >> take over the coworking space as well. I am really interested in how to >> build community in our space. Everything I read talks about building >> community as one of the top priorities in a coworking space. I just don't >> know where to start. I need specific examples, please. >> >> Do I hold workshops? If so, how do I go about finding them? Do I charge >> for them, or make them free? >> >> I want to hold networking events, but don't know where to start. I don't >> want them to be stuffy and fake; I want it to feel natural. >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
