building a community as an entrepreneur

Starting and running a business can be really lonely. There’s a lot of early mornings and late nights working on your dream all by yourself. You may have people around you that support you and want you to succeed but there’s no coworker or anyone that truly relates to talk to and share the same feelings with. I’ll never forget how hard it was to find like-minded people to connect with when I started my photography business, it was really freaking hard. Most of the time people have a scarcity mindset vs an abundant mindset, meaning they believe that there’s only so much success to go around and if someone else is successful they can’t be — that’s just not the case.

Recently as my brand has grown, I’ve been able to connect and grow a community of like-minded people and it’s been so beneficial for all of my businesses. John Maxwell says if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. You are who you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with 5 successful entrepreneurs, you’ll become the 6th. If you surround yourself with 5 millionaires, you’ll become the 6th. If you surround yourself with 5 positive thinkers, you’ll become the 6th. If you surround yourself with 5 unmotivated people, you’ll also become the 6th. You need to give yourself room to grow and if you outgrow people, you’re allowed to move on, and if you don’t you’ll stop growing right along with them.

I used to hold myself back when it came to building community. I made up all of the excuses. I’m an introvert. I live in a small town. I don’t know anyone like me. Nobody will like me. Nobody will show up. There aren’t people like that around here. Until one day I called myself out on my own bullshit and decided that it was time to start connecting with people if I wanted to level up in life.

My top tips for building your community:

Be the Person to Reach Out

Listen, as an introvert, I know how hard it is to be the person to reach out to people, but you have to initiate the conversation. If there’s not a group of like-minded people already established you have to be the one to establish it. I’m sure at one point you wished that someone would reach out to you and invite you to their awesome events, coffee dates, brunches, etc. be that person.

Keep Showing Up

At first, you’re probably going to get a lot of no’s. You’ll probably have a lot of no-shows to the social hours you work really hard to put on for people. It’s gonna be disappointing and discouraging — I won’t lie to you. Expect it and keep showing up anyways. Everything starts small and everything worth having takes work to build. Keep going, you will attract the right people.

Know Your Worth

The whole point of this is to surround yourself with like-minded people. People that inspire you. People that encourage and support you. People that can teach you. Know that you’re worth this and don’t settle for anything less. I know, it sounds a little harsh, but don’t settle for anyone less than what you deserve.

Be Yourself

There is no other you, that is your superpower (insert your eye roll here). I know — you’ve heard it a million times and you probably have your own thoughts on this because we’re all the hardest on ourselves, but it’s true. There’s no mold that you have to fit to build this community. People can sense when you’re being inauthentic and they don’t like it, I mean do you like when you can see someone being inauthentic? Be yourself, there are people out there looking for you.

I know it can be hard but I promise you, it’s worth it.