In these times, we need grace, a good belly laugh, space to play, and music that crosses boundaries and cultures. We need Dolly Parton energy.

Through the eyes of a community builder, you can see how often and why connection opportunities get missed. It can be exhausting to be present to opportunities for connection in a world that highly values production, outcomes, and efficiency. Yet that is our work.

Trust is the key to community-building. How many times have you heard someone say that? What we often don't know is how it gets built. Here is some of what I have learned about how trust gets built.

I am helping to kickstart my UWM grad school cohort’s Slack workspace this week. We face a situation common to almost every community I’ve ever worked with: a lot of new members are joining existing students, most of whom have already forged connections. This creates a divide between the existing membership and brand new members. This divide can exclude certain members, whether we intend for it to or not.

Imagine you’ve just moved across the country. You know no one except your partner and dog, who moved with you. You want to get involved in local community efforts, make new friends, find a job, and continue your hobbies. Where do you begin?

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life… Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the [community builder’s] true friend.”

We are now entering what I've come to think of as prime "burnout season." Over the last few years, I've observed countless community builders grow exhausted and overwhelmed during the summer months. Here’s a free guide and resource to taking time off.

Context switching is something we humans try to do. When we do it, it has the opposite effect it has on a computer. We become less effective. Unfortunately, most community builders have no choice but to switch contexts. What can we do to keep up without falling apart?

Making a huge decision like this requires a lot of yeses and even more noes. Ultimately, that’s what any commitment requires: saying yes to one thing and no to most everything else.

When you are tired, you lose inspiration, and then you cannot serve anyone. For us, it often takes a walk, music, a deep breath. You need that before you snap back to the work. And you will snap back.

The most impactful communities for participants are the ones where members get to perform a meaningful part of their identity. Often, they have very little room outside of that community to perform that identity, so they look to the community as a place where expression is celebrated.

From 2015 to 2017, Canada accomplished the seemingly impossible. The number of people living in poverty in Canada dropped by 20% in just those two years. It’s an incredible feat, and community-building underpinned the entire effort.

If you build communities, you're bound to push yourself a little too hard sometimes. You do it because you care. There is so much good in that.

If you want to validate and construct a new brand community program, you can do that work in just four weeks. This is how: When you're launching any new community effort, think of filling a treehouse, not a stadium.