🌈 Every week I ship a community newsletter because I believe in the power of educating people through the voice and discovery of others.
This week we cover:
- The 3 Ingredients of World Building
- The events calendar at Rosieland
- Invest in community like you invest in your assets
- State of Community Onboarding
- Running a local lodge for your internet friends
- A Dissection of the Tech Ladies Vibrant Free and Paid Community Model
- How Weak Social Ties Can Have a Meaningful Effect on Our Happiness
- Social Learning: The Heartbeat of Communities and Networks
- Five reasons to have friends you disagree with
First, a big thank you to our sponsors.
The 3 Ingredients of World Building
Worldbuilding is one of those frilly phrases that gets thrown around a lot in certain circles...but how does this work in a startup context?
Sarah Drinkwater shares 3 world building ingredients:
(1) Firstly, a company needs a strong story that sets the tone.
(2) Then, secondly, this story helps build alignment both internally and externally (attracting talent + moving them in the same direction).
(3) Thirdly, together, these create the conditions for an ecosystem to thrive around your product (people who believe in and want to contribute to the world you’re building ). We might call this a community.
The events calendar at Rosieland
In 2023 I was burnt out from virtual events. In 2024 I'm bringing them back, for free. My focus is to bring in some community energy and raise up new and diverse voices.
Last week we had almost 100 people RSVP for Ece Kurtaraner's workshop on the building blocks of community.
I'm hosting some open discussions on all things community discovery, conversations and flywheels. I'll announce some from other members soon too.
Visit our event page to RSVP for free or get in touch if you'd like to host a workshop.
Invest in community like you invest in your assets
And this would be me, Rosie, hashing out a thought that's part of an upcoming article. I feel people expect too much of community without the willingness to invest themselves into it.
Whilst it is a possibility, people don't expect to see an immediate financial return on their investments.
Then, why do people expect immediate results in community?
People say community doesn't work, but usually it is because they haven't invested their time and attention into it.
Investing in community is a long-term game, stop expecting otherwise.
State of Community Onboarding
Gareth Wilson is crazy like me and signs up for communities for research purposes. 😆
He researched 127 communities to bring you the State of Community Onboarding report.
Running a local lodge for your internet friends
Is it an event? A retreat? Or a coworking session? 😃
Richard Bartlett rents a house in Spain to experiment with all of the above.
Nati and I have just started a 3-month experiment: we’ve rented a big house in Spain to host our friends & clients.
We moved in two weeks ago, and just wrapped up the first event. I want to encourage more people to do something similar. So in this post I’m mostly going to focus on the economics of this experiment. But first I’m going to contextualise what we’re doing within a broader movement.
A Dissection of the Tech Ladies Vibrant Free and Paid Community Model
A community dissection led by Bri Leever
In this episode we dissect one of the best examples I’ve ever come across of a community that integrates a job board and hiring network. Join Rynn, Margaux, and myself (Bri) as we dissect the new member experience in the Tech Ladies Community.
This amazing community of practice has a free version (which we dissect here) as well as a paid, founding membership with access to an additional private community.
How Weak Social Ties Can Have a Meaningful Effect on Our Happiness
In the community industry we often talk about the need for depth, but sometimes we need the opposite of that. Polina Pompliano explores the benefit of weak social ties:
The weak social ties you develop also build community. The barista that knows your coffee order, the hair stylist who tells you about her summer plans, and the dentist you’ve known for 10 years — they’re all part of your own personal community.
People often talk about moving out of big cities to the suburbs in search of “community,” but ironically, it’s possible to accidentally isolate yourself by eliminating these micro-moments you have with strangers if you’re not intentional about seeking them out.
Weak ties bring surprise and novelty. You could learn something new or meet someone wildly fascinating. Remember, small talk doesn’t have to be empty talk. Those frequent opportunities for connection might actually be one of the most valuable parts of your day.
Social Learning: The Heartbeat of Communities and Networks
Doug Belshaw explores the collective and social experience of learning...
Often, when reflecting on ‘learning’, people recall their days of compulsory schooling, filled with specific content to learn and tests to complete. Yet, when we stop to think about it, most learning experiences differ from this. From learning to tie shoelaces, to the intricacies of how to interact on a social network, we learn by imitation and from others.
In other words, learning occurs both unintentionally and intentionally, both solo and collectively. It’s something that happens daily in all different kinds of ways. So when we’re thinking of designing learning experiences with and for others, we need to be aware of different forms of learning; each can be used effectively for various purposes.
Five reasons to have friends you disagree with
Or five reasons to build community with people you disagree with. 🙂
It's never a bad time to increase the diversity of your friends, community and network. Marta Brzosko gives us a great reminder how.
Some of my friends make me more comfortable than others because their worldviews comply with my own. Others challenge me constantly, exposing that what I believe in is just that — beliefs.
🙏 Thanks for making it to the end of this newsletter
This is my last Rosieland Roundup of the 2023. Every share, open, click, sponsor, subscriber has helped me to "just keep going".
It's been a rough year for many people. I hope 2024 can bring better days. ❤️
