Stay for the community

Hey!  

I just spent 16 hours on a flight, I’m in LA for a handful of days and then I’ll be on the same 16 hour flight back. I do this twice a year. It’s definitely long and taxing, but I relish this time without WiFi, a stack of books and quality time for deep sleep. (My top 5 books from the last 3 months)

As a leader, the two most powerful things you can do in your down time is rest + learn. How are you bringing this into your week? 

Three thoughts from the last week:

1. People stay for community.

If you sell an online product — course, ebook, membership, videos — know this: people come for the product, but stay for the community. 

In a world that’s increasingly isolated, disconnected from human interaction and starving for attention, how can you be the light that brings people together?

We often find it hard to meet people with similar interests, depths and intentions… your product is the hook that brings an audience together, now help them connect and stay for longer.  Whatever you are building, how are you creating space for people to connect together? 

This point came up in a number of coaching calls I had on Intro this week.

  2. Fortress Fallacy 

David Kadavy wrote a short book in which he talks about the Fortress Fallacy. It took me weeks to get started with new projects in my early online business days. I had dreams of how I wanted my lifestyle business to function, a global team, hundreds of thousands of customers, and a lot of freedom. 

But I kept stalling. I was stagnant. Instead of just taking the first step, I held back. I wanted everything to be perfect. I did not want to just create an average business and an average life. I wanted the extraordinary results I dreamt of - and quickly.

We dream of building a fortress when we should perhaps just start with a cottage. We fool ourselves into procrastinating by exaggerating how much time we really need. Start small so the fortress fallacy doesn't hold you back. 

3. Origin by Ava Duvernay

I watched this exceptional film on the flight. Highly recommend! Based on the journey of the author Isabel Wilkerson who wrote “Caste: The Origins of our Discontents” who discovered the connections between African American slavery, the Dalits of India and Nazi.  

“Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you’re focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don’t have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited. My way was to work, make my short… make my documentary… make my small films… use my own money… raise money myself… and stay shooting and focused on each project.” - Ava Duvernay

What have you watched recently that I should check out?

That’s it for this week! 

Talk soon,

Kavit