This article originally appeared on catjohnson.co.
When I advise people about starting a community, whether virtual or in-person, the first thing I tell them is to seed their community with the people they want to be in the community; their ideal members.
These people should be community-minded, generous, and collaborative because they will set the tone for the entire community.
This is your minimum viable community
These first members help create a vibe that grows as more people join. This is how we set the initial vibe in the Coworking Creators Lab; it’s how I launched the Park City Marketing Club; and it’s how great coworking spaces launch … and relaunch.
I say relaunch because, while it’s nice to have a collaborative vibe in your space and community from the beginning, you can relaunch the vibe at any time. But it takes being honest with members about what you’re working to build, challenges you’re facing, and how they can help you.
This is where coworking space operators and community builders tend to fall off. It feels risky to be vulnerable; to acknowledge that things aren’t perfect in your space; to share that your vision is bigger that what you’re currently seeing.
Create with your community
But you can’t create something extraordinary if you’re afraid of getting real with yourself and your community.
So clarify what you want, gather a handful of people who are aligned with your vision, and enlist them to help you seed and attract more perfect-fit members who will be welcomed into a generous, connected community they can participate in and contribute to.
This is where the good stuff is.
And it isn’t limited to your community at-large. You can take this approach with an event, a new club within your space, a community project, a workshop series, or anything else you’d like to bring into your space.
The trick is that you build and create things with your community, not for them.
Because you can’t build a community from the outside. You have to hop right in and build together from the inside.
