Community happens when people get together.

Community is the energy that emerges when people connect. Depending on the context it can be motivating, encouraging, empathetic, galvanizing. Or it could be much more.

You can create spaces for community to happen. A community center. An online forum. A group text chain. But it's not community if people aren't together.

When people do come together, the frequency and proximity of those gatherings define the health of that community.

Forget about vanity metrics like visits, posts, likes, or DMs. Those are just attempts to quantify connection.

What really matters is how often people meet and how much time they spend together.

Consider typical social institutions like church on Sunday. Or teachers and students in school who meet Monday through Friday. Or people at their jobs.

Sometimes these communities form by choice, sometimes by circumstance. But they're all defined by regular, significant time spent together.

As a community builder, you will be tempted to focus on creating the perfect space or platform. Any company that has a platform will do their best to have you focus on this perfection mindset.

Don't fall into the trap.

The space is just a stage. The real show is the human interaction that happens on it.

You can't anticipate everything your community will do or want. A group will function differently than any individual would. It's an organism, not a machine.

Building communities isn't about grand plans or perfect visions. Your assumptions about what people want are probably wrong.

Interviewing potential members is great, but put those same people in a room together, and they become an organism, functioning differently than any individual would.

Instead of building forever, your job is to create small, concentrated, time-bound community experiences.

Think of them as community speed dating.

For participants, they get what they came for without long-term commitment. For you, you learn, observe, and iterate without overinvesting.

Each of these mini-communities is a zero-to-one opportunity, bursting with data, experience, and energy. It's your crash course in understanding who to serve, how to serve them, and why.

This isn't easy.

There's real tension in bringing people together. These are real humans with real questions and concerns. You're actually engaging, not just smiling at a stranger before putting your headphones back on.

The more you do it, the better you get.

You'll become a master facilitator, learning how to set up guardrails for desired behavior without being a tyrant.

Every time you bring people together, whether online or in person, you're doing something powerful.

You're serving the greater good, even if you have your own goals in mind.

This skill, this ability to build community in almost any setting, is your secret weapon.

It'll set you apart from the competition, make you an asset in any job, and surround you with a group of people who are walking the same path.

Genuine community is the ultimate cheat code.