Building a Community Around Similar Interests

This is not a real estate technology post.

This is not a post about young professionals.

This post that describes my thoughts and feelings around building a community.

Still interested???

I think it is important to belong to a group of like-minded individuals who you can share your thoughts, feelings, and concerns openly with other professionals who share a common goal.

Here are some thoughts that generated from the NSA XY in our meeting yesterday about why we belong to our group:

• Feeling comfortable about sharing confidential information with people who understands you and your career
• At the same place in your life
• Trusted co-workers
• Building a community
• Hang out with interesting people
• Overcome the isolation of thinking alone
• People who I can refer cause they are specialists
• No bullshit, no judgment, and check your egos at the door
• Intimate discussion of trusted advisers
• Comfortable sharing environment
• Flexibility to talk about key concerns
• Talk about issues that we don’t learn from meetings/conventions
• Augmenting rather than replacing
• Like minded and like hearted
• Wanting to give back to the greater good
• A water cooler where we can gather
• Avoid coming one voice as a small business owner
• Building a community

I typed these notes and didn’t change anything except for a little grammar.

These thoughts and feelings summarize a greater purpose than just earning a living, owning a business, and being an entrepreneur.  You see that I have “build a community” on there twice and it is not a typo.  The reason why we have the same thing twice makes me believe that building a community might be important.

NSA XY is a group of professional speakers who are members of the National Speakers Association and fall in the Gen X, Gen Y category.  Each individual has their own unique business model, audience, and specific thing they are known for as a professional speaker.

If you look back up at the list could any of them relate to the Baby Boomers, and GI generation?

Could these thought transfer over to other non-speaking professionals?

What stops organizations and associations from getting all members to share these feelings?

Hopefully you answered YES to the first two.  The list had nothing to do with age or any specific type of occupation, group, or industry.

Instead of answering the 3^rd question let me propose more questions to ask your group and yourself:

• Do you encourage others to freely express their opinion without judgment?
• Can you share intimate details with your group in a secure environment?
• Do open up the group to anyone who shares the same common goal?
• Do you feel that a support system is beneficial for your business?
• Do you have others you trust to refer your clients when you can’t help them?
• Does your group tolerate those who try to dominate the group?
• Does your group have the ability to refocus their priorities from a set agenda
• Talk about issues that we don’t learn from meetings/conventions
• Can you share without being physically present?
• Does each individual have a higher purpose than just making money?
• Is it refreshing to be around the people in your group?
• Can each have their each own unique opinion and be ok with that?

Meet some of our NSA XY friends that attended the first two meetings in 2010.

• Eliz Greene
• Michelle Payn-Knoper
• Kim and Jason Kotecki
• Meg Bucaro-Wojtas
• Andy Masters
• Steve Hughes
• Stacey Hanke
• Judson Laipply
• Scott Ginsberg
• Chip Lutz
• Neen James
• Craig Price
• Doug Devitre

Reach out to anyone of them and ask them their feelings and you will find out that we have become a family of trusted advisers.

My question to you is…

How can you create the same environment with age not being in your decision making?