I am getting into my stride now, this is my 3rd Newsletter within the LinkedIn Newsletter service. I now have 3,892 subscribers, and I am very grateful
I am now assuming that anyone that is subscribing is curious about why I believe that every business will have ‘community’ as part of their customer delivery, our belief in ‘Community Led Growth – #CLG as Thomas has advised me to start using.
Last week I shared what the 3 people and their insights did to create the foundation of what we believed the Internet could bring to humanity in 1998. (shared here in last week’s newsletter)
In 1997 I read the two books that I referred to, Permission Marketing by Seth Godin and Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. Both are a reflection of the two sides to me, my business head and my spiritual, deeper beliefs around emotions and human consciousness.
I fundamentally believe that when you create the right environment for people to thrive, they will. A belief since a child, when I battled a negative environment; my desire as a ‘grown up’ was always to create the opposite. If you build a culture that is emotionally aspirational, surely that would give permission for people to show their best side, the side that is all too often hidden in business.
So we all have two worlds. Our social and our business, and in the past, the two were very different. I remember seeing my dad at home and comparing him, to the dynamic, happy, friendly man at work. Even in his Eulogy recently, I found myself expressing the man he was to others, not the man he was for me. Why do we feel we can’t be one person? Why do we create an identity that is not really the true us?
I always believed that ‘who you are’, was so much more important in life than ‘what you are’. Your ‘true self’ is your ‘who’ and as Brene Brown says in her book ‘Daring Greatly‘, ‘what you do matters’ but who you are matters more’.
Let us imagine a world of total truth around who you are. No pretending, no ‘fake it until you make it’, just a place of comfort and a trust in the people around you. Can you imagine the impact that has on others? The permission you give them to let their guard down, to create a human level playing field, where we are all vulnerable, where none of us is brilliant at everything, where we are invited to give help, and we are not scared to ask for it, to appreciate that ‘having vulnerabilities, does not impact your ‘credibility’. This is a great read if anyone is fearing their ‘likeability’ if they show a ‘vulnerability’, The surprising traits that make people well-liked’. This critical message here is, truth makes you trustworthy, and that is what we all seek to be, surely?
To me, this place that I describe as ‘community’ is not a network. It is holistically covering your needs and the needs of others. It is about reciprocity, kindness and love, and amazingly, it is where ‘emotional wealth leads to financial wealth.’ The ‘internal’ market that rises up is the most sustainable market for any business.
So next week? I will share how I have witnessed my beliefs, seen the joy and the growth within Community, and why it really is the most beautiful asset to build in your business.
*This blog was first published on my LinkedIn newsletter
