The Power Of Community

Every January I spend an inordinate amount of time on the road meeting with clients, partners, and prospects face-to-face at industry events around the country. It’s draining hitting six events in five cities in four weeks, but the benefits are undeniable. And one of those key benefits is the strengthening of community.

Call me old fashioned, but there’s something about grabbing a meal or drink together in person, seeing clients’ ground-level operations, and talking to customers and finding out how our brand-side counterparts are really doing. Can you do some of that on Zoom? Sure. But it’s not nearly as effective.

Oftentimes, marketing leaders and entrepreneurs are left to fend for themselves. Most of the time their teams are understaffed – or they alone make up the entire marketing department – and they’re not really getting any benefit of accountability, third party insights, or encouragement from others that are in the trenches, too.

And it shows – I’m not sure I’ve ever spoken to so many business leaders that are scared, tired, frustrated, and fed up with their current state of affairs. People are, understandably, wearing thin. Throw in the fact that most of the time they’re working from home and struggling to find work-life balance and you’ve got a recipe for burnout.

Community doesn’t cure all, but it sure as hell helps.

Personally, my best growth as a leader – and as the CEO of Fidelitas – came once I was able to connect with other agency owners on a deeper level. The shared insights and perspectives alone upped my game as a CEO and helped take Fidelitas to the next level.

But here’s the thing – what are we doing to enable community not only for ourselves, but also for our teams? One of my top priorities in the first half of 2023 is to enable our team to build broader communities for continued growth. As leaders, we have to keep feeding into our teams.

That’s not rocket science, but we often forget to feed into ourselves along the way.

All that to say – if you’re a founder, CEO, or marketing leader and you feel like you’re at your wits’ end, we’re here for you.

Because at the end of the day, we’re all in this together. And we could all use a little more community.