Building a Supportive Entrepreneurial Community: Why It Matters

[00:00:00] Angela: Hi, and welcome to this episode of the Overkeeper’s Anonymous podcast. I am your host, Angela Mondor. Today I want to talk to you about something really cool, and it’s the supportive entrepreneurial community. Like, why does it matter that we support ourselves? with other entrepreneurs. Why is it important for us to create this amazing vibe of people?

I’ll tell you why. Number one reason is because it helps us feel like we’re not alone. Let’s take this for example right now. I’m sitting in a, I don’t know, 10 by 12 room. I don’t know how big this room is. This is my office. It is probably, I am probably sitting about 20 feet away from where I sleep every night.

I am in my home. And to me, working out of my home is a blessing. It also can be. You because you’re you can be alone a lot of times putting in the work. And if you are alone in that way, then it can cause it can. It can hinder your mental health, but it can also hinder your entrepreneurial growth as well.

So let’s get into why having the supportive entrepreneurial community community around you is so so very important. Part of it is because You can learn from other people. If you’re in your own bubble, if you’re in your own column of information then you don’t have things outside of your own knowledge to be able to compare whether or not it is the right method or whether or not there’s other methods out there.

Having other people who you trust, that you know. That you like, right, that whole know, like and trust thing to give you some perspective on some other ways to handle things that are happening in your entrepreneurial journey can be really, really important. The strong network can provide you with encouragement and motivation, valuable insights into what’s happening.

Not just where you are, but where they are as well. I love the fact that I am connected to people from all over the world. I get to hear what’s happening from each of their mouths as to what’s happening. Not, I don’t have to rely on the news or I don’t have to rely on you know, Other avenues to get what’s happening around the world.

I should have to talk to my entrepreneurial friends to find out what’s happening around the world. We get to share our statistics and studies and we get to share. We get to share positive things with each other and to be positive impacts for each other in each other’s businesses as well. So those are some reasons why I feel like creating and curating this supportive environment is really important to me and to a lot of the other business owners that I work with.

that I’m connected to. So finding your vibe, figuring out how to connect with like minded entrepreneurs. There’s so many different ways to do it. You can join things like forums or groups or blogs, or you can find podcasts where people are you know, learning from different, maybe find a podcast, but they have a bunch of different people who are on the podcast as guests or those kinds of things.

You want to focus on. People who think not necessarily exactly like you, but have similar ideas I don’t encourage you to find people that just think the same thing as you, because at the end of the day, if you’re surrounding yourself with people who just support what you believe, then you’re not learning or growing at all.

I think it’s important to have people that, May have differencing opinions than I do. And so we can have communication about those things. And maybe I can learn and grow in ways that I never thought possible. So, it isn’t just about finding people who are exactly like you. But, finding people who have the same sort of values in mind.

For me, I like to find people who are open minded. Who are willing to learn. To grow people who are willing to have conversations about differencing opinions who are able to share their own experiences in the world so that other people can learn from them. I want to surround myself with people who are advocates for people who need to be supported.

Marginalized community members. I want I want people to be positive and uplifting. I will, I don’t mean to say that we all have to be happy all the time because nobody’s happy all the time. There are times when we’re down, but I definitely want to make sure that we are most looking towards being in a positive environment and looking for ways to be.

Positive. Not looking for ways to be more miserable. Get me? So who, what is your vibe? What are the kinds of people that you want to surround yourself with? And look for those kinds of people. Now, you can join these communities. Online offline. Maybe there’s some, you know, groups in your neighborhood that get together personally that you want to be part of.

Maybe they’re part of the Chamber of Commerce or maybe there are some networking groups that are local that makes sense to you to be part of. Maybe there are some things groups online. Maybe they’re in Facebook groups or masterminds or There’s so many different ways that we can connect with other human beings to be part of organizations and groups together.

Masterminds are a great way to do that because you’re all learning and growing about one specific, specific thing. You might not all have the same map, like the same. Beliefs, but you’re all trying to learn the same things, and so that brings you together in a group, right? So shared interests and goals, those kinds of things, you want to, I, I’ll put this on me, I want a supportive community.

I don’t know what you’re looking for, but I always want to find a supportive community. I want people who are going to stand behind me and go, yay, she did it, rather than go, oh my god, did she really do that? And I want to be the person standing behind other people saying, woohoo, go for it. You did great.

Regardless of whether I’m trying to help the same kinds of people in the same kinds of ways another business owner, that part doesn’t matter to me. I want an abundance mindset from everybody that is part of this community. That’s the number one. I really want to make sure that everybody has an abundance mindset or they’re willing and open to learning about being in abundance mindset and learning how to have that as part of their lives.

Because at the end of the day, I will vibe with certain people who are trying to accomplish x, y, and z, and I won’t with others. And it’s really important that they find their right person to deal with as well, right? So it’s not a competition in my mind in that way, okay? So for me, it’s really important to surround myself with people who are in that same sort of mindset.

Meaningful, nurturing connections, really important to me, lasting relationships. I have built some amazing relationships with people who I have connected with online in some of these mastermind groups or you know, different, different groups online that we have found each other. Having mutual connections and making these amazing mutual connections along the way.

I’ve even joked to my husband, I said, when it’s time for my funeral, you’re going to have to zoom it for all the friends that don’t live here.

So it’s important for me. Again, the authenticity, reciprocity. I want to make sure that we’re all looking to support and help each other out. Making sure that I, you know, you don’t walk into a group that you want to be involved in that is dead, right? So how do you find that, right? Making sure that you’re having a group that is Active and engaging and being part of and if it’s not, leave and find a different one.

That’s really important. Being able to go, huh, that group’s not for me. I’m going to move on. But those, these lasting relationships are absolutely amazing. And a lot of times it comes from these business relationships that we’ve built along the way. There has been some amazing Relationships both locally because I’ve gone to local networking meetings as well as online with entrepreneurs, and I’ve built some really cool relationships and some of them I would even I would say they are my friends now, as opposed to just sort of acquaintances, and it’s important for me to be able to have these people to look at and to be part of the conversation.

Their existence and they are a part of mine as well. So there’s a lot of ways that you can bring people into your world. If you’re feeling kind of like an Island right now, it’s possible that just by reaching out and joining a mastermind or joining a group program where everybody’s working towards a similar goal, Can help you to really build an amazing supportive community and learn from other people, but also get to share your own insights as well.

And to help them grow their businesses, it feels good and being able to do that. You’re paying forward, right? Being a valuable member of the community allows you to be able to reciprocity back to other people, bring, bring people into your world and share your. Own brilliance with them is also important too.

Okay. So there are some amazing ways to do that. I’ve mentioned before masterminds and group programs finding forums or, you know, different Facebook groups where the same sort of people are hanging out. These are all really, really great ways for you to find nurturing and meaningful relationships and connections in your business world.

So the. You can be supported. And so even if you are working from home, and even if you don’t see other humans face to face regularly, you still have humans you can connect with regularly. And, you know, every once in a while, it’s really cool to do an actual meet and greet in person with some of these people that you’ve only met online as well.

So, fantastic things for you to do. But, you know, having a supportive entrepreneurial community is really. An amazing piece to your business, learning from other people who have gone through things that maybe you haven’t haven’t been gone that you haven’t gone through yet. These are all really good reasons for you to create a supportive community around you.

I hope you have a fantastic week. I’ll talk to you later. Have a great day.