First thing's first: why are you here?

Let's head off one of the very first mistakes too many people make: diving right into the WHAT before really thinking through the WHY.

The WHY drives everything. It is your compass; your guiding light.

It will help you make tough decisions countless times.

A great way to fail

Want to fail, or at least as struggle a lot? Build your community primarily for the following reasons:

• Because you think you should do it
• Because you heard it’s a big growing thing
• Because you think you can make money on it

Don’t get me wrong… those are fine reasons, but not on their own. Your main, true, deep, personal drive has to come from somewhere else. Because when things get rough, and at some point they will, you will need to fall back on it.

You’ll also draw from this core passion to attract people. Nobody’s excited to join your thing because you want to make money. Everybody’s attracted to your thing when you have a resonant, personal, relatable story to tell.

Worksheet: Developing your purpose

Let's start telling that story. Use this worksheet to brainstorm some materials to get you started!

It’s okay not to do it

If you’re not already committed to building a community, then I want you to know it’s okay to choose not to. I’d rather you decide now, stop here, and save yourself a whole lot of trouble.

I should note: it’s perfectly okay to choose not to do something. In fact, you must hone your ability to choose NOT to do things, even if you really want to, over and over and over again.

By choosing not to do something, you maintain one of your most precious and limited resources: your own energy and attention.

There's a flip-side to this: inaction to the point of paralysis is comparably problematic. But forcing something will never work out for the better for you in the end.

If you feel like you're forcing something, step back and reevaluate, and perhaps find a smaller thing you know that you can feel good about before proceeding.

At every step along this process, we'll want to check in on how you're feeling before proceeding.

Need an extra turbo boost of inspiration? Put on Simon Sinek's legendary talk on this topic while you work on your worksheet:

Keeping that in mind, let’s start talking about the passions and needs of the other folks in this equation: your prospective community members!