Finding Your Community in Business and Life

Communities are an important source of social connection and sense of belonging, and are crucial for business success. But sometimes it can be hard to fit in, especially if you are starting a new chapter in life! In this episode, we dive into ways you can find your most aligned community of people who “get” you and want to see you win!

You are the summation of the 5 people you spend the most time with…so who are you going to become? Listen in to learn how to find your community that will propel your success! (8:20)

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Intro

Hello my loves! Welcome back to the Wanderlover podcast. I’m your host, Danielle Hu. Recording this episode from West Java, Indonesia. I apologize in advance. If you can hear some singing in the background, they are currently doing a call to prayer. I am in a Muslim country and so five times a day, all of the mosques around us, they have singing. So it resonates through the entire town and you can kind of hear it in the back. I hope it doesn’t interfere with anything but done is better than perfect. 

Doors to Momentum Mastermind are open! 

So it is August and it’s such an exciting month because doors to momentum mastermind are open. This is my signature four month group coaching program, where you will be surrounded by other creative travel, loving entrepreneurs, all looking to make a lot of money. By the end of the year. This episode is about Finding Your Community in Business and Life. And we’re going to go through the different ways you can do. So If you are craving community and you are starting your entrepreneurship journey and finding it to be lonely, sometimes finding no one around you understands what you’re going through, how to do online marketing, who to talk to when you’re having imposter syndrome, who to talk to when you’re feeling nervous about going live. 

If you are just feeling lost, you feel like you have no one to turn to. You have limited clarity and direction. Check out Momentum Mastermind in the description. We start in September, and this is going to be four months of surrounding yourself with high achievers who understand you inside and out. You don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t have to justify your dreams. We are here for you and we want to see you succeed. So If you sign up This week during launch week, you’ll also get free access to the Wanderlover Business Academy. This is my eight week online business course.

So even after momentum ends, you’re going to have lifetime access to me in the Facebook group through the academy. So take advantage of this. We cannot wait to welcome you inside. And I just know, once you commit to your business and your dreams, you’re just going to open up so many opportunities that you can’t even imagine. I felt really called to share about community today because it’s just a word that has been popping up very often lately in my private coaching programs in the Wanderlover community. And the sentiment is when you enter a new chapter in life, the people who are in your old chapter no longer fit.

So well as you are growing out of the old chapter and into the new, therefore, it’s so important for you to go out of your way, to create and find and build a new community that is more aligned to this new direction. And recently, I think this has been coming up because so many people are starting online businesses and realizing that it can get really lonely. It’s hard because you’re not physically, you know, in an office or in a physical location with people you work with and throughout your lifetime, usually when you start new chapters, you’re surrounded by other people doing the same, right?

Like when I went from elementary school to middle school, it was everyone else starting middle school from middle school to high school. It was everyone else also starting high school. Then entering college, everyone was starting college. And then you go into the workforce and everyone’s, you know, in the same position as you or in the same company. And they understand what it took to get there. So it it’s historically in your life, really easy to find other people in similar communities. However, in this day and age, as you grow older as people’s lives, you know, aren’t so in sync anymore, it becomes your own responsibility to find people who align with your values and your vision, and make sure that you’re surrounding yourself with people who help you get to where you wanna be.

My journey from Corporate to Entrepreneur 

So when I first exited corporate and I started my online business, a lot of my peers, my coworkers, my friends, they were super critical and questioning my every move because it was so foreign to them. And Of course I say this again. And again, it was not ill intended at all. They simply just didn’t have the capacity to understand entrepreneurship, right? Because had they understood, then they probably probably would be entrepreneurs themselves and not work in a cubicle. And so I remember just the first year feeling really lonely feeling like no one around me understood me.

I had to really try to convince everyone around me that this was what I wanted to do. Obviously my parents were questioning like, are you really going to quit your job and leave New York? Like you had studied finance, you had done all of this work to get to where you wanna be. And you’re just gonna throw it away. My roommate who was also working in finance was questioning my moves. I was in a really rough patch with my ex-boyfriend and things were just very turbulent at the time. Fast forward to today, I have an incredibly successful online business that I’m just so proud of. And so grateful for having built.

I surf every day, alongside professional surfers, female entrepreneur, creative surfers, who also travel the world. I have made countless connections across so many different countries with entrepreneurs, with digital nomads, with people, understanding the life that I live, they are doing the same and they cheer me on. Believe me, this path took a lot of inner work. A lot of rewriting, old stories. A lot of thinking outside, what I previously had thought was possible. But ultimately, what I am telling you is that it is possible.

You have the power to find your ideal community in business and life. Wherever you are in the world, you do not have to be in New York city. You do not have to be at in a big city, even at all with the power of the internet and with the power of self discovery, you can build and grow and join communities wherever you are. So In this episode, I’m going to give you simple steps on how you can start filling that gap within yourself. If you feel like you need people around you who understand, If you feel like you just need people to talk to and people to cheer you on, then this episode is for you.

How to find your community

  1. What do you want to achieve?

So the first step before you seek externally, you need to ask yourself, what do you want to achieve? And I just started my sixth Passion Planner. This is my physical planner where I map down my lifetime three year, one year, three month goals. I do this every single year to make it crystal clear exactly what I want to achieve in this timeframe. So If you haven’t already, I encourage you to either get your own Passion Planner or take out a sheet of paper and do this exercise yourself, by the way, If you want 10% off your purchase of Passion Planner, make sure to use my discount code DanielleH868 at checkout for 10% off, or you can use my link in the episode description. 

So first ask yourself, what do you want to achieve? It’s so important to get this so clear you yourself on your own path, your own journey, do not look at what other people are doing. Do not look at what your managers or your friends are doing. What do you truly want to achieve in your lifetime? This should be answers that are unique to your situation, your passions, your interests, your talents, and really honor them be honest with yourself.

What do you want? And only until you have the clarity to decide what you want to achieve, will you be able to attract your most aligned community? Let me give you some examples, because I also want to prove that what you want to achieve does not have to be even remotely related to what you are doing. Now, give yourself permission to dream big, decide on the what, and you will figure out the how. So, for example, in my lifetime, some things I wrote are I want to have a real estate empire. I want to be a Hollywood actress, neither of which I have even, you know, stepped foot in the door yet, yet.

But I firmly believe that if I want to be a real estate investor and a Hollywood actress, I can make it happen. Then in my three year goal, I want to be sponsored by Billabong or an activewear brand for surfing. I want to grow the Wanderlover and charge six, six figures for coaching in one year’s time. I want to have my first investment property. And in three months time, I’m going to launch momentum and start offering VIP days. And this is something I’m really excited about, cuz I’m already planning.

Like I want to have a day where I can fly my clients out, go surfing together, work on business on mindset, on life design. And it’s going to be so good. So stay tuned. But my point is, whatever you write down, it does not have to be related to what you are currently doing. So you decide what is it that you want to achieve next? 

  1. Find role models doing what you want to do and learn from them

Once you’ve done that, you need to find yourself people who are already doing what you want. So take my goals. For example, real estate and Hollywood, I would be going out of my way and I already have done this.

I will find people who are real estate investors who are Hollywood actresses, who are multimillion dollar business owners. And I will actually go find what they did to get there. The biggest tip here is, do not compare your chapter one with someone else’s chapter 20, but recognize when you look into these people’s lives, they started from square one and if they can do it, you can too. The more you look into these people’s lives and their communities, you’re going to learn about more and more ways of living more places around the world. That’s really suited for what it is that you want, right? And now we’re linking the people who are doing what you want to, what you want to achieve. 

  1. Surround yourself wih people doing the same

And finally, the last step is to surround yourself with people in that industry. So through your research, through learning about this new direction about this new chapter, you’re now going to go where all of those people hang out. So in my case, I want to be a sponsored surfer. So I really want to improve my surfing. Thus, I am in West Java, Indonesia, where they do nothing here, but surf and live and work.

And that is the community that I want to be surrounded by. I have lessons twice a week, and this is how you attract your community. Because once you are here, you are doing what you came to do. You’re going to meet so many other people doing the same. I am also constantly surrounded by other online business owners. And that is the beauty of having an online business. Cuz even if I’m in a location where not that many people have online businesses, I’m still able to connect with my community on a weekly and daily basis. So going back to the time in my life, where I went from corporate to entrepreneurship, I found community through moving to Bali, through joining co-working spaces and being around other people who also moved to Bali, who also work online, started their online businesses, growing their online brands.

I also joined masterminds. I learned from other coaches. I learned from other influencers from other creatives. I invested in my growth and that is how my business was able to take off because I was just around all of this energy and all of this information and all of this drive, right? It’s just inevitable that I would succeed because everyone around me is succeeding. If you are stuck in one location in the foreseeable future and you don’t have the freedom to move, keep in mind that you can still connect with people via social media. You can join Facebook groups. (Join The Wanderlover Community FREE FB group here!) You can DM other people who are traveling.

You can already start expanding your network beyond the people who you have contact with on a daily basis. You know, your mind can be somewhere else. You can be learning from other people. Don’t be intimidated. People are generally super nice. Many of them want to help you. So don’t be shy and just say hello. And going forward. Once I start making moves towards real estate and towards acting, I will probably be, you know, in LA and going to different conferences and meeting other people, doing the same thing. You have to put yourself in those positions because it’s just kind of unrealistic to start new chapters in life and expect all of those people to come to you.

You need to go out of your way to decide what it is that you want. Find people and then commit yourself and surround yourself with people doing the same. In our last round of momentum, every single member has expressed how thankful they were to have found like-minded creative, online entrepreneurs who all wanted to quit their jobs, start online businesses and travel the world and low and behold, every single member either has quit has their one way flight booked or they have plans to travel full time this year. But notice that this only happened because each one of them made the decision to commit to a new chapter.

They each decided that it was time for change. They decided exactly what they wanted, what they needed guidance and mentorship with. And then they found the mastermind, right, and surrounded themselves with other people who are doing the same thing. And it all starts within you. 

Motivational exercise

So I want to ask you now, imagine that whatever you say in the next five minutes will come true. Think of it as a wishlist, describing your ideal life, ask yourself if I could be anything, do anything or have anything. What would it be?

Write down every single thing that comes to mind and be as specific as possible and do not feel the need to be realistic or justify your dreams. Just say it or write it. Let me know If you need help talking it through, feel free to DM me. My DMS are always open, but this is the first step. Be unapologetic about your dreams. Life is not a dress rehearsal. And once you can firmly decide what it is that you want, what you need help with, then that is, is how you will find your community in business and life.

Finishing Up…Dani:

Just a reminder. If you want to join momentum mastermind, we start next month. And if you enroll this week, you’ll get access to the Wanderlover Business Academy, free of charge. If you have any questions again, my DMs are always open and I’m wishing you the best of luck on your business journey. There’s so many opportunities, so many great things coming your way. I’ll see you guys in the next episode, have an amazing week.

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How I went from a side hustle and unfulfilling jobs to finding my passion, 5-figure months, and full-time world travel.

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