Greetings from 2022: the future of online communities is bright

Greetings from 2022! As I embark on another year with Clocktower Advisors, my seventh year in business, I thought I might begin with a challenge to myself: optimism. 

Despite my generally cheerful attitude, there’s a deep and wide streak of pessimism in my bones. A part of it is my Stoic outlook that we can only be mentally prepared to deal with reality if we imagine the worst things that could happen. I’m much more prone to say “We may yet prevail” than to espouse McFerrin’s chirpy “Don’t worry, be happy” song lyric.

So in the spirit of looking forward optimistically to 2022, I will begin the year by stating I have tremendous gratitude for the clients, partners, and colleagues who make my business and work life positive. The opportunity to do good work for others, to make a difference, and to learn whilst sharing what I know is something I am sure will continue this year.

Just a few of the things that sustain me as a consultant, business owner and human being include:

• Clients whose needs have stretched the boundaries of my experience and awareness as a consultant, along with bringing me great satisfaction by giving me the opportunity to help them see around corners and plan better, more sustainable online community experiences
• A fantastic new group of work partners I’ve  found this past year who have collaborated closely with me on webinars, virtual speaking events, live streams, and client engagements
• New and longtime colleagues in the community consulting space whose enthusiasm and desire to do good have buoyed me while giving me the opportunity to offer them my reflections and lessons learned about working as an independent consultant (Darren Gough, Jenny Weigle, Piper Wilson, Adrian Speyer, John Summers, Deb Schell, Richard Graham, Tanja Laub and many others)
• LinkedIn for being my platform of choice for sharing, connecting, and obtaining new consulting and partnering opportunities
• LinkedIn Live for providing me with a platform for regularly reaching friends both old and new to talk about how they are connecting with their communities online and off
• Thought leaders like Neil Patel, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Damien Williams who have spurred me on to be better, more thoughtful, and more inclusive in my work
• Professional organizations ranging from hyper-local involvement in business associations and economic development groups to international ones like Rotary that have helped me to grow and give back to the communities in which I live and participate
• My hobby: as an enthusiast of all types of games but especially role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, what Simon Sinek might call infinite games, by creating and playing in these imaginary worlds, I have gained unlooked-for insights into my work life
• Friends, colleagues and family who support my work and whose questions and comments influence me and keep me honest with myself in ways it would be difficult to adequately express

Changes Ahead

Running a solo consultancy might seem to some of you like a lonely endeavor, but I hope that from the items above, you can see how it’s quite the opposite. Besides, it is my hope that among other things 2022 will mean an expansion of my business that will involve hiring interns and then employees.

It will also be a year of intense growth for Clocktower Advisors, where I experiment with new ways to reach the abundance of organizations and businesses that would benefit from online communities to supplement their existing, analog communities. I’ll be doubling down on sharing everything I know even more transparently about building communities in digital spaces. 

I’ll also be pruning some of these areas where I’ve placed my time and effort that have not caught on as I had hoped.

For example, whilst I’ve gained a great deal from running my weekly Friday newsletter A View from the Clocktower, the technology underpinning it (TinyLetter) is something I’ve outgrown. I haven’t seen the growth in subscription numbers I would have liked to see either, so I’ve decided to discontinue it in favor of creating content more directly on LinkedIn where I’m much more likely to find new audiences and followers. For those of you who subscribed and followed my weekly meanderings, I am deeply grateful for your faith and interest!

Finally, I’ll be aggressively pursuing the edges of innovation in online communities with posts and interviews about the world of Blockchain, DAOs, NFTs, artificial intelligence, and the latest research.

I've found throughout my career that playing at the edges is a great way to stay motivated and energized. I hope you will come along and seek Wonders with me.

The Future of Online Communities is Bright

For online communities themselves, it is my hope that those of us who are practitioners in this space can find ways to break outside the membrane of our own profession. I have long sensed that community professionals have been circling the wagon, working on legitimizing the profession. I applaud that.

But for online communities to grow into the prominence they deserve, we need to be speaking to everyone who will listen who is outside of our bubble. Instead of industry conferences, we should be reaching out to other conferences and other disciplines.

The lessons and ideas behind what we do in community building is broadly applicable to remote work, marketing, and communications conferences, and many more. They need to hear about the basics of community practices that work.

In short we have much to do. I look forward to making, learning, celebrating, and becoming with you, my friends, in 2022. It’s time to get started.

#gratitude #onlinecommunities #2022 #MondayMotivation #thankyou