046. Leadership and Digital Communities with Jillian Benbow

We are joined by Jillian Benbow, the Director of Community Experience at SPI Media, Pat Flynn’s organisation that spawned from his Smart Passive Income podcast.

Digital communities help people to “find their tribe”.  Community allows you to achieve connectedness with people that see you; that have experienced the same things you are feeling and see you for you are.  This empowers you to show up as a your authentic self.  

We discuss a key difference between Digital Community and Social Media and the dangers that social media can present for people. Social media has become a place where people show you an artificial glimpse into their life. This can lead to the dangers of comparison and feeling that you are not enough and somehow inferior.  Conversely, communities are supportive environments that are there to help you and meet you where you are. Where you can be yourself.

Communities can be both a positive and negative when it comes to diversity of thought.  Communities that spread beyond your organisational boundaries can bring new thinking back into your organisation.  The negative can come if you ONLY surround yourself that look, act and think like you.

So, what are the lessons for leaders here. A great leader will encourage their team to look for communities and support outside your organisation.  This can bring a level of expertise in specific topics that you may not be able to bring to your team.

Community is also critical for solopreneurs.  Having a supportive environment where you can learn from others.  Giving you a support network that is larger than you may otherwise have.  Solopreneurs are everything from CEO to Janitor in their business.  This can be both very lonely and overwhelming if you try to do everything yourself.

We wrap up the discussion with some crystal ball gazing and thinking about what the future of community may hold including the Web 3.0 movement and Distributed Autonomous Organisations (DAOs).

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