You're not behind. You just can't see.

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Have you ever been in a situation where you felt completely helpless?

Whenever I was about 13 or 14, I went on a school trip to Alton Towers over in England with my entire school year.

On one of the days we were there, we went to an indoor water park.

Any place involving water is instantly perilous for me because I can’t see without my glasses. I’m extremely short-sighted. Once my glasses are off my face, I’m basically, for all intents and purposes, blind as a bat.

I remember everyone in my school year going down to the water park. Everybody else was excited. They ran down those stairs.

I was excited as well. Sort of.

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When we got to the water, everyone else just jumped in and started swimming and going down the slides, and generally just had a blast, as teenagers do.

As always, I had to take off my glasses and set them off to one side.

And then basically couldn’t see.

I suddenly found myself wading around in the water, blind, while everybody else was running around me, jumping in, laughing, shouting, having a great time.

I was essentially on my own.

I was there with everybody else, but I couldn’t see anything. I had no idea where everybody else was. My friends had disappeared.

I could hear them. I knew they were nearby. But I couldn’t see what was happening.

It’s an incredibly isolating feeling when you’re there with everybody else, but at the same time, you’re not. Because they can see, they’re having fun, they’re able to navigate the water park easily. And I’m staggering around like I have no eyes.

I remember after a while I just had to leave. I was there for maybe 30 minutes or so, maybe an hour, just by myself pretty much.

I eventually had to get out of the water, put my glasses back on, and go back up to our room.

And that was it for me.

Have you ever felt like everybody else knows exactly what’s going on, and you’re the only one who doesn’t?

Everybody else understands the situation. They join a platform, and they work on something, and they know exactly what they’re doing. It seems their audience is growing easily. They’re making tons of money, making tons of great collaborations and friends on the platform.

And you feel like you’re still kinda blind, staggering around in the middle of everything. And no one seems to know that you’re even there.

You feel like you’re missing something.

You’re on the platform. You can hear what everybody else is doing. You can see what they’re doing, in some respects. But you also feel completely out of your depth. You’re not really sure what’s happening, or why things work the way they do. Or why they won’t work in the same way for you.

You feel completely isolated despite being surrounded by hundreds, even thousands of other people in your niche.

What’s the next step? How do you not feel isolated?

How do you feel like you’re actually part of things, and you’re not being left behind, and that everybody else isn’t just blazing ahead while you’re stuck in the same place as a writer or a creator or entrepreneur or solopreneur, whatever it is you’re doing?

How do you not feel like you are the only one who doesn’t get it? The only one who doesn’t understand what’s happening?

I’ve been there myself so many times. I still often am.

It happens when I look around and compare myself with other people. I don’t want to do it, I know it’s a bad idea. But it just happens anyway. Ugh.

So I wonder, have you ever felt that way? Has that ever been a place where you’ve existed as a writer or a creator?

Have you ever wanted to make friends and collaborative partners and be able to not feel alone or isolated? Have you ever wanted to find your people?

I think the best way to combat it is to be part of a community.

If you’re part of one in any way - any shape or form, any size at all, even if it’s just a group chat with a few people who you know - it can make such a difference for your experience on a platform.

You can feel so much better about it. You can enjoy it so much more.

I know I was missing that for a long time. It took me a while to find a real community, even on a platform like Substack, which is a great community in itself. But even it can still feel overwhelming, like there’s too much going on.

I think sometimes you just need to just identify where your community already exists.

Where is it? Where are the people who’re your people? The ones you feel comfortable with, you feel like you can grow with, and be yourself around, and ask dumb questions, and pitch things, and suggest things, and just try stuff out and experiment, and be yourself.

Look for people who you feel aligned with on a platform.

My suggestion would be (on Substack for instance): if someone says something that you resonate with, if they post a note or they write an article and you think yes, I get that, I understand exactly where you’re coming from, that’s for me, then leave a comment. Tell that person you agree, that you love what they’ve come up with. That it made you sit up and take notice.

And if it really resonates, then send them a direct message. Especially on Substack, where it’s easy to do that.

Just tell them: I love this. I love this idea. I love this idea you had. I thought it was great. I really love your suggestion!

That’s all it needs to be.

Just a quick “thank you so much for sharing this, I love it, I think it’s great.”

And see where the conversation goes from there.

That person might end up becoming a friend. Might end up becoming a collaborative partner. Might end up becoming a client of yours, or joining your community, whatever it might be.

Either way, you’ve lit the touchpaper.

If you gather together enough people in that regard, people who you feel connected with, who you feel are friends in an online situation, then you’ve got the beginnings of your own community.

You’ve got the building blocks of a private space for you and those people. And that’s an amazing foundation to build on.

So start a group.

You can start one on Substack in the Chat space. You can start a Slack group. You could have a WhatsApp group or a Facebook group. Whatever it might be.

Just start one. Bring in a few people you want to chat with. Keep it free. Keep the barrier low. Keep it simple.

Build from that point. Start to bring in more people. Start to make it more professional. Maybe eventually move to a platform like Circle or Mighty Networks, or something like that.

And build it into something real. Turn it into a really amazing community space. The best it can possibly be.

That’s where you could potentially start to monetise it. Maybe it could become a paid thing. Maybe there could be a coaching element involved.

The point is, anybody can do this. Anyone with a tiny audience of a few dozen or few hundred people on Substack or any platform. The beginnings of a great community are there. The potential for one, at least.

Look out for the people in your space who don’t make you feel isolated. Who make you feel seen. Who make you feel safe. Who make you feel like you’re a real person, someone they connect with on a deeper level.

It could be somebody on the other side of the planet and you could still have a really great connection with them online.

This is how the internet is supposed to work.

It used to be this way. We used to have blogs and forums and chat spaces and chat rooms. Now we don’t have that as much, not in the same kind of way.

So let’s get back there.

Let’s get back to creating and nurturing and fostering our own community spaces. Turning them into something awesome, where we can feel seen.

You shouldn’t have to feel like Teenage Dave with his specs off in that water park, unable to see anybody around him, knowing they’re there but having no clue what’s actually happening. That’s a sucky, isolating place to be.

So get your community going today. Start small. Build it out.

You never know where it could go.

And if you’re interested in joining my community, Catalyst Club, feel free to check it out here. Or send me a message about it and ask, and I’ll tell you more about why it might be the best community you could join today.