“How do you get a community?” A friend asked via Whatsapp.

He’d asked me whether I would choose a job that paid less and had a good working team vs a less stressful job that paid more but required mostly working alone.

“Personally, I’d pick the latter,” I told him. “I enjoy working alone.”

While it can get lonely, there are always ways to find people to discuss things with. For freelancers and remote workers, it’s important to have a community (to stay sane).

I’ll admit that I’m not the most sociable person. But my answer to the question “how do I get a community” is reach out, provide value.

Your community doesn’t need to be huge. In fact, I’ve found that building stronger ties with a smaller group of people can be more valuable.

It takes less than five minutes to make an introduction. A quick conversation to understand a person’s pain point doesn’t take long. A meet-up once in a year is a great way to reconnect and is a small amount of time compared to a lot of other things that we might do (eg. binge watching Ozark).

To build true relationships, the major investment is time.