Storytelling for Communities + Creating Community in Hybrid/Remote Work

So many new folks here subscribing to my little newsletter all about community! I can't believe it and I am so grateful you are here.

This week I'm talking a little about storytelling, creating community in remote/hybrid teams, and how I'm prepping to stay connected once I'm back in the van again.

Once Upon a Time...

My only job was to write blogs about anything and everything. My favorite projects back then were related to writing hiking guides. I had moved to Arizona and had traveled across the highways in the surrounding states to find the best ones. I always brought my camera along with me, too, which made these blogs more of interest to those who were paying for them. Pay for the writing and get the images for free? You betcha.

More often than not, they would ask me to write dog-friendly hiking guides. With my adventure pup, Rory, we would saddle up to review nearby (and sometimes much further away) trails for the masses. I'd come back from my trips ready for a good nap and a side of french fries, edit photos from the trip, and get to work on my assignment.

I always added in a little more flair because I felt like every adventure is worth telling. Even if all goes right (or wrong...these stories tend to be more fun in hindsight), telling the story is far more interesting than me telling you "Take a left at the fork." You might get to where you're going faster, but where was the fun it?

I never really expected much to happen from these guides because who really wants to read through that Pinterest recipe that's 12 miles long when the information is at the very bottom and we know it?

But what surprised me most when these blogs were published is that people would take the time out to scroll all the way through, find my little Instagram link at the bottom, follow me, and message me about my experiences and my stories of hiking with my dog. It's a niche, I must admit, but to have people still to this day connecting with me over blogs I wrote years ago is a level of community I never expected.

Because I told my stories on the trail, I've been able to meet people in person and create friendships that extend across the boundaries of the digital world. I've also been able to help people plan their trips with their dogs, as well as convince others to have other adventures if they're looking for something different. I was able to create a community of trusted individuals because I was willing to tell my story, instead of share a route you could easily find on any hiking app.

And that, my friends, is the power of storytelling.

Here's one of my hiking guides (sans the dog-friendliness) because it's one of my favorite ones I've done: Havasupai for Beginners .

Creating Community for Hybrid/Remote Teams

As someone who has worked in a cubicle to being as transient as I am now as a digital nomad, I've experienced a variety of work cultures and communities over my career. Because I work remote most of the year and have stepped into leading a team, I realized that creating a true community for my team is a key piece to productivity and effectiveness. You may laugh when I say that the watercooler chats make a big difference, but I have seen my team transform and grow together over the last year.

So I'm going to share with you how I made community a priority and all of the things I've learned from it.

• Happy Hours + Team Building (in-person and virtually) works. I know there are the naysayers out there that say team outings and required happy hours are BS. But my team thrives on having time together to talk about the nonsense of the day or laugh at the trivia question we just experienced together. Last week, one of our team members, Natalie, left for a new role. She created a trivia game about herself as part of her sendoff celebration and I was blown away by how many people on our team knew Natalie so well.
• Shooting the sh*t. I know this is not a recommended strategy in business to hop on a Zoom call and talk about anything and everything under the sun, but when the day calls for it or I can tell someone is in a *mood*, we hop on a call. I ask them what's going on, what are they excited about, how can I help them this week...we might also share memes and talk about TikToks we saw over the weekend, too. Lighten up and lighten the mood, it's just work.
• Be human. Sometimes I wake up and my three dogs are hellbent on creating chaos only during my scheduled meetings and calls. Sometimes I'm frustrated by an email or a task. These things happen to all of us, but I know that many leaders and communities deal with stress, challenges, and chaos differently. For me, I never want my team to think I'm not human. Once someone thinks you're a robot with no feelings, taking your stress/issues/whatever out on them...it's hard walk it back. No one wants to open up in a community where their leader can't have a human moment. How can they expect to show up as themselves every day if I'm making it sound like it's all fine and dandy? What you will see on my team is that all of us have human moments, many of which we share together.
• Celebrate milestones and moments. A big part of being on my team is celebrating the goings-on of our work and personal lives. I reward my team members for doing good, kind things. I reward them for achieving goals and finishing projects. I celebrate the small stuff like "We made it through this crazy month" and make sure that my team gets all the credit for things that they worked on because they are pretty damn amazing. Our team helps me in many ways by gathering treats, gifts, etc., when I'm not there in-person, but even when we don't do all the bells and whistles, we pause to celebrate because life is too short to not.

And those are just a few of the things I've done to create a community for my team. If you want to see the rest of the list, check out this blog post I wrote about remote and hybrid team culture here !

----- IT'S TIME FOR A BREAK! -----

Before we get to the fun part, I want to include a quick *ad break* from yours truly about getting on COhatch+! I would call it an ad, but I'm giving away access for free, so it's more of a PSA...I guess? Either way, we are working on some new features for COhatch+ and will be getting to launch another big feature in the next month.

In honor of working our tails off, I'd like to extend the giveaway to you all in case you have a COhatch location near you or if you just want access to COhatch+ , I can get you access to it for free! (I know a gal who can help you with that...and it's me ????).

This giveaway closes at the end of this month and a winner will be drawn across all of our cities on November 1st. Here's the link to enter into the giveaway!

----- BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING -----

Staying Connected in the Van ??

I am preparing to hit the road in my van again full time here in the next few weeks, which means it's time for me to check in on how I'm staying connected on the road. I work 8 hours a day and require internet access Monday through Friday, which can sometimes be a bit of a challenge when you're on the road without knowing how the connection may be out in the boonies or, more surprisingly, in the bigger cities.

Here's a little sneak peek into the van and what's keeping me connected as I work on the road!

Van Connection Tour - Watch Video

And that's all folks! Thanks for sticking around to read more about community, storytelling, and team building. Next week, we'll talk about:

• How communities have an impact in everything we do ??
• How to find your community ??♀?
• And I'll give you a tour of the van! ??

Thanks for hanging around! Feel free to reach out to me here on LinkedIn at any time or via email at [email protected] .