Thriving in 2020: Why Community Matters More Than Ever for Professional Success

Community. It took a difficult year like 2020 to remind me how important community is to personal and professional success. 

Learning, sharing, mentoring, supporting, laughing (and, maybe sometimes crying) with others. That’s community.

Yes, 2020 hit my coaching business hard. I lost most of my corporate clients when they slashed budgets and laid-off staff (sometime soon we’ll talk about the mistake of cutting back on professional development when people need it most!). Many of my individual clients cut back on coaching hours as the realities of the recession’s belt-tightening became more and more real. I sat by and watched as competitors put their programs on-line for the first time (better late to the game than never, I suppose!) and slashed their prices. Should I cut my hourly rate? Do people even want career coaching in this economy? Maybe it’s time to shut down the business and get a job?

Then I had the ‘lightbulb moment.’ Of course, people need coaching more than ever. In fact, what I heard over and over again each day from potential clients was that they needed coaching and other forms of support more than ever. My clients wanted support, but needed it to be flexible, engaging, authentic and affordable. I kept digging and realized what they wanted was community. A group of professional peers and experts and coaches to call-on, as needed, to power-through these challenging times. The answer wasn’t “keep doing the same, but lower fees” (BTW: that’s never a good answer!) it was “Innovate: do more but in different ways, with the help of others, with fees that more people can afford.”

I spent the next few weeks researching technology platforms, analyzing the market and gathering a group of like-minded coaches and experts to help me build the on-line community that my clients need for this time.

So, with great pride, we're excited to launch a re-vamped CareerPQ.com and CPQ:HQ, our private on-line community forum (and my corporate leadership coaching will continue through scottdarrell.com). Please come and visit and share your thoughts about how important community is to you and your success.