(Join Cheryl’s musician community at www.inthekey.co/elite)

Community is THE reason that I’ve accomplished anything. Placements on TV. Gigs in Switzerland. Cross-promotions that doubled my fan list.

I’m the first to admit that I’m a growth junkie. Leveling Up is the name of my game, always. And the way I have always been able to level up has been because of the people around me. My coaches, my groups, my accountability partners, my collaborators… my community.

Right now, more than ever, community is paramount. 

Science says so too. Multiple studies have shown that when given a choice, rats constantly choose social interaction with other rats over the hit of a drug like heroine. (Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30323276).

When left alone, it’s easier get caught up in our own false stories about reality, ie the good ‘ole “I’m not good enough”, “people won’t like this”, “I can’t handle the tech of this” sort of stories. When alone, we don’t celebrate our small wins. We get much more self-critical.

 How can we choose community when we are social distancing? Literally the opposite of community?

When the pandemic started, I turned my monthly mastermind for musicians (inthekey.co/elite) into a daily meeting Monday through Friday. Normally, we would meet on Zoom with me for 1 hour in the last week of each month to celebrate wins, brainstorm new ideas, and declare what results we wanted to create in the next month. 

Now we do it every day, and what has emerged from this online community is nothing short of magic.

Here’s what I’m learning from hosting In The Key Elite daily community meetings… I am learning that community provides:

Motivation

Rather than just feeling inspired by watching a video on your own, community takes inspiration to the next level, namely, motivation. Motivation is the catalyst for implementation and action. And THIS is where stuff gets done and the results show up.

Shared lessons

No one is perfect and when we get vulnerable enough to share what didn’t work, we can focus on what works. A perfect example is the first time someone tried to do a Facebook live show and couldn’t hook up the sound. We all were able to learn how to do it right the next time.

Accountability

When you say you want something, and you have a group of people who want you to have that thing, the energy is contagious. You go out and take action and come back to celebrate. You know the win is not just yours. And the wins of others can be traced back to you as well.

Opportunities

Each week in my group, there is a cross-promotion exercise. We are growing our fan-bases, giving great new content to our fans, and finding new ways to collaborate. Members are doing Instagram Lives together, coordinating online shows, and writing songs offline. We are creating references, case-studies, testimonials, partnerships, and new fans for each other just by being in the community.

Structure

I started the daily-version of the group over 5 weeks ago with the idea that each weekday would have a theme:

• Clear (energy, storage, space, etc)
• Create (content, emails, songs, art, etc)
• Collect (research, contacts, knowledge from programs)
• Campaign (outreach and pitch, set up ads, write email to list)
• Connect (one-on-one connection, reach out to super fans, family, friends)

Following this structure gave us parameters for each day. Everyone knew what to expect in the big picture, but each week the conversation around that day has been drastically different. For example, on the Clear day, we spoke about clearing out work spaces one week and how your environment affects how you work, to talking about what conversations to have with a toxic co-worker another week.

Emotional

There are a ton of studies that all point back to a simple idea that bottling up emotions leads to sickness. In a time when we need our immune systems to be top notch, being part of a community that allows to share the wins as well as the struggles is so important. You can see that you are not alone while also releasing any negative emotions simply by sharing it to someone who is listening.

My advice is to find or create a group of people that resonate with you. For example, my group is specifically for musicians who are leveling up. Meaning, they’ve got music released, have toured, have written songs, have gotten to a point in their music careers where they are saying “okay, I’ve done all I know to do… now what? Let’s get rid of some blocks.” 

(If that sounds like you, please give the In The Key Elite a try!)

Either way, it is time to redefine community and to be open to everything that it can provide us, right now.