NickVenturella.com 12-16-17-Find Your Success Community

Find Your Success Community

December 16, 2017

I have recently been experiencing a convergence of my skills and interests coming together in collaboration with others.This abundance, I believe, is brought on by a mindset shift, although subtle in my opinion, it’s significant.The shift has created a small gathering of others around the various skills and interests I personally and professionally pursue (sometimes just one other person).The results are relationships – something new from the convergence of people connected by a common thread or interest over time.Those relationships end up becoming a community of sorts, a tribe if you will.This isn’t a new phenomenon, but rather something I feel like I’m rediscovering.I recently blogged about how I had been feeling isolated. Part of my recent realization is that my creativity too has been isolated, and I’m craving the connection and collaboration with other like-minded creators to be heard, understood, accepted and inspired.The idea that iron sharpens iron comes to mind. Connecting and collaborating with others around a shared interest, especially a creative interest, is a way to help one hone their own craft.Again, this isn’t a new idea, but it feels a bit renewed for me. I spent a lot of years as a solo musician – in part out of necessity due to my available time – writing, recording (all instruments on my albums), producing and releasing my music for public consumption. Since 2001, I’ve put out 10 solo albums. However, I feel like I hit a ceiling with what I’ve been able to accomplish as a truly solo artist.In contrast, in my professional marketing career, I’ve continued to excel and push past the barriers of work I do in isolation, in large part, because I’m constantly connected to my direct boss (who is a great strategic partner), larger team of coworkers and the company overall. All of which provides an avenue for me to connect and communicate with others around our common bond related to our customers’ and our company’s success.While I was getting that peripherally with my music endeavors as I shared a bill performing with other muscian friends, I wasn’t getting it in other aspects of my music career.The point is that I think I figured out for myself that I am indeed craving connection and collaboration with others, and that is a secret sauce of sorts to accelerate one’s craft, whether that’s being a writer, musician, artist, marketer, entrepreneur, student, or human……As people, as social creatures (even if you’re introverted), we are better together. We all seek to belong to something bigger than ourselves (even if this isn’t a conscious thought). We all want to be heard and understood and recognized for our thoughts and contributions to the things/people/subjects we care about.I’m truly grateful for you, and I’m grateful to understand that the secret to success lies beyond what I alone can achieve.I’m looking forward to 2018, to more partnerships, to more positive outcomes as a result of expanding the community I keep.I want to give a few special shout outs to some individuals for their recent connections and collaborations:

  • Lori (my wife, always adding a perspective I need to hear - love you)

  • Matt at Octave.media (I'm stoked to help with your entrepreneurial/musical idea) and

  • Beth (thanks for being an early adopter of my Provision Journal, I hope you're finding it useful)