Thank you so much, everyone for joining my talk on community building and making an impact in the local community. My name is Esther Di. I'm really excited to be here with you from sunny Florida.When I speak about community building, I often go into the world of networking because communities like businesses, even large ones are made up of individual people. And that's something that we must never forget. To me. Community building is as natural as breathing. I believe that we can make money and do good. And I see building community as a competitive advantage and one that more people need to partake in. Not only because it's great for your organization, but also because it's great for the world and for your happiness in my opinion. So when I speak about community building, I often go into the world of networking because communities, as I mentioned, like businesses, even large ones are made up of individual people. And we can't forget that building community is usually a group setting. Networking is often 1 to 1.

But even in building community, there is always a human on the other side of every entity. And that is who we need to connect with and find. So one of the questions people often ask me is when is the right time to build community? And my answer to them is yesterday, the right time was a year ago. The biggest mistake people wait, people make is they wait until they need something to start looking for it. Now, that being said, obviously, today is a great time to start too and it's never too late. But the point is never wait, don't wait to start building your network. Don't wait until you need something. And to me, that's the same reason why you should stop being picky about who you talk to. So many people are like, I don't want to talk to them. What are we, what am I gonna get from them? But today's sales people are, tomorrow's customers, people change their fluid, they're not constant and their rules aren't either. So don't ever dismiss anyone. Don't ever say this is not somebody that I should be speaking to, but what is constant is your interaction with them and the impact you make on them.

And this could be even the smallest of things and this is what matters and what you're going to bring into the future. So do focus on how don't focus on transaction and what you can get from somebody and part of this part of being able to help somebody and my background. So I'm a social worker by education and I have the opportunity of working for a great IT MSP right now called R CS Professional Services. And I really enjoy seeing the intersection between my background and building community in the non for profit world, in the social work world and how that relates to corporate and really at the foundation of all of this and of building community is relationship and a big part of being able to help somebody and being able to build a relationship is knowing yourself and being in touch with what you contribute and then making sure that that's what you give to the people around you.

It's important to remember that everyone has something to give, lean into that. Find a way to leverage that for the benefit of your community. And I like to say your gift to humanity is your currency and be intentional with who you give it to and who handles it. So let's get practical. We only have 10 minutes and I wanna make sure that I give you some practical tools to build community and engage with your community now. So what can you do today to build community? My suggestion is all you need to do is reach out. We're all, we're social beings, we're in social environments and we need to just reach out. We need to take the first step. The opportunities are endless and they're all around us. So reach out to a coworker, a new employee, a neighbor, find a commonality. Try to uncover a need. Give them something meaningful to them. And if you don't know what's meaningful to them, you know, what the best way is to find out, ask them have a conversation with them, then don't just have a conversation, write them a handwrit le letter. Thank them for their contribution to your life. Thank them for something they said or something they gave you and that doesn't have to be tangible or just say it paraphrased something that they the in the conversation exchange that you had and just highlight it so that they know you were listening and that it made, it made a difference to you.

Try to meet one new person every day, leverage social media, right. Linkedin and Facebook are great places to start. There are so many resources out there and either I can help or you can find them on your own. There's so many great Facebook groups for finding community and building community. Be curious, be consistent, be considerate. All the seas don't be afraid to take initiative and reach out to people for opportunities, even if you don't feel fully qualified. And I have a lot of examples of this in my own life. There's so many different opportunities that I've had just because I wasn't afraid to reach out to people. For example, just this morning, I saw a post of a friend on Instagram and instead of just liking the post, which so many people do. I took it one step further and I reached out to the woman who posted, she's got millions of followers and you know what? She responded five minutes later and I said, hey, I love what you're doing. I love your mission in Africa to help people who don't have access to dentists. How can I help? How can I support what you're doing? And all I did right there was I created a connection and I brought her into my world and now we're talking and I'm sure it'll lead to great things. So don't be afraid to reach out to people. Don't take it a step further.

Don't just connect, reach out and ask how you can help. Uh Another example of this, I actually ran a mission trip to teach coding to young girls and Belize. And I mentioned that because that came through, it's now a big part of my life. And I'm very passionate about the mission and the founder Kaba. And that came through a Facebook post. She posted in a Facebook group saying she was looking for volunteers and it was to teach coding to young girls. And at that time, I didn't even know how to code. I didn't let that stop me. And I reached out to her and from that experience, I got to lead this trip which changed my life and hopefully change theirs. So I encourage everybody to do the same and not be afraid to reach out and ask and inquire and be curious. Another great way to build community and get involved is to volunteer, search for a cause you're passionate for and sign up. Don't wait, Google, Facebook, linkedin Instagram.

There's so many different amazing organizations take, find something that you're interested in. Sign up. I encourage you to find the cause with Children because uh you learn so much from, from kids, they don't have inhibition and they're, they say things as it is. And there's so much you learn so much about yourself from working with Children. But even if that's not your thing, find some kind of cause to partake in, eradicate the word competition from your binocular and replace it with collaborator or something similar. I can't stress this enough competition in my life in my world doesn't exist. We're all here for a purpose and we are stronger together and the more that we help each other get where we want to go, the happier we all be and the further we all get, right. One of my favorite quotes is if you wanna go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together, we need each other. And again, we're social beings and we should lean into that, not fight it. And it's easier said than done. I know. So it's also very, very tied to abundance mindset, right? Just because you know, I'm looking for something doesn't mean I can't support somebody else looking for it too and we can't all get it together. And an abundance mindset is very tied to wealth and self worth, which I know I mentioned before.

And that correlation, it's too long of a topic for now, but it's a great, great thing to investigate. And I'm actually in the process of writing a book on community building and self awareness, which is hopefully gonna be available on Amazon really soon. It's my first solo book.

I have co-authored, another book that's available on Amazon called The Invisible Entrepreneur for Mental Health To Mindset. And um that one, I co-authored with a friend of mine who I also met through networking and she's now a good friend of mine who works with Children and there's a lot of correlation between self worth and networking. So check that out and Amazon should be available really soon. Little teaser and I'd love to get all your feedback. That's a little bit of insight into my world and how I see building community and how I do it and how you can hopefully do it too. So I hope that was helpful. Happy to answer any questions. If there are, I see, there's maybe some questions in the chat, but that's, that's the introduction. So feel free to reach out. I'm very active on linkedin. Uh You can visit our website R CS professional.com and learn more. And you can also check out in this together round table.com, which is a networking group that I run virtually and we can connect that way. Somebody asked for the three CS great question. Be curious, be consistent and be considerate, curious, consistent and, and, and curious. Hope that helped. Thanks Jacqueline. Anyone else have questions and thank you again so much for being here. Well, I'll end with one of my favorite quotes.

I'll stick the link, that link for the networking group to answer. Someone's question is in this together roundtable.com. You can reach out to me through there. You could reach out to me through R CS professional.com. Uh One of my favorite quotes is leadership is a stance in the world. It's not a job title. I'll leave you with that.