Trust is dying, loneliness is skyrocketing - and AI is only making authentic connection even more critical.
After helping dozens of creators like Frey Chu rapidly create and scale engaged communities in under 3 hours, I've learned the number one competitive business advantage in the next three years will be building communities that genuinely matter.
So in this thesis/guide/proclamation, I'm going to show you exactly why community is your strongest moat, who am I to even talk about this, and three easy steps to go from just an educational creator to a sought-after community builder.
Who am I to talk about this topic?
My name is Matt, and I'm grateful for you being here. I've been a passionate community builder throughout my life. I created the r/competitiveoverwatch subreddit and grew it from 0 to its first 150,000 members.
I've launched, moderated and operated multiple discords and Facebook groups. most recently I spent nearly a decade at monday.com as the first employee in the US while hiring hundreds and managing up to 87.
I also helped build and run our Facebook group with 18k members and eventually helping create our Elevate conference and develop all our customer stories which we grew from 150 attendees in 2019 to a 2 day sold out expo with thousands of attendees across NYC, London and Sydney.
And I'm all in when it comes to the community building game.
That's because communities are the ultimate moat. They are impossible to replicate. Plus, people stop using products, they leave services - but they don't want to drop their friends.
Did you know that in 2023, over 60% of adults in the U.S. reported feeling lonely? That’s a 13% increase from just a decade ago and a 30% increase from the past few decades. And it’s not just a Western problem - countries like Japan and the UK are seeing similar trends.
And while we’re more connected than ever through technology, we’re trusting each other significantly less. A recent study found that only 34% of people trust their neighbors, and trust in governments and corporations is at an all-time low.
And now, as AI begins to replace human interactions we’re facing a future where genuine human connection is becoming a luxury.
But this isn’t just about loneliness. It’s about what happens when we stop trusting each other. When we rely on algorithms to make decisions, when we prefer screens over faces, and when we lose the ability to connect authentically.
Why community building matters now is because numerous experts predict that within the next 3 to 5 years AI could replace up to 30% of jobs, not just in factories but in roles that require empathy, like customer service and therapy.
What happens to trust when even our most intimate conversations are mediated by machines?
I tell you all of this because as a passionate community builder, the alarming truth for creators is that that right now, it’s not just a health crisis - it’s a career crisis. One-fourth of one percent of channels on YouTube make any money whatsoever.
This includes people making even one penny from ad revenues. Algorithms control your reach, sponsors are not always being a fit for your brand and threaten the sacred trust you've built with your audience, and so many creator monetization methods are failing.
Your audience needs you. At this very moment, more than half of humanity is taking the same level of physical damage to their bodies as if they were smoking nearly 15 cigarettes a day. And no, as much as we might wish it - a good air filter won't fix this problem.
The data around the loneliness epidemic across multiple studies in over 142 countries is shockingly clear. One in two adults feels lonely. And this was happening long before COVID. Since 1990, men without any close friends has increased 5x and women 10x, though the total percentage of men is higher than women. Over 75% of Gen Z feel lonely.
Maybe you're like I was and you feel like loneliness isn't that big a deal. Let's start with aligning on what loneliness means. Being alone doesn't mean you're lonely. You can be lonely even in a room filled with people you know. This problem speaks more to social isolation and a mental state of being. It's an emotional pain signal telling your brain that you need someone to talk to.
The difference is between how much social connection you want and how much you actually have. Loneliness is feeling disconnected from people even though they might be right next to you. Chronic loneliness is what affects our health.
What actual damage does loneliness do? It gives you a greater risk of heart disease, dementia, strokes, depression, anxiety, and many of the things that make you die before you otherwise would have. For older folks alone, social isolation has been directly linked to excess healthcare spending in the billions of dollars. That doesn't even include the indirect costs we know about but can't reliably track, like people calling out of work.
What then as creators can we do help solve the epidemic of loneliness?
Loneliness doesn’t discriminate by age, income, or background. All of us, including your audience as a creator are dealing with the effects of it, whether ourselves or with those in our lives. The risk of being socially isolated is a serious one for all of us.
The good news is that there is hope and a set of simple actions you can take. Every business has the ability to positively influence the future here, and to solve this epidemic we will need everyone to agree how serious this problem is and take action to solve it.
Creators are uniquely positioned to help contribute to solving this epidemic. We were never meant to live in boxes only communicating behind screens.
Throughout history, humans have thrived in tribes. We’re wired for connection. And as a creator, you have the unique power to build a tribe - a community that supports you, you supporting it, and the members supporting each other. Everyone generally has two places that manage their wellbeing.
The first is your home, the second is generally where you work. Fundamental to your wellbeing is finding that 'third place'. The place where you're not forced to show up but can get social interaction. Third places are free from expectations - you define what you want that third place to be.
Over the past few decades, third places have been continually disappearing. Suburban sprawl, rising costs, and the shift to digital life have left us with fewer spaces to connect in person.
In the 1960s, nearly 70% of Americans participated in some form of community organization - whether it was a church, a bowling league, or a local club. Today, that number has plummeted. By 2020, nearly half of Americans reported having three or fewer close friends, and 28% of Americans now live alone. The places where we used to gather like bookstores, diners, community centers are vanishing, replaced by isolating suburbs and endless screens. Even when we’re out in public, we’re often alone, scrolling on our phones instead of talking to the person next to us.
The world needs more community builders.
Here is how to become a community builder from scratch in 3 easy steps
In a world where physical third places are disappearing, online spaces can become the new gathering spots. Think about it: your community can be a place where people come together, share ideas, and feel like they belong.
Unlike traditional third places, which are often limited by geography, your community can bring people together from all over the world. And as a creator, you have the power to shape that space, to make it welcoming, inclusive, and meaningful.
The first thing you need to do is choose the style of community you want.
There are a bunch of different examples. When I worked at monday, all of our communities were 'product' communities because they all revolved around users of our products.
There's also project based communities, where an example like this might be doing a 90 day get fit challenge. If you're a writer you might have heard of the Ship 30 for 30 program, where everyone joins a group of people all doing the same exercises to start writing online in 30 days.
I frequently recommend new community builders to consider their first community as a 'what' community, and ethically monetize through a 'how' community.
A 'what' community will introduce people to the topic and generally take them around 30% of the way through your journey. Don't fall for the trap of making your community so packed with content and value that it overwhelms people - this was an early mistake that led to one of my communities closing down from lack of traction.
Once you've picked the kind of community you want, you need to lay out the roadmap for taking this specific group of people through their journey.
It's easy to get lost and waste time on things that are important, but not a priority based on where you're at. The first thing a community builder should always look at are PPO's. Let's look at it from the perspective of Kayla Itsines, founder of the Sweat app. The first question you must ask:
What pain am I or people I care about experiencing?
- Pain: Women struggling to find accessible, engaging workouts they could do at home, often feeling isolated or insecure at traditional gyms.
- Profession: Kayla is a certified personal trainer who started by training clients in person and sharing before/after transformations on social media.
- Passion: Empowering women worldwide to gain confidence through fitness, nutrition, and a supportive online community.
Kayla launched the Bikini Body Guides (BBG) with structured workouts and meal plans. The real glue, however, was her massive Instagram presence and the hashtag #BBG, which built a global community of women who supported each other with daily check-ins and progress photos.
This later evolved into the Sweat app - a membership-based platform providing on-demand workouts and a vibrant in-app community.
Another great example of this is Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income.
What profession am I in or I have a deep understanding of?
- Pain: Pat was laid off from his job as an architect in 2008 and struggled with the uncertainty of not having a stable income. He discovered many others felt trapped in traditional careers and wanted more autonomy.
- Profession: Originally an architect, Pat pivoted to online business and blogging, testing out affiliate marketing, e-books, and podcasting.
- Passion: Helping others create online revenue streams that allow for freedom and flexibility, AKA that smart passive income!
Pat built a following through his Smart Passive Income blog, podcast, and YouTube channel. His approach is all about transparency - when he was building the site, he'd post income reports, experiments, and failures.
The SPI Pro community is a paid membership where entrepreneurs exchange knowledge, attend group coaching sessions, and collaborate on projects, forming a close-knit support network for building online businesses.
And the final question is the perfect example of Emily Weiss of Glossier.
What are you obsessed with?
- Pain: Emily noticed that the traditional beauty industry felt disconnected from real customers - products were often marketed in a top-down, unrelatable way. Many women felt confused about what products would truly work for them.
- Profession: Started as a fashion assistant and created the beauty blog Into the Gloss, interviewing real women and industry experts about their routines.
- Passion: Making beauty accessible, community-driven, and fun- where product development is informed directly by consumer feedback.
Emily turned the blog’s engaged readers into an advisory community for product creation. When she launched Glossier, fans felt like co-creators, giving feedback on formulas, packaging, and marketing.
Glossier’s social media presence is heavily driven by user-generated content and peer recommendations. The brand’s “Get Ready With Me” events and pop-ups foster a strong in-person community that extends online.
Now mentioning all these successful business owners might have the same effect on you that it had on me in the beginning - and that's trying to get everything perfect out the gate.
That's why the third and most important step to getting started is to actually take action from the pinned comment and start.
You will never get things perfectly right out of the gate. But simply by taking action, you'll begin the process of iterations that you need to refine and build the perfect offer that will make people feel that will make the community you're building irresistible.
So here's mine. If you're even remotely considering building a community, email me and ask to book a strategy call. I will always be happy to help the dedicated.
I will help you get create an offer so good people will feel ridiculous saying no. I will build you a custom roadmap for your journey so you know the exact sequence of steps you need to take.
I will help you pick the best tools, platforms and automations, and I will personally guide you through building a community that one day runs itself and is ethically monetized.
Your totally fair question will be why do all that work?
The simple answer is because I'm obsessed and want to build the best possible community of creators that I can. But to do that it takes hard work, learning and iteration after iteration. I will share all of my insights and lessons - nothing held back.
The only questions left are…
Do you think AI is going to change everything in the next few years?
Do you agree that the loneliness epidemic is solvable?
Do you want to build a community based business that one day will run itself?
Do you want to ethically monetize in a way that future proofs your own creator career journey and gives massive value to the people who trust you the most?
And lastly…
Will you join me on this journey and build a community that will not only change the lives of others, but totally transform your own life?
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