Have you ever had an experience in life where four or five or ten completely different people (or situations or television shows or website or songs or whatever) are all weirdly congruent and seemingly trying to tell you something? It’s as if everyone and everything else in your life has gathered together when you weren’t there and conspired to send you a message. Maybe it’s me, but I hope it’s not.

Anyway, this is exactly what is going on in my life right now. I’m being reminded of one of those many truths of business that I know but have not been as intentionally practicing: the art of building a community of people.

A friend of mine recently read Keith Ferrazzi’s book "Never Eat Alone" (which I’ve read and it’s sitting on my shelf). I had, but had forgotten about it. Then someone else leant me a copy of Jeffrey Gitomer’s "Little Black Book of Connections". I read it twice and made copious notes. It’s all stuff I know but don’t think about or practice… and really should be.

I have a Facebook page and have connected with some good friends there. But that’s it. And I have a LinkedIn page but haven’t tapped into the large community of people I know there.

Just yesterday I had a project for a customer that required me to research various social media channels and summarize them.

Recently, I’ve been trying to extend a particular service into a particular market. Out of the blue I got a call from someone last week who knows what I do and who offered me a way to connect with that market. I didn’t ask for it and I wouldn’t have got it without knowing this person.

And there’s more: I was on two phone calls today. In the first call, which is sort of a weekly business goals call I have with a colleague, we talked about the importance of community in creating and building a brand. I hung up from him, dialed into another meeting, and had a conversation with someone else that matched almost word-for-word the first conversation. It wasn’t the purpose of my second call but that’s where the conversation went.

And then here is what gave me pause and made me think about all these "coincidences" in my life. On that second call I was expressing to my colleague that I was trying to track down someone who could do help me with a business challenge I have been facing for a few months. After that call she emailed me with an introduction to someone who could exactly solve that problem.

It seems like all of these people and situations in my life have conspired to tell me to put into practice to a greater extent the truth that I’ve already known:

Build a community. Help people selflessly. Share your thoughts and challenges and successes with your contacts. This is one of the advantages that social media and web 2.0 offers us at a broad level that previous iterations of business tried to do on a limited basis.

Okay universe, I’m listening.

Contemporary VA

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