So Reader,

Today, I’m grateful for plantains.

There are very few foods (if any) that I love more than it.

The most irresistible thing you can put in front of me is a plate of piping hot fried plantain.

You know the kind that’s overripe and so mushy that it gums together while you're taking it out of the oil?

Yeah, that’s the exact type I like.

My very biased opinion is that plantain is proof that God exists, because how else could such level of deliciousness have been created?

(btw, if you don’t like plantain, I have some serious reservations about any of your other choices. And why are you even reading this email? The subject line is clear enough😏).

Anyway, if you want to learn how to attract a community of people to your work like Fayo to a bowl of mushy fried plantain, then you’re in luck because this email is for you.

First off, if you were to Google, “how do I build a community online?”, you’ll see stuff like, “Identify your niche”, “Share valuable insights”, “Post consistently”, “Give your community a name”, etc.

And none of that's wrong. But there's ONE thing that matters more than all of it combined:

Tell the stories that most people are afraid to tell.

What we don’t realize is, we (humans) are more alike than we think.

Which means we have more shared experiences than we’d like to admit.

We just don't talk about it because we think we're the only ones.

But the moment someone else admits to it, something clicks.

Your brain says, “Wait, this person is like me.” That's what makes you form a bond with them.

And creating a community starts from allowing people to see themselves in you... allowing them to see that you’re not that different from them.

And get this: The more specific you are, the more relatable you get.

For example, I once mentioned in an email that I sometimes eat in bed.

While writing that email, I almost took that part out because why does anyone need to know that?

But I thought, “Wait, Reader probably eats in bed too.” And even if you don’t, you know someone who does.

(To be clear, one of my life goals is to be a prim and proper adult who eats every single meal on the dining table. But that’s not who I am right now... and that’s totally fine. Or maybe not, lol).

I’ve also told you about the time in primary school where a teacher mistook me for a boy.

I’ll be honest with you: I used to be reallyyy insecure about that experience. Until one day, I realized that I'm definitely not the only person this happened to.

Maybe for you, it was a cousin who said your head was "shaped like a boy's," or a relative who casually asked why you liked to "act like a girl".

If that's you, when you read my teacher story, you probably felt seen.

And if you’re looking to create a community, the goal of your work is to always make your audience feel seen.

Now to be clear, this doesn’t mean telling us your life history or giving out personal information that should not be on the internet.

This doesn’t mean sharing intimate details of your life with people you don’t know.

I’m talking about the little stuff. Like how someone asked you “Where are you from?” and you replied with “I’m fine thank you”, because you didn’t hear what they said and were too shy to ask them to repeat themselves.

Or how you were terrified of cockroaches as a kid (and secretly still are).

Or just a food you're irrationally obsessed with (case in point, this very email).

When you share those stories, you’ll see that those experiences are not as original as you thought.

There’s an army of people out there just like you, thinking they’re the weird one.

And soon enough, those same people will find their way to your comments/replies/DMs, saying some variant of, “I thought I was the only one who felt that way.”

I still have so much more to say on this topic, but I’ll stop there for now.

In the meantime, Reader, go share that story. Bonus points if it involves plantain👍.

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Aggressively rooting for you,

Fayo

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PS: I’m toying with a number of ideas in my head right now, one of which is a community building workshop, similar to “The Genius Storyteller”, but focused on community building. Is that something you’d like to be a part of? Reply and let me know!

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