Radha Agrawal: On Building Community
For the last couple of months, I’ve been asking listeners of Big Questions to send me a photo of the city or town where she or he lives. It allows me to get a feel for where I’m hitting the ground.
It blows my mind to know that people as far off as Estonia, Zambia and Cambodia are listening to Big Questions. And it makes me feel so happy whenever a photo comes in. That list of photos is swelling. But this week’s episode really made me think about what that list would look like if there were 500,000 photos in it. That’s the number of people who attend DAYBREAKER celebrations.
DAYBREAKER is an early morning rave that allows people all over the world to start the day by meeting others, dancing, doing yoga and listening to great speakers in a non-alcohol environment before heading off to work. I knew it was big – but I was kind of shocked to learn that the entrepreneur Radha Agrawal had grown her DAYBREAKER community to half a million.
Radha is a master of connection. This week, she’s got a book coming out that’s entitled: Belong: Find Your People, Create Community and live a more Connected Life. That’s Radha in the center of her book cover.
The conversation we had – you can listen to it above -- really got me thinking. And it will get anyone running a business, doing a podcast or writing a blog thinking about how to expand their community.
It made me wonder what would happen if I asked listeners of Big Questions to pass on an episode that was meaningful to them along to a friend who might benefit from it.
Not a ton of people. A single friend -- a carefully selected friend.
For instance, if you know someone who could use some help with their finances, you could pass along the episode where Tim Ferriss teaches me about money.
Or if you have a friend who is struggling through a hard time, you could pass along the episode where Diana Nyad describes swimming from Cuba to Key West at the age of 64 through water filled with sharks and poisonous jellyfish.
If you have a friend who’s being held back by fear, you could pass along the episode where NBA legend Kobe Bryant talks about how to diminish fears.
You get the idea. Please consider sending along an episode to someone you really care about and let me know how it goes. Good karma will come your way. Promise.
Thanks, and I hope to one day clink glasses with both you and your friend.
Cheers,
Cal