Goodbye Silicon Valley, Hello Solidarity Valley: It's a Community Thing in 2024

I hear you loud and clear, and I'm with you! Your frustration with the current state of entrepreneur support and the widening wealth gap is entirely justified. The traditional teacher-student model often falls short when it comes to real-world challenges and can leave entrepreneurs feeling isolated and overwhelmed.

Your call for co-creation, collaboration, and a community-driven approach to supporting entrepreneurs is exactly what we need! Ditching the one-way "expert" advice and building a network of shared skills, diverse perspectives, and hands-on support can be transformative.

Here are some actionable ways we can work together to make this happen:

8 Ways to Better Connect Community with Build a Skills Based Focus in 2024

SKILL BASED Platforms: 

Create virtual + physical spaces for entrepreneurs to connect, share resources, and brainstorm solutions. This could be a forum, co-working space, or even a virtual circle group on SkillVill the only one specifically designed for skill sharing.

REAL WORLD Collaborations: 

Encourage cross-pollination of skills and knowledge. Organize workshops, hackathons, or mentorship programs where experienced professionals can work alongside aspiring entrepreneurs on real projects.

WIN-WIN Peer support: 

Foster a culture of mutual assistance and learning. Set up mentorship circles or buddy systems where entrepreneurs can share their struggles and celebrate each other's successes.

Ask & Adapt Curation of Your Offerings:

Focus on practical solutions that listen to those you want to help. Start by asking what is blocking or better yet on SkillVill see what they need & adapt your activities to be tailor-made for the specific needs of local entrepreneurs!

MICRO SOLUTIONS BASED Skill-building workshops: 

Offer practical workshops on essential skills that help the participants now or within 30 days to improve their situation.

REAL TIME Mentorship with a twist: 

Instead of one-on-one mentors, create peer-to-peer mentorship groups where entrepreneurs can learn from and support each other in specific areas of expertise. At SkillVilll we've create packets so that this can happen anytime, anywhere and be accessible to everyone!

FAST FUNDING for community projects: 

Telling you this has cost me $500 at my hourly rate that every entrepreneur wastes trying to convince communities to invest in them on a single pitch. We don't have runway time to waste, and 98% of the time don't have the luxury of VC investment to burn. Money is worth more day than tomorrow.

FIND WAYS for your community to support themselves:

Shift Brand marketing spend dollars immediately to "sponsor" circles on SkillVill directly. Establish small grant programs or funding pools to support collaborative brand projects that benefit the community and address local challenges.

Shift the social narrative

Before you post, schedule and definitely before you spend your very valuable resources in 2024. Craft a voice that will be heard & help your cause. Here's some inspiration. of ways to can level up your messages.

Intriguing and Spark Curiosity:

• Ditch the Hustle, Grow a Village: The Anti-Entrepreneurship Revolution

• Entrepreneurs, Ditch the Oxygen Masks: Let's Breathe Together Instead

• From IG Grid to Real Grid: Building Community, Not Businesses

• Forget "Teach-Preneur," We Need Co-preneurs: Let's Plant Seeds, Not Hype-Trees

• Beyond the Gap: Bridging the Divide with Collaboration, Not Lectures

Solution-Oriented and Actionable:

• Roll Up Your Sleeves, Entrepreneurs: The Collaborative Hustle Guide

• Skills Swap and Seed Sowing: Building Your Business in a Community Garden

• Mentorship 2.0: Forget Gurus, Get Gritty with Peer Support Circles

• From Solopreneurs to Synergy Squads: The Power of Building Together

• Small Grants, Big Impact: Funding Community-Driven Solutions for Entrepreneurs

Witty and Playful:

• The Mentorless Movement: We're Ditching the Lectures, Taking Back the Streets

• Goodbye Silicon Valley, Hello Solidarity Valley: It's a Community Thing

• Forget Unicorn Chasing, Let's Grow a Herd of Zebras: Building Businesses in Stripes

• The Anti-Startup Revolution: It's Not About You, It's About Us

• Hustle with Heart: Ditch the Ego, Embrace the Ecosystem

Talk is cheap & helping each other is gold

Celebrate collective success: 

Highlight the stories of entrepreneurs who have thrived through collaboration and community support. Show that we're better together! On SkillVill User Generate Content and automatic check-ins & updates enable this to happen in Real Time so you don't have to hire another employee to do this.

Promote diversity and inclusion: 

Ensure that your community welcomes and empowers entrepreneurs from all backgrounds and walks of life. This fosters a richer exchange of ideas and experiences. This means have more public open to everyone offerings and opportunities. Figure out the many tools on SkillVill to help you get off the application exclusion process that is slowing your communities potential and growth.

Focus on immediate impact, not hype: 

Move beyond the glamorized image of entrepreneurship and emphasize the real-world impact it can have on communities and individuals. Your success, like business, like art, like anything real should speak for itself. Big picture and visions are great but not always the responsible way to act after you've inspired a community to follow your plan. Empower your community with tools like SkillVill so their work can speak for itself thru UGC (User Generate Content) and felt immediately by making an immediate difference helping them solve problems now that they need help fixing.

This is just a starting point, and there are countless other ways we can build a more supportive and collaborative ecosystem for entrepreneurs. The key is to start small, launch a circle on SkillVill, we'll help you listen better to the needs of the community, and adapt as we go.

So, yes, I'm with you! Let's roll up our sleeves, get in the trenches together, and create a new model of entrepreneur support that empowers individuals, strengthens communities, and truly fosters the American Dream.

Who else is ready to join us and learn how to level up our communities on SkillVill together?

Gratitude for Reading,

Sharing how I saved an hour of my day and had more fun getting this blog article written.

Check out the AI prompt I used on Google's Bard I used this to help me quickly create this post in less than 20 min from my thoughts this morning over coffee. I was inspired after a great talk with Joshua Farr, Marketplace Manager @ SF Housing | Community Engagement Expert, on my way back from walking Bernie, our shitzhu AKA "dog mayor of the Fillmore" by the TheBlackShop marketplace & community project. This is my village since 2019 that I'm so grateful to be apart of here in the Fillmore District during it's Reclamation of the Fillmore. Real life proof of the power of listening, connecting and collaborating.

Please share with me if you have something to add or if this was helpful in making something happen in your village in 2024. You can find me active in circles on SkillVill. I hope you swing by and maybe give it a try for your next event, community, or just to level up together.

You're invited to ...