Empowered Connections: My Journey with PolkaDots

The past two years have been challenging for everyone, myself included. I’m so thankful to be a full-time creator. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time; I needed to figure out how or when it would work.

Looking back, I realize that communities have been a part of my personal growth and business strategy.

Not only do I help build, launch, and grow communities, but I am also a member of and benefit from many communities online and in person in Central Pennsylvania.

The community I’m sharing with you today is PolkaDot Powerhouse, an online and in-person community membership with over 3,000 women worldwide. In a previous blog post, I wrote about the power of the dots in my book, Creator to Community Builder.

After being a member for two years, I feel much more excited and empowered about what will come in my personal and professional life. Yes, this group has helped me by welcoming me to meetings, having friends who want to sit next to me at the table, and connecting me to potential clients and collaborators.

In 2022, I focused on connecting with Lancaster chapter members. I saw an online portal for connecting to members, but I only took enough time to set up my profile and make a few connections. I mostly just remembered about the online component this month.

At the beginning of May, I decided to become strategic about the women’s network and contacted several other chapters. I started scheduling 1:1 calls with women nationwide to learn more about them.

The PolkaDots’ central theme is that relationships come before business. My purpose and mission was to learn about other women and genuinely know who they are and their many sides because we aren’t just one kind of person.

It began as a strategy and quickly became a habit that I built to reach out and set up a few weekly connection calls. I learned that focusing on one community at a time allows me to be present and connect intentionally.

It is almost the end of the month, and to date, I’ve had or have scheduled 23 1:1s between this month and next. This has led to many laughs, fantastic conversations, collaborators, and clients.

When people ask me how to build a community, I usually say, “What community have you loved to be a member of, and why?” You’ll find your ideal members when you go where they hang out.

It turns out that this community has everything I need — the in-person meetings with the giant cookie, a collaborative online space for connection, and, most importantly, I have best friends to remind me to be kind to myself.

Questions or comments: Email Deb@FindCalmHere.com.