10 Things to Do in 2020 to Up Your Game

1. Join the Cowork
2. Come to the Cowork
3. Be active at the Cowork
4. Seriously join the Cowork

Ok I’ll stop… but really, what else do you need to do?! If you have been working by yourself for a while or have been hanging out at coffee shops, you know that this crazy entrepreneurship or remote work thing you are doing can be pretty lonely. I get it. I was there too. It was awful. And while I was sitting alone trying to get new clients, find new leads, and create an income from my business, I was getting nowhere. 

It wasn’t until I stepped outside of my comfort zone and started talking to people outside of my very small bubble. These efforts started mostly online and I have friends and colleagues spanning the globe now. In 2015, I found a platform called Blab (it’s gone now, don’t bother looking for it). I won’t bore you with all the details, but suffice to say that from the connections I made on Blab, I created an ecosystem and community of people who I am still working with today.

Also instrumental in my ability to connect with others who were interested in the same things I was working towards, was Twitter. Ultimately, it was the platform that would help me stay connected with the people I had met on Blab and how I would find an opportunity to meet them in person. Stepping out of my comfort zone and taking a leap of faith to travel to a place I’ve never been after seeing a tweet on Twitter made the difference between staying stagnant and moving up.

This article isn’t about all the different social platforms you can use to connect with people and make a community. This article is about taking the steps necessary to find, connect, and stay active in the communities you find. I was only able to up my game when I was open to finding community online and offline. 

So what are the last six things I suggest you do in 2020?

6. Don’t ignore platforms out of hand or because someone told you it was worthless

Places like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are treasure troves of leads, quality connections, and most likely your next best client. It’s all about how you utilize, leverage, and interact with the platform, *cough* community.

7. Go to a live event

I can’t stress this enough. Things started shifting for me when I began attending Live Events. Live Events can mean local networking events, local conferences, and conferences where you travel outside of your state or country. 

8. Read books about your chosen profession, expertise, or something you get better at or want to learn

Even when you aren’t in school you have an opportunity to continue learning. The easiest way to do this is to read books, read articles, watch informative and educational videos, and tap into the people and experts around you. I found that being open to continued learning means that I find more connections with intentional people. These are the people who I refer to, receive referrals from, and call my friends. 

9. Reach out and ask for help

One of the hardest things to do is reach out and ask someone for help when you need it. Finding the right people to ask to get the help you need is harder yet. If you come up against a problem and you can’t figure out how to solve it, take a look around and see who you know. if you don’t see anyone currently in your life who can help you solve the problem you have, ask if anyone knows that type of person. You can find out the next steps of how to ask for help here.

10. Did I mention join the cowork?

In all seriousness, find a community that will support you, celebrate with you, and challenge you to become a better human and a better version of you. If you can’t find anything local to you, we would love to have you.