My Community Mindset, Building Habits, & How To Get Attention [Weekend WRAP 121]

Hey Reader, it’s been a whirlwind month! I was joking with my wife that February 1st is the new January 1st — did it feel that way to you?

I've felt about 70-80% healthy for the past 6 weeks with 2 big bouts of sickness. Not a feeling I'm used to.

But, it's wild that work is on fire during that time (in a good way) 🔥 Launches are crushing, sponsors are coming through, people are excited about everything!

The biggest win was our HeyCreator membership went over 500 new members, including many of you! Officially the doors are closed, but if you were still interested — this is the last chance to sneak in through the back door 😉

I’m also going to announce a membership of my own on March 2nd, so keep an eye out for that 👀

My Community Mindset

One of my favorite follows on X is Greg Isenberg. I took his Community College class back in 2020 because I wanted to learn more about running community.

He was talking about in a different way than hosting forums or chat groups, I wanted to think about community in a way that was more than that but the foundation of a business. So when he talked about Community Powered Companies, I was in!

The main thing he said that stuck with me was that community is the best business to have, but often the hardest to get started — it takes a lot of patience. And to be honest in 2020 I didn’t have a lot of patience. I had just quit my job and was needed my courses and coaching to succeed fast — so I put community on the backburner for a couple years.

In 2023 I was able to work with Greg the entire year on his newsletter and Community College itself. I learned even more about how he thinks about community and how to bring people together on the internet.

Between Greg’s work, many conversations with my friend Jay Clouse, and the success of the HeyCreator membership — I’ve decided to go all-in on community in 2024! I’m building communities for creators, productivity, and dads — getting all my friends together on the pieces of life that really excite me.

My 3 Step Habit Building Process

In the spirit of “February 1st is the new January 1st” → here is the 3 step habit system I use whenever I’m working to make or break (or restart) habits.

All habits follow it and you can change anything about your life by exchanging good routines for bad ones.

Here's how the system works...

1. Cue - a reaction you have to an event, time, feeling, etc.
2. Routine - what you (semi)automatically do after the cue.
3. Reward - the sensation or result you get after the routine.

What's powerful about building an awareness of your habit loops is then you can use an existing habit routine as the cue for a new habit! This is how I started my journaling habit and something I call the "tow truck trick".

Learn more about the system in this video 👇

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Creator Corner — How to Get Attention

One of the best ways to get attention from someone in the creative space (and many others) is by taking their original concept and putting your unique spin on it (with attribution, of course).

Here’s an example. One of my favorite podcasts is the Bill Simmons Show, and he interviewed Larry David this week. Larry David is the showrunner of Seinfeld and creator/star of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

It’s a great conversation if you like sports, showbusiness, and comedy — but the part that stands out to me is when Bill mentions the first time he and Larry David connected:

Now - you don’t have to understand who Bill or Larry is. You don’t have to know about Seinfeld, Curb, or baseball. What you can learn though are these elements of attention:

1. Bill was a fan of Larry’s and understood his work.
2. Bill also knew that Larry was a baseball fan. Bill was a sportswriter with a popular column on ESPN.
3. Bill found a unique angle that he enjoyed creating, which caught the eye of Larry David, which led to an interview and eventually a friendship.

There’s one other thing to highlight — Bill’s angle was something that he found interesting and wanted to make all on his own. It didn’t need to catch Larry’s eye to be fun and interesting to Bill. And I’m convinced that’s what made it better.

The tricky thing about creating content is that you have to make and do things that you have fun with and find interesting. It’s too hard without that. Because even the fun stuff gets hard sometimes. And if it’s already hard to begin with, then it gets real easy to quit.

Ok, let’s “wrap” it there this week. Thanks for reading the newsletter and hit reply if you have any thoughts on have a story of how you got someone’s attention. I’ll share one or two in an upcoming newsletter.

And if you want to sneak in HeyCreator before the price goes up on Monday, here’s the door.

Talk soon,

Matt

p.s. if you have a (literal) minute to share feedback, click here.

Thanks for reading this edition of the WRAP. If you are new you can also read the archive here.