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Tell me about your vision.

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My vision for the world, I would say,

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is that the future, I believe, is in niche communities.

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One of the challenges we saw during the pandemic

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was disconnection, disconnection from family,

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disconnection from friends, and something

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that happened during the last two decades

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has been this internet ability to connect with people

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all over the world.

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And while Facebook might have served us in my space

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before that, those are now the communities for everyone.

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And as a community strategist, I really

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believe in niche communities where I have a problem.

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I'm going to go right to where the community, where

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that problem can be solved and not have to ask 1,000 people

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on Facebook or look through several Facebook groups

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to figure it out, because I can find the people that I really

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want to connect with to help me solve a problem, whatever

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that is.

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Wow, that is very detailed.

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Can you tell me more about that?

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I think I'm very intrigued by it.

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I want to see what you do with it,

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because I work in strategy environment.

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So I would love your thoughts.

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Tell me more about that.

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Sure.

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I think a lot of the time, we have a lot of education

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problems in the world and trying to upskill and learn

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as technology changes, especially with more and more AI

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creeping into our lives every day.

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And we're trying to figure out how to solve these problems

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and how to upskill ourselves.

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But digital courses and online e-learning

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have a very low success rate for adults

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and a lot of other people as well, like different age groups.

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And that's because I believe a lot of the time,

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we don't want to learn alone.

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It's hard.

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It's not fun.

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But what makes learning, education, and developing

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skills, personal skills, socialization skills, empathy,

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compassion, generosity, all of these important skills

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that we need to have in life that we don't really

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get taught in school or anything like that to be a human,

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these are the kinds of things that we

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can work on with other people inside a community.

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That community could be in person.

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That community could be online.

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It could be both of those things.

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And the experience I had as a community member

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of an online community helped change my life.

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And that was why I decided to start becoming a community

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builder and helping other community builders develop

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a strategy and a structure so that they can launch

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an online community that's going to not just be successful

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and help other people solve their problems,

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but is also going to bring them revenue and a business model

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that's going to help them continue

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in doing their ideal work and the work

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that they want to do in life.

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Is it very similar to the school platform or a lot of times

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with courses, people have groups at the same time

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and Facebook groups.

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Is that something similar or is it something entirely

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different than I think?

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I'm just describing a general sense

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of what the possibilities could be for community

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without talking about any technological specifics

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at this point.

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As somebody I'm trying to be platform agnostic,

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there's tons of technology out there

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that bring people together and help people learn and help

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people develop skills and build relationships.

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I think those are all wonderful.

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The challenge is people are complex.

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So no matter how many funnels and emails and all

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of these things that you have to cultivate connection

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through digital methods, it's not the same as somebody

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who's talking to you in a room or if you are in a conference

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and there's that person, the greeter at the door that says,

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hey, we're so glad to have you.

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Here's where the restrooms are.

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Feel free to get some coffee.

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We don't have that online person.

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And that's what community managers and community

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professionals do.

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As we continue to grow again with this AI

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and all of these automated things,

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we lose the humanness of humans.

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So I really feel like bringing humanity back

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into the digital world is really important

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because it's going to be hard to determine who's real, who's

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not, who am I sharing my information with,

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how am I going to feel safe online,

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how am I going to feel like I can connect with people

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when I don't even know where you're at or who you are

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and what you're doing in the world

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and all that kind of stuff.

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So all of those things come into play.

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That being all said, the community platform

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that I'm familiar with and use most often is Mighty Networks.

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I don't know if you're familiar with Mighty Networks.

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I am not.

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I've never heard of it.

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OK, that's the community platform

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that I've been working on with clients over the last four

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years.

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Let me see right here.

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And I'll edit this segment.

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I just want to see if this is, because I

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was looking at your website, the link you send us.

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Yeah, I just typed it in the chat

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in case you misheard my saying it.

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But I don't necessarily, I did not build the platform.

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That is obviously somebody else's platform, not my own.

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OK, that makes a lot of sense.

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Sweet.

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I was a little confused when, yeah, that

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clarifies quite a bit.

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Awesome.

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Yeah, yeah.

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I don't build things online.

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I just help, except for relationships.

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Awesome.

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Well, Deb, thank you for sharing that.

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My next question for you, and I think

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you already went into that, is what is your why?

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What gets you out of bed every morning?

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Yeah, I think that the why is a complicated question

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a lot of times.

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It's usually very personal.

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I have struggled to feel like a lot of people

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feel like they belong where they grew up, where they are now,

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where they are in life, where they work.

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A lot of times, I felt disconnected

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with the communities that I initially were part of.

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And I learned to develop and connect and ask

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to see what else is out there.

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And so thankfully, there's a platform called Meetup.

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And Meetup has been around for over a decade.

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And their mission is that, is to bring people together,

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you connect it online so that you can connect offline.

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And those kinds of whys are the reason why I do what I do,

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is to help those community builders who

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are creating safe spaces for people all around the world

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and designing programs that are going to help them upskill

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and level up.

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I'm helping them with structure and figuring out

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what the purpose of their programs are,

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how they're impactful.

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A lot of people have these struggles with,

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I know I have this big vision, but I

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don't know how to clarify it.

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So a lot of the work I do as a strategist

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is to ask these questions, the challenging questions.

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I think that's just my nature in my background,

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because I used to be a former journalist

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and ask a lot of questions and was told by my editor

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if I didn't ask enough questions to go back and ask

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more questions.

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So I think just all of those things

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make up the reason that I just found my purpose.

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And it took a really long time.

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I did a lot of other jobs and a lot

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of other aspects of my life.

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But ultimately, I think it was that feeling

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that I got around feeling when I found people that I felt

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like I belonged, like my tribe or my group of people that

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got me.

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And when I met those people, I was like, oh,

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this is what it is.

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And then when I was able to help other people design

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those programs, and then they were able to say,

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Deb, you've helped me create these amazing,

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put this together and helped me piece it all

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into something that makes sense.

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That is really what I get lit up about,

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of just being able to help an individual who I know

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is going to impact hundreds and thousands of people

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with their programs and courses and online coaching.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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Sure.

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Then what is your goal for being on the show?

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For the show today, I think just to get more people aware

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of the idea of niche communities and saying,

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you know what, if you feel like you're not

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belonging in the place that you are, or you're feeling like,

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man, I just wish I had my core group of friends.

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I think everybody's familiar with the show Friends,

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because it's pretty much a global phenomenon

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at this point.

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But I think a lot of people wanted that,

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like a group of friends, that we all got each other

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and that we all could hang out and be ourselves.

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And there's a lot of people that have never had that experience.

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And so I think that is the message

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that I would like to get out the most, is just,

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there are places for you.

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Whatever you like, believe me, whatever you like,

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there is a group that likes that thing, minus cults.

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We're not going to talk about cults, but yeah.

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Positive things are possible.

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So I think that the challenges we've had of loneliness,

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because loneliness has risen.

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There's been studies that have come out post-pandemic

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that have said that we are even more lonely than before.

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And I think that is because so many people are feeling

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disconnected from their purpose, their life, their work,

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their family, all of these other things

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that help them ground into who they are.

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I also think society tells us who we should be.

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And so a lot of the times it's upon us

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to find our own path in our own way and then come to these.

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And sometimes that works before community,

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and sometimes that works during community,

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and sometimes you find people later in life,

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and all of the other things.

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But it's out there.

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Communities that support you are out there.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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And everyone is going to be listening to this.

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If you're lonely, if you feel something,

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you're missing friends, I think you

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should go check out the platform.

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It's called Mighty Works.

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Yeah.

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Thank you.

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It's Mighty Networks, actually.

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Mighty Networks.

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Let me.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, if you go to Mighty Networks

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and then you have backslash find,

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it's like Mighty Networks.

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I'll put it in the chat.

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Yeah.

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It's search for a Mighty Network.

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Yeah, it's just fine.

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Because then you can actually just put a keyword in

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and it'll bring up all of these different communities.

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They just started a podcast.

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The founder, Gina, she just started a podcast.

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So they have a lot of hosts that are starting

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new communities all the time.

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And that's been exciting.

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I've credit Mighty Networks for just creating

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an amazing platform that allows so many features and functions,

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live streaming, creating unlimited amounts of groups,

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designing programs, allowing hosts

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to design the experience, whether it's

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a paid, private, or secret community.

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And yeah, this is just a way that you could look

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in that search bar.

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You could say basket weaving.

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I don't know, you might find a basket weaving.

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You could try that.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions

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as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.