What is up everyone? This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and CEO of Morning Brew coming to you with another episode of The Founders Journal,

My Daily Audio Diary made public for the world, where I talk about the most important thoughts,

lessons, learnings, wins and losses behind the scenes at Morning Brew.

Today I am talking about community. It is potentially the most

cliche word of 2020 in the world of media and beyond and we are going to

demystify community as well as the benefits and the challenges of community.

Let's hop into it.

So I think where we need to start with this is defining community, because I think if you were to ask 10 people in a room

what is community they would have 10 different definitions and I also would argue that

a lot of people call things community that aren't community.

I'll give you an example. A lot of people will say, you know, that artists or celebrities or brands have you know rabid followings that are communities and I think the

important thing to ask yourself there is what is a community and does it mean if you know a band has

loyalists who come to all of their concerts or tweet at them on Twitter

that is considered community.

So here's how I define community and I would love to hear from my

listeners if you would define community differently.

My definition is ongoing in real life or virtual gatherings that allow for many to many communication

among a group of people that have some shared background, interest, or belief.

I think the most important modifier there, which is one that people do not keep in mind

when they think about what is the difference between loyalty, community,

fandom, obsession is many to many.

I think so many brands have fandom where the brand interfaces with individuals, with their individual customers or their fans,

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