This October I had the privilege of speaking at a very special event: The Second Brain Summit. Organized by Tiago Forte, it was an exciting exploration of human knowledge in the digital age. It was packed with events delivered by an impressive roster of speakers. Though it was an event of the mind, I ended up leaving with an unexpectedly full heart and an insight I wanted to share with you.

For me, it was like speaking at Disneyland. For two days, I was surrounded by people who think and care deeply about things that I find both fascinating and important. On the first day I was a speaker, where I had the pleasure of meeting some of you. We took photos, I signed an arm, and had a great conversation looking into the digital eyes of someone wearing the massive Apple Vision Pro headset.

On the second day I was simply a fellow nerd who got to see a bunch of his heroes speak. I don’t know what role I liked better. What I do know is this: though I’ve been to many events, I’ve never felt part of one like I did here.

For most of my career, I didn’t have a professional community. It’s often been a very solitary endeavor. Of course I’d done a fair amount of networking. It wasn’t until recently though that I’ve come to understand the distinction between a professional network versus a community. One is about getting work, the other is about getting through the work and getting better at what you do.

It’s easy to dream up a thing. It’s really hard to make that dream work. It’s even harder to keep that thing working year after year. Unless they’re in a similar field, your friends and family simply can’t relate, support, or challenge you. The only people who can are others doing similar work. For me, this summit was a gathering of those people.

Over the past six months, I’ve gotten to know some of the speakers personally. In that time, I’ve learned more about business, craft, and leadership than in years worth of investing in business and personal development. More than that, they’ve inspired me to step up both as a creator and as a person. How? Through their generosity.

I’ve been to many events over the years. It often felt like the guiding question was “how can you help me?” If people couldn’t quickly answer that question, the communication ended. Here, it was different. At the summit, the main question felt like “how can I help you?” Everywhere I went people were respectful, curious, and genuinely encouraging even when they had no idea who I was.

This was true backstage too. For example, the Queen of Journaling Jo Franco graciously insisted I take her spot on the main stage the instant she learned people would not fit in the smaller room where I was supposed to speak. No hesitation. The brilliant Anne-Laure Le Cunff gave me a little pep talk to help shift my headspace to go up on that main stage. Notion Guru Thomas Frank immediately set to figuring out a challenge I had with Notion, shortly after his talk. I could go on.

Actually, I will! I was also privy to the commentary of speakers about other speakers. The sheer excitement and encouragement going on behind the scenes was both touching and unfamiliar. Any time anyone mentioned a challenge, someone jumped at the opportunity to offer support, no strings attached. Over and over. That’s when it hit me: these people were genuine fans of each other, not only as fellow creators, but as people. They really wanted each other to win, and that energy changes everything.

In the past, most of my professional relationships were transactional. Polite, respectful, even fun, but momentary. There’s nothing inherently wrong about exchanging time or money for money or time. It is business as usual. It’s entirely different when surrounding yourself with peers simply because you want them to win. When you do that, chances are, they want the same for you. And just like that, you start to feel a real sense of belonging. It’s the distinction between giving for love versus from love.

The Second Brain Summit felt like Tiago’s beautiful love letter to this community. One of his closing sentiments was that gaining knowledge alone is not useful; knowledge is only useful when it’s used to uplift each other. This perfectly captured the spirit of the summit.

Across the street, LA Comic-Con was in full swing. On the day of my departure, I found myself standing in line for coffee. In front of me was a tired middle-age Naruto. Behind me, a baby Darth Vader. Behind him, a long queue of colorful characters snaked out the door blending into the crowd of creatures descending on the convention center.

On any other day, I fear I may have judged these happy people. Maybe it’s the jealousy of not having anything like this in my life. That day though, I felt such joy and camaraderie for these few who celebrate what they love so freely alongside others. For first time in my life, I really knew that feeling of belonging.

Who are your people and how do you celebrate them? If you haven't yet found your people, what topic or cause excites you? Who inspires you in this space and how could you help them?