Getting Started as a Creator Part 2: Finding Your Tribe

Why Community is the Secret Weapon for Solo Creators

Last time, we spoke about finding your creative "why." We discussed the different motivation archetypes of creators and why identifying your purpose is such an important part of the process. If you haven't read that one, I suggest you check it out.

Today, we're going to get tribal.

In an era where the internet has made it seemingly easier to "go it alone," I've realized the most successful solo creators are actually the ones who collaborate with others.

There's an old proverb about journeys and companions that has shaped my entire approach to creativity. Its origin is uncertain but it’s become more meaningful than ever in our hyper-isolated digital age.

I’ll get to it in a bit, but first, let's talk about tribes.

Tribalism: A Misunderstood Subject

Dunbar’s Number

Long before tribalism became a maligned buzzword of the internet age, it was a natural function of human beings’ social structures. We’ve been organizing ourselves into small-ish groups for literally hundreds of thousands of years, and the size of these groups has remained oddly consistent for that entire time. And that number is somewhere around 150 people.

Why so specific? It’s not like there was a bouncer at the gates of every village keeping count with one of those clickey counter things.

This is not how it worked (until the advent of clubbing).

The number comes from evolutionary psychology. According to the research of anthropologist Robin Dunbar, our brains evolved specifically to navigate tribal structures of specific sizes. His research points to evidence that throughout human evolution, our tribal group size has remained remarkably consistent, around 150 people (“Dunbar’s Number”), which correlates directly with humans’ ability to maintain a maximum of about 150 stable social relationships at a given time.

Dunbar’s Number in the Internet Age

But how can that be? Most of us are connected to way more than 150 people on modern social media networks, but if you think about who you’re actually “connected to” vs. “connected to”, it starts to make a whole lot of sense.

But there’s more than just anecdotal vibes-based evidence to back this up: A recent study has suggested that Dunbar's number is applicable to online social networks as well.

It's rather dense, data-heavy research, but essentially what it says is that even on Twitter, where technology theoretically removes communication barriers, users still hit Dunbar's cognitive limit of maintaining only 100-200 stable relationships, confirming that our tribal nature isn't just cultural but biologically hardwired.

That number also makes sense because there are only so many non-working, non-sleeping hours of the day, and even if you were a professional social butterfly, 200 meaningful relationships is pushing it.

You can only hold so many connections in your head at one time.

That isn’t to say that toxic tribalism doesn’t exist. It does, and it makes communicating with people from other backgrounds and social strata really really hard. But tribalism at its core is about connection, safety and shared purpose. It’s only when individuals corrupt this function of the human animal does tribalism take a darker turn.

Examples of positive tribalism are too numerous to mention, but think of improv troupes, open source coding communities, non-profit groups, film or TV crews (which, incidentally, have an average size of 100-150 people #notacoincidence) and other creatives supporting each other in making their projects come to life.

That last one is why we’re here.

The Lone Wolf Myth in Creativity

Creativity demands collaboration with others. Authors need editors, TV Writers need producers, fine artists have teachers and mentors and the list goes on and on.

There are of course examples of lone wolf creatives who have at least in part managed to sustain a solo career. John Swartzwelder comes to mind. The legendary Simpsons writer - known for his incisive takes on American society and his larger-than-life characters - was infamously reclusive, self-publishing his books and abstaining from interviews. But even he was most famous for the work he did alongside the other writers of The Simpsons.

But if you’re a creative reading this, you should not assume that you are another John Swartzwelder. These solo creatives are outliers. Most of us need others to help execute our creative vision.

Collaboration vs. Output.

“Solo” creators like Casey Neistat, Emma Chamberlain or Bo Burnham rely heavily on communities, especially when they grew their operations from recording stuff in their bedrooms/living rooms into more complex productions.

Even the titular MrBeast was only able to do what he’s done because he built a team of collaborators to help him execute his vision.

Having worked in the writers’ room of HBO’s Veep and FOX’s HouseBroken, I can tell you firsthand that even the most seasoned, brilliant TV Writers I know work better in collaborative environments. The shared trust and interpersonal shorthand that develops in these settings enhances their creativity and makes them better writers.

Why? Well, working with people you know and trust has a ton of benefits.

Benefits of Creative Collaboration

Trust Leads to Better Ideas

As an example, writers' rooms are often known to be "safe spaces" where people can relax, and when people are more relaxed, they're more creative. When you trust your collaborators, you say crazy shit. Crazy shit often leads to new ideas and new ideas lead to exciting stories.

Healthy Rivalry Pushes People to be Better

Friendly competition emerges in collaborative environments, often allowing the best ideas to win out (I said often, not always). I can tell you when I was on Veep, there was no greater motivator for pitching good jokes than going toe-to-toe with some of greatest comedy minds to ever write for TV.

Diversity of Perspective Improves Work

A diversity of perspectives allows stories to go in strange and wonderful directions that are not possible via a single human mind. The greater the diversity of perspective, the more complementary the skillsets. You end up with stories that are not just different; They’re more complete.

Accountability Keeps the Ball Moving Forward

Social accountability keeps everyone on track. When you know others are counting on you and your work, you're less likely to procrastinate or deliver crap material.

Constructive Criticism Improves the Writer and the Writing

In the best collaborative environments, creatives will receive healthy criticism that helps them grow and ultimately leads to better stories. Feedback from trusted peers can help you identify blind spots that you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

The Network Effect Multiplies Opportunities

The network effect exposes you to opportunities you'd never find alone. Each person in your creative community brings their own connections, knowledge of opportunities, and unique insights that can open doors you didn’t have access to before.

The AI Elephant in the Room

AI Won‘t Replace Creative Communities

For all of the efficiencies gained by using generative AI in the production pipeline, there will always - I repeat, always - be a place for the creative collaboration process in entertainment.

Yes, for the reasons above, but also: Even at its most advanced and most efficient, AI is just another voice in the room. Theoretically you could build multiple AI agents who each possess a diverse “point of view” (albeit a synthetic one), put them in a virtual writers’ room with each other and see what happens. But eventually, a human - or more likely a group of humans - will have to check their work, guide their processes, decide which stories to tell, which audiences to cater to, and/or which emotional truths resonate with actual human experiences.

And if you’re saying: “But AI could conceivably make these decisions, too.”

The logical conclusion of this thought pattern is an AI agent that is optimized to create entertainment based on individuals’ tastes, goals and desires.

Hyper-Personal AI-Generated Content

This is something that gets mentioned in conversations with some of my more technically-inclined friends: Engineers, futurists, mathematicians. Imagine a platform that feeds you content that is made exclusively for you, based on your personality profile, your preferences, even your mood on that particular day.

Let’s set aside the technical limitations that make this not feasible at the time of this writing and assume you could execute something like this. There are still a couple problems with the model:

1. People need to experience things outside of their zone of comfort; even the most optimized TikTok algorithm feeds new content to people to push their boundaries and expose them to new things they might love, and even today, human beings are responsible for the deployment of those algorithms.

2. This one is more important, so I’m going to dedicate a whole section to it:

People Need Shared Cultural Experiences

There is a loneliness epidemic in the U.S. and all over the world, but not just among young people. See: This story about elderly Japanese women committing crimes to avoid social isolation.

All of this sounds bonkers until you think about it for five seconds: In a time when digital connection has replaced physical interaction and traditional community structures are collapsing, people are desperate for human connection and will seek it out in whatever way they can.

This is modeled on data from a real study.

The last thing people want is a new technology that widens the cultural gaps between them, and that’s why hyper-personalized gen-AI content is doomed to fail on a large scale. People would rather have real human stories that allow them to form community than perfectly-personalized content that isolates them from others.

Can you imagine the water cooler talk based on hyper-personalized content?

Our depressing future? Not likely.

Finding Your Tribe in the UGC Landscape

So what if you haven’t yet found your tribe?

There are a few ways to find creative communities:

1. The People Around You

Your friends are your greatest source of potential collaborators. These are people you already know and like. You’ve already done the hard part of determining if these are people you want to spend your time with and chances are they have similar sensibilities as you. Do yourself a favor and ask if they’re interested in starting XYZ creative pursuit with you. They may say yes, they may say no, but as someone who collaborates creatively with his friends on a regular basis, believe me when I say at worst it’s a lot of fun.

2. Geographical Communities

Local film groups and creative hubs like theatres and community centers are a great resource to find likeminded creatives who want to make stuff. Chances are your town or one near it has one of these. If you live in LA, your town has several hundred of these. You’ll probably encounter a lot of weirdos at these centers, and you should embrace that. Find the weirdos who match your weirdo-ness.

3. Online Communities

While it’s harder to creatively collaborate with folks who don’t live near you, people do it successfully all the time. If you’re my age, you probably remember hearing about how the success of the band The Postal Service, named so because they would send musical recordings through the mail to each other to eventually get mixed together asynchronously. More recently, look to the wildly successful "Roomie" collabs between YouTubers like PewDiePie, Jacksepticeye, and KSI who would record from different countries but edit their content together for seamless entertainment.

There are a vast number of online communities centered around creative collaboration on platforms like Reddit, Discord, Slack and other forums.

4. Platform-Specific Communities

Find and connect with people who are already on social and UGC platforms like YouTube and TikTok. DM folks who are making stuff that you find interesting and see if they have any pointers on getting started. You may find that they want to collaborate with you if you give them a good enough reason to do so.

5. Professional Organizations

If you work in the entertainment industry, practically everyone around you wants to be creative and will jump at the opportunity to make stuff if it aligns with their goals and sensibilities. There are countless professional organizations that you can leverage to find collaborators - from guilds to groups like NHA.

If you don’t work in entertainment, even soul-sucking corporate jobs are hotbeds of creativity, as evidenced by corporate comedy creators Corporate Bro and Corporate Natalie.

6. Me: Jon Stahl

If all else fails, just message me below and we can book a time to chat:

How Will I Know I’m in the Right Tribe?

In order to be certain you’ve chosen your people well, there are a few questions you should ask yourself:

1. Do you feel the need to censor yourself in front of these people?

2. Do you feel like you can’t be yourself or that you’re holding back your true personality?

3. Do you feel judged or looked down upon? Do you feel like you don’t belong?

4. Do the people in the group coalesce around a shared goal, a shared vision, or a shared sense of purpose?

5. Do they see abundance in creative pursuits and openly share ideas with each other? Or do they operate from a scarcity mindset, hoard creativity and keep secrets?

6. Can you imagine working with these people full-time, day-in, day-out for weeks on end?

7. If you pitch a truly terrible idea, how will the group respond to it? With honesty and encouragement to grow? Or will they react with hostility, or worse: avert their eyes and refuse to acknowledge it?

8. Do you all laugh at the same stuff?

In my personal experience, running my social channel LoFi Comedy Collective (YouTube | TikTok | Instagram), I know the answers to these questions. I consider my collaborators dear friends and trusted allies in our shared creative pursuits. We laugh at the same stupid shit and share the same stupid dreams.

Together, we’re able to do so much more (and do it so much better) than if it was just one of us.

The Pitfalls of Creative Communities

That isn’t to say it’s all sunshine and puppies. There are a few drawbacks to collaborating with others:

1. Creative Compromise

Unless you’re the tribal elder, you don’t always get to call the shots. That means you have to compromise, which can be hard when you believe in a particular direction for a project or a particular vision for the organization.

That said, I’ve found handing over the reins to be enormously freeing. Even though I founded LoFi and I’m the person driving the organization forward, I’ve encouraged my collaborators to take ownership over the projects they pitch, and give them the final say on these projects. That alleviates any executive decision-making fatigue I might encounter and allows me to focus on the overall direction of the org instead of minute creative details on a project-by-project basis.

These images can’t all be winners. If you want input on the illustrations, pay me.

2. Too Many Cooks

No, not the brilliant satirical Adult Swim opening credits sequence thing:

When there are multiple voices competing voices in the room, there’s more opportunity for creative disagreement, and without clear decision-making hierarchy, reaching consensus and picking a direction to pursue can be challenging.

But as long as you define clear goals and set expectations re: decision-making structures, you can avoid a deadlock.

3. Herding Cats

It’s hard enough to coordinate multiple schedules among organized, punctual, professional individuals. Creative people can sometimes be… not those things.

All I can say is: Proceed with diligence, communicate schedules and conflicts clearly, and use shared calendars.

---

In LoFi’s case, the benefits of collaboration have massively outweighed the drawbacks.

It Would Be a Good Time to Start a Cult

With people more lonely and desperate for connection than ever, I’ve joked that it would be a great time to start a cult that fosters a sense of community. E.g. from my last post:

If you want to build a sustainable business, you can go into finance. If you want to heal people, you can go into healthcare. If you want to create a sense of community, you can start a cult.

It’s a joke but there’s also some truth to this: Loneliness and depression is getting worse, and it’s only exacerbated by the isolating effects of modern technology.

It would be so easy for a cult leader (or a dishonest religious leader or a conspiracy theorist) to tap into people’s desperation for being part of something bigger by providing a place for them to feel accepted and welcomed.

Creative communities are just the positive alternatives to these things, and can fulfill the same sense of belonging in a more healthy way. It’s what I hope to do with LoFi, and also what I hope to do with this Substack.

And you don’t have to start by building a content creation studio and inviting everyone you know to join it. You can begin small: Doing coffee meetups with strangers from online communities, joining Discord servers and Subreddits, and more deeply connecting with likeminded creatives from your personal and professional life.

And if you’re not the connector type, that’s fine. Keep working on your own creative stuff. But also keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to share your work with others. You can try to do it yourself, but I keep returning to that old proverb of uncertain origin:

If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.

Next time, we’ll talk about the ongoing battle between fear and creativity.

Stay tuned,

Jon