Tribes don't need you

The tribe already exists. Your job is to show up and lead it, not to create it from scratch.

People who care about the same thing find each other. They always have. Before the internet it was slower, but it still happened. Clubs, zines, conferences, word of mouth in the parking lot after the talk.

What the tribe needs is not a brand. It needs a voice. Someone willing to say the thing out loud that everyone in the group already believes but hasn't articulated yet.

Most companies get this backwards. They try to build a community from nothing. They launch a Slack, a Discord, a forum. They hire a community manager. Then they wonder why nobody posts.

Nobody posts because you assembled strangers around your logo. That's not a tribe. That's a waiting room.

Find the people who already share a worldview. Give them language. Give them a flag. Then get out of the way and let them do what they were already doing, except now they have a name for it.

You don't build tribes. You recognize them.