This is the life cycle of building a tribe around your authentic expression.
The Beginning Stages
First, you know you have something to say but you are afraid to say it or do not know how, so you stay quiet.
Then you are about to burst so you just say the thing inside you out loud. It is pretty clunky.
People roll their eyes. Some try and talk you out of your new thing. The old thing you were doing was more fun. Why change?
Finding Your Practice Circle
You stop talking about your thing in public but find a handful of people who you can express authentically to. You fine-tune what you want to say with their unconditional listening.
You gain confidence because you are better at talking about your thing now. You have been practicing and ideas are flowing.
You start talking about your thing casually when appropriate in select public settings just to test the waters.
Going Public
You get enough positive reinforcement that you begin to be more authentically open about your thing in all conversations.
Some people still want you to explain your thing to them better which inspires you to continue fine-tuning. But you know your thing is real and that you are ready.
You proactively start branding yourself with your thing. You talk about it a lot. You put it out there wherever you can. You become the one who talks about your thing.
Polarization and Growth
This polarizes your audience and some fall away, while others grow more enthusiastic about your thing. You focus on the enthusiasm and that puts you into deeper flow.
You now have enthusiastic early adopters of your thing.
Your early adopters start to see success with your thing and share your thing with their communities.
Late Comers Return
People that left you early on now see other people they know sharing your thing and are interested that your thing is still going and now with much more momentum. They are curious.
They start to tune in again and now that you are stating your thing more clearly and have properly packaged it, some are interested in your thing.
These late comers share your thing with their communities. Your tribe begins to grow exponentially.
Evolution
You keep fine-tuning your thing until you are inspiring and providing value to most of the people who hear about your thing.
Your thing then evolves into some more expanded idea. And the cycle repeats at a much larger level of the game.
The Critical Step
None of this is possible without finding a handful of people you can authentically share with without getting any judgment.
I am eternally grateful to those who have given me an unconditional ear, even when I did not know what I was saying yet.
Authentic expression is beautiful and healing.