Dusti Arab is a marketing strategist and the founder of The Reinvention Co, where she helps values-driven business owners build regenerative marketing systems rooted in trust, resonance, and results. She’s the creator of Referral Worthy, the podcast and methodology for turning exceptional client experiences into word-of-mouth engines. With a background in creative direction, messaging, and operations, Dusti specializes in making your business unmistakable - and easier to talk about. If your marketing isn’t working the way it used to, she’s the strategist you call when you’re ready to be known for what you actually do best.
How to actually find your people
Published about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Trust Signals
the reinvention co
Hey Reader,
Building community as an adult is hard.
Especially when you’ve just moved to a new city during a pandemic and you don’t really have to make the effort.
When we moved to Vancouver in - that'd be the Vancouver in Washington - we were only 20 minutes from most of our friends in Portland. Close enough to still be in the loop for invites, far enough that it was a pain in the ass trying to get anyone to come over the river and the notorious I-5 drawbridge.
We’d just bought our first house, and most of my early energy went into settling in - fixing what needed fixing, planting the garden, making the place ours. It felt good, but underneath all that busywork was something I didn’t want to name yet: I was lonely.
I’d sit in my basement office (overjoyed, because I finally had one with a door that closed), dive into my work, and feel a kind of comfortable isolation settle over me.
But as we began to come out of quarantine, I found myself wishing I had friends who were closer. Even more importantly, when this whole pandemic bullshit was over, I was committed to meeting my online friends in real life.
That’s exactly what happened with Leigha. We’d known each other online for years, but when she moved up here in 2020 we decided: yep, we’re doing this. Just yesterday we did a volunteer shift together with our teenagers at my favorite local non-profit Feed the Mass.
Alison was another one of those internet-to-real-life friendships. We met in a Facebook group in 2019, and then the pandemic hit. So for our very first hangout? We bought season tickets to Broadway in Portland. Bold choice, great decision. This week she invited me to Hozier with one of her close friends. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a sold-out crowd, screaming lyrics we’d known for a decade - and I realized I wasn’t just tagging along anymore. I was part of the circle.
And then there’s Mary. A newer introduction, someone I met through a mutual friend’s party - who, as it turns out, lives 5 minutes from me. She’s become one of the most important people in my local community, which is part of why I was thrilled to have her emcee Reinvent(ed) for me.
When I look around right now, I finally have the offline community I’d been craving for years - and it all started with saying yes to those online connections first.
I’ve never been someone who does surface-level anything. Most networking events make me gag - too many boring people chasing leads instead of building real relationships.
My internet friends? They’re the ones who’ve kept me sane through fuck-all since 2011. Of course I was going to start there.
It’s easy to think community just happens, but it doesn’t.
It’s built moment by moment, choice by choice - when you say yes to the volunteer shift, the concert invite, or the neighbor’s party where you don’t know anyone yet. And it’s also work. You have to keep showing up, even when it’d be easier to stay home because the truth is that community is not convenient. Community doesn’t land on your doorstep while you sit in your (very nice) office with the door shut. You build it.
Because the truth is I wanted people I could build with - friends who show up to volunteer shifts with me, who’ll drag me to concerts, who’ll say yes when I ask them to emcee an event - and who let me do the same for them.
And maybe that’s the whole point: the house, the business, the garden - they were just the backdrop. The real work was building a life worth sharing.
***
The Common Wealth Summit
It's finally here! The Common Wealth Summit starts next week, and I'm hosting the watch party! There are so many amazing prezzies, and I'll be working through them right alongside you. Don't miss it.
I don't subscribe to many newsletters, but Oliver Burkeman, the author of 4000 Weeks, has one worth your time. This quote hit like a truck when I read it.
“…I’d been assuming that what I needed was to collect sufficient resources to create momentum, when what I’d really needed was to clear enough space for momentum to arrive.”
- Oliver Burkeman
It's giving me a lot to think about - mostly, that I need less to think about.
Until next time, be good to each other.
Talk soon,
Eunice Brownlee
writer. speaker. activist.
Eunice Brownlee has spent her life telling stories across many mediums. As a multi-passionate creative, she’s used photography, marketing, writing, and public speaking to connect her message to the world. Because the heart of building community begins with sharing stories, Eunice uses her stories to connect, heal, and inspire change. Eunice spends time teaching others the craft of story in her speaking and writing practice. She has coached speakers in telling their stories with WomanSpeak and TEDxFolsom. When she’s not using her voice, she can be found seeking her next passport stamp and soaking in nature.
for service-based entrepreneurs who know trust is the real algorithm
Dusti Arab is a marketing strategist and the founder of The Reinvention Co, where she helps values-driven business owners build regenerative marketing systems rooted in trust, resonance, and results. She’s the creator of Referral Worthy, the podcast and methodology for turning exceptional client experiences into word-of-mouth engines. With a background in creative direction, messaging, and operations, Dusti specializes in making your business unmistakable - and easier to talk about. If your marketing isn’t working the way it used to, she’s the strategist you call when you’re ready to be known for what you actually do best.