In school I could find the rockers because they had mullets, Bon Jovi and Motley Crue shirts. We obviously couldn’t carry around our guitars, but there were signals.
Growing up, I didn’t sit in the hallways and randomly yell things as everyone walked past.
“BMX! Dungons and Dragons! Guns N’ Roses!”
That’d just get me some weird looks, right?
Instead, I did what all of us shy nerds did – I carried around my BMX Plus magazines. Finally found an Anthrax shirt. Got some Airwalks from the JCPenny catalog.
Each of those things were a signal.
Once we found our tribe, we didn’t stay hanging out in the hallways at school, or the food court at the mall. We spent our evenings in our friend’s bedrooms and basements, learning Misfits’s covers and such.
This whole “hopping to different platforms to find out people” is a new thing that came about in the last decade, and it looks like it’s burning to the ground.
Start talking to the few people around you, getting a little deeper. Send a few emails. Plan a Zoom call. Meet in real life.
Boost your signals together, with other people.