One Sentence

I've written more than one blog about not wanting to write a blog.

Cleaned a stove to avoid one, thrown out a pineapple, even sat in front of a blank screen until the screen won.

So I understand it when someone joins the community and does nothing.

They land in the hub, read the welcome thread, maybe read it again, then scroll through what other people have posted and decide their own first post needs to be better than all of it.

So they close the tab and figure they'll come back when they've got something worth saying.

They usually don't come back.

The onboarding asks for two things in the first ten minutes: put one sentence in your profile about why you're here and say hello.

That's the whole list.

One sentence and a hello.

I used to think that was a low bar.

Now I think it's the entire point.

The problem was never that people don't know enough to begin.

It's that the first thing they want to do is big, and big things don't always have a first step you can see.

"Build an audience" isn't something you can do on a Tuesday morning.

Saying hello in the welcome thread is.

I know this from my walks.

Some mornings I don't want to go, but I've never fixed that by deciding to want to.

I put on my shoes, get out the door and somewhere along the way I get into it.

Sometimes I don't, but either way I went for the walk.

Writing is the same for me.

The hard part is getting my pen to the page, but once it's there and I start writing, it comes on its own.

Putting that first sentence in your profile does something else too.

Lets the community know you're there and, maybe more importantly, gets you out of the parking lot.

Nobody in that thread is waiting for your best.

They're waiting to see if you're there.

So write the sentence.

It doesn't have to be good.

It has to be posted.