You Are the Source of Your Community  🔗 **Source:** [You Are the Source of Your Community](https://davidspinks.substack.com/p/you-are-the-source-of-your-community#full) > [!note]+ Document Notes > > [!info] Generated analysis — not the author's words. Sections below are machine-written > > from the captured source. Only text inside `> [!quote]` blocks is verbatim from the author. > > Do not quote or attribute any other line to the named author. > # 🏷️ Title: You Are The Source of Your Community > ## 🧭 Table of Contents > - [📝 Summary](#-summary) > - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) > - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) > - [📚 References](#-references) > - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) > - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) > - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) > - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) > - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) > - [❓ Questions](#-questions) > - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) > - [💡 Implications](#-implications) > - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) > - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) > - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) > - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) > - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) > - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) > ### 🔗 References > - Tom Nixon, *Work With Source* — cited book, source of both direct quotes > - Peter Koenig — cited as the researcher whose work Nixon's book draws on ("Source Principle") > - Steven Schlafman — named as the founder/"source" of Downshift, the case study > - Anderson Cooper / Rick Rubin interview — cited anecdote, not linked or dated in the source > - Emergent Community Design workshop (free, registration link in source) — Spinks's own upcoming event > - *The Business of Belonging* — Spinks's own book, self-promoted at the end > ## 📝 Summary > - **What happened.** David Spinks (community-building consultant, author of *The Business of Belonging*) argues that every community has a single originating "source" person — using Tom Nixon's *Work With Source* (itself drawing on Peter Koenig's research) as his framework — and that community builders undermine their own communities by diluting their vision to avoid seeming "bossy" or non-communal. > - **Why it matters.** This is a normative argument aimed at Spinks's own audience (community leaders, his coaching clients) rather than an empirical study — its purpose is permission-giving: it tells readers who are hesitant to assert vision that doing so is not domination but a structural necessity. > - **Stakeholders.** Community builders/founders (the addressed audience); Spinks himself (has a direct commercial interest — the piece ends with a paid coaching pitch and a book plug); Tom Nixon and Peter Koenig (their framework is the intellectual scaffolding, uncredited beyond the two quotes and a name-check). > - **Risks.** The "source" framing, taken uncritically, could function as post-hoc justification for a founder refusing to decentralize decision-making — the piece gestures at this risk ("decentralise... yet... founders... have a natural authorship") but does not resolve the tension between "you are the source" and safeguards against founder overreach. > - **Bottom line.** A permission-giving essay for hesitant community founders, built on one applied framework (Source theory) and one illustrative anecdote (Rubin/Cooper), ending in a subscription/coaching/book funnel. > ## 📖 Main Content > ### 🗒️ Notes > - **Opening case (Downshift).** Spinks describes co-launching Downshift, a life-transitions program, and argues its specific practices (solo time in a 10x10 ft square, somatic work, a fire ceremony) could never have been requested by participants in advance — they emerged from founder Steven Schlafman's intuition, not user research. > - **The Source claim (Nixon/Koenig).** Introduces *Work With Source* and its central claim, framed as "bold, but validated by extensive research": every initiative has exactly one originating source person who took the first risk. > - **The founder/collective paradox.** Quotes Nixon naming the tension directly — decentralization is necessary for growth, but founders retain "natural authorship and vital role" even as the endeavor grows past them. > - **Applied to community-building.** Spinks generalizes: the reader, as a community creator, is themselves the source of what they build; the community's specific character (not community-in-general) depends on them personally. > - **Diagnosis of failure.** Lists reasons community founders under-lead: wanting to seem "communal," avoiding being "bossy," conflict avoidance, people-pleasing — the throughline is founders making their own vision smaller to avoid social friction. > - **Reframe as revolution.** Calls community-founding "an act of revolution" — a declaration that the existing social order is missing something and a claim to change what's acceptable inside the built container. > - **Rubin/Cooper anecdote.** Recounts an interview (undated, unlinked in the source) where Rick Rubin tells Anderson Cooper the audience "comes last" in making music, because the audience "only knows what's come before" — used as an analogy for why community design can't be user-research-driven. > - **Collective caveat.** Spinks explicitly distinguishes "you are the source" from "the community is about you" — contribution from others is still required, and other members become sources of their own subcommunities over time ("source leads to source"). > - **Closing pitch.** Ends with self-promotion: a free workshop (Emergent Community Design), a friend's paid course, a podcast-interview plug, and Spinks's own coaching offer and book (*The Business of Belonging*). > ## 📚 References > - *Work With Source* (Tom Nixon) — primary framework source, directly quoted twice > - Peter Koenig — named as the underlying researcher; no citation, study, or methodology given for the "extensive research" claim > - *The Business of Belonging* (David Spinks) — self-referenced, not independently sourced > ## 🗣️ Paraphrase > Spinks opens with a personal case: a retreat program he helped launch had specific, unusual practices that no participant could have requested in advance, because they came from the founder's own vision rather than user research. He generalizes this into "Source theory" — borrowed from Tom Nixon's book, which cites Peter Koenig's research — the claim that every initiative has one originating person whose risk-taking and intuition define what the thing becomes. He argues community founders often fail not from lack of vision but from social hesitation: not wanting to seem bossy, avoiding conflict, diluting the vision to keep everyone comfortable. He reframes founding a community as an inherently assertive act — a claim that something is missing from the world and a decision to build a space where a different reality applies. An anecdote about Rick Rubin telling Anderson Cooper that musicians shouldn't design for what audiences say they want (because audiences can only reference the past) stands in for the same argument applied to community design: you can't survey your way to the right community, you have to trust what only you can sense. He closes by softening the individualist framing — the community must still be about the collective, and other members become sources of their own sub-communities over time — before ending on a set of self-promotional links. > ## 📰 Newsletter > **Founders, stop apologizing for having a vision.** A new essay from community-building consultant David Spinks makes a case that will read as either liberating or slightly self-serving depending on where you sit: every community has exactly one "source" — the person who took the first risk — and trying to be maximally democratic from day one is why most communities never get off the ground. Drawing on Tom Nixon's *Work With Source* (by way of Peter Koenig's research), Spinks argues the specific texture of a community — the retreat ritual, the tone, the thing nobody could have asked for in a survey — comes from a founder's intuition, not consensus. He backs it with a Rick Rubin line: "the audience comes last," because audiences can only reference what's already been made. It's a good reminder for anyone hedging their own community vision to avoid seeming bossy — and a useful frame to hold up against this vault's other governance material, which spends a lot more time on what happens when that same founder-authority never gets checked. > ## ✅ ### You Are The Source of Your Community ##### Why we need bold community leaders who are ready to take their seat. By David Spinks — Aug 18, 2026 When I helped launch Downshift, a program for folks navigating big life transitions, the potential members of that program could not have described to us the experience they needed. When asked, they would not have said, "Please ask me to sit alone in a 10x10 ft square in the woods for two hours without a phone or journal." They would not have asked for somatic experiences, parts work, and a fire ceremony to say goodbye to and grieve the parts of them that were ending. And regardless of the programming, they could not have asked for the specific tone and vibration that they would eventually come to feel at our retreats. All of that had to come from a source. In our case, that source was our founder Steven Schlafman. In his book "Work With Source", Tom Nixon shares a perspective that is bold, but validated by extensive research conducted by Peter Koenig: > > "Every human initiative – from projects to parties to entire businesses – starts with one single founder, the source. The source is the person who takes the first risk to realise an idea." > > > Steve had a vision for Downshift, and he took the risk of bringing that vision into the world. It was his intention, presence, character, and action that defined the foundational vibrations of the container. We all contributed; we added to the soup, but without Steve it wouldn't exist, and no one had the ability to channel what the community wanted to become like he did. Nixon talks about this dance between the creator and the collective: > > "Nothing starts without a founder, but here's the great paradox: to grow a collective endeavour, it can't just be about the founder. We have to decentralise, yet at the same time, founders and their successors have a natural authorship and vital role to play in endeavours they start. A founder failing to show up well can be the undoing of everything, but get it right and a purposeful vision can come to life spectacularly." > > > As a community creator, you are the source of the communities you create. Without you, the community doesn't exist. Your presence, decisions, and actions allow for a specific community to emerge, one that could only emerge through you. Failing to take one's seat as a leader is why so many communities fail to get off the ground, and most don't last long. The reasons are plenty: We want to be "communal". We want everyone to have an equal voice instead of trusting our intuition. We don't want to be bossy. We don't want to take up too much space. We avoid conflict and people-please. Essentially, we make ourselves and our visions smaller so that we don't ruffle feathers. But make no mistake, starting a community is an act of revolution. To start a community is to declare that the way the world is designed today is missing something, and you're ready to change it. You're ready to change reality, change what is acceptable and what isn't, at least within the walls of the container that you're building. I recently relistened to an interview with Anderson Cooper and Rick Rubin. In it, Cooper asks Rubin how important it is to focus on the audience when making music. "The audience comes last", Rubin responds calmly. "How can that be?", replies Cooper. "Well, the audience doesn't know what they want. The audience only knows what's come before." Cooper looks confused. "Isn't the whole music business built around trying to figure out what somebody likes?" "Maybe for someone else it is", replies Rubin. "But it's not for me." Community isn't a song, but it is art. And like good art, we can't describe what it is we're looking for. It's only after we're moved by the experience of it that we realize how much it means to us. No one can tell you the exact kind of community they're looking for. But you know. It's within you. All of your lived experiences to this moment, and all that you are, make it an absolute certainty that there's a form of community only you can offer. They may not know it yet, but people are waiting for it. That doesn't mean the community should be about the creator. It should always be about the collective. You might need others to help bring the vision to life. In fact, I'm sure you will. Because a community requires contribution. But you are still the source. Over time, others will join and bring in their unique source. They'll contribute to the vision as long as it aligns with their vision. They'll also become the source of subcommunities, side quests, and the creation of entirely new communities. Source leads to source. Each new iteration is birthed through one person. This is what's needed for communities to come to life. Someone bold enough to have a vision, and to build a container that has never existed before. That person is you. Your community is waiting for you. ###### More good things: Thanks for reading! Some new resources and announcements for you all today… * I'm hosting the Emergent Community Design workshop again! We'll be exploring similar themes from this article, and how to tap into your intuition around the form of community that wants to emerge through you. It's been one year since I last hosted it. It's free, but there was a long waitlist last time, so don't wait to register. * My friend Alex Olshonsky is launching an inaugural cohort of his "Break Your Addiction to Overthinking" course. I participated in his workshop on this topic, and it was life-changing. * I was interviewed by Hannah Keith on her new podcast "The Somatic Way" about my journey into my somatic practice. I also talk about an intense conflict I went through and its somatic impact on me. **Go Deeper:** * **Work with me:** I help community leaders develop their inner confidence and clarity, and to live the life they want. * **Read the book:** "The Business of Belonging" is a complete guide to building community businesses., You Are the Source of Your Community, David Spinks, 01m0apqsprkcksg9k1veg1z0r3.