I did not plan any of this. Let me be upfront about that.

When my wife Chris and I moved to Asheville, NC from New Hampshire in the summer of 2020, we knew exactly zero people. We both worked remote. The city was beautiful. The silence was deafening.

I kept hearing two things about Asheville: bring your own job, and there are more breweries per capita here than anywhere else in the country. My brain connected those dots in the most obvious way possible. If there are that many breweries, there must be that many remote workers. And if there are that many remote workers, someone should probably get them together.

That someone, apparently, was me.

A couple pints in at a local brewery with a new acquaintance, I set up a meetup group on my phone. No strategy. No brand guidelines. No logo. Just a name: AVL Digital Nomads. Then I forgot about it.

Weeks later, people were joining.

Oh no.

I threw together a last-minute event at a brewery with a good vibe and enough outdoor space that people would not feel trapped with me if it went badly. Thirty-five people registered. Thirty-five showed up. I was floored. Not because of the numbers, but because of what happened once everyone arrived.

Real conversation. Deep, genuine, "wait, you too?" conversation. Nobody was performing. Nobody was collecting LinkedIn connections like Pokémon cards. These were people who had been quietly starving for something real, and they showed up hungry.

A few people asked if they could help organize. I said yes, immediately, before they could change their minds.

That was the smartest thing I did. The less I tried to control, the more the community grew. Members started pitching their own ideas: lunches, brunches, coworking days, a book club, collaborative learning sessions. It stopped being my project and became their platform.

I could not have planned that. Honestly, I would have planned my way right out of it.

Five years later, ADN has over 5,100 members, 35+ volunteer organizers, and averages more than 12 events and 400 attendees every single month. We are celebrating our fifth birthday at that same brewery this week!

Here's what I learned, the hard way and the fun way: stop waiting for connection to find you. It won't. Remote life is wonderful until it is incredibly isolating, and no amount of Slack reactions is going to fix that.

What actually works is smaller and more intentional. A tight group. A shared interest. A recurring reason to show up.

You do not need a perfect plan. You need a concept and the willingness to say it out loud to another human being. Start there. Tell people about the hiking group you want to start, the mastermind you want to form, the monthly dinner where everyone actually talks about something that matters.

It will be a little messy at first. That is fine. Messy and real beats polished and hollow every time.

Your people are out there. Probably sitting in a coffee shop or a co-working space or yes, a brewery, feeling the exact same quiet that you are.

Go find them. Ask for forgiveness later.

Ps. If you happen to be in Asheville this week, join us for some birthday cake - “5,000 Nomads Walk Into A Brewery…”.