🔥 Underused: In Community #136

Your weekly spark at the intersection of community, culture, and commerce

In partnership with

Holiday Creator Calendars Are Filling Up. Q4 Panic Is Optional.

Creators lock in their holiday content calendars 90 days out, before most ecommerce brands finalize their commission strategy and way before Black Friday and October deal events.

Get ahead of the seasonal rush with The 90-Day Holiday Sprint, a practical guide for brands that want creators driving holiday demand while competitors are still recruiting:

  • Structure commissions by lifetime value, not just first-order margin

  • Lead with the right products so creators promote with confidence

  • Recruit and onboard creators with a day-by-day plan for the first 30 days

  • Read performance early and pull program levers by Day 60

  • Brief creators with a holiday checklist before calendars fill up

Your 90-day countdown starts now.

Was this newsletter fwded to you? Make sure to subscribe here for more.

🔥 And now, for your weekly spark.

What do I have that I'm not using?

When resources are tight or something isn't working, we tend to look for what's missing and start trying to go get it.

But what if we asked that question instead?

Last week, I wrote about running out of perceived time and how that holds us back. This week, I’m focused on moving forward by tapping into what’s been there all along.

Maybe you've spent years building relationships that you're only thinking about when you need something.

Maybe there's someone in your network who already solved the problem you're spending three weeks trying to figure out. Maybe a former coworker knows exactly the person you need to meet. Maybe a customer would introduce you to three more customers if you just asked.

👉🏽 Sometimes our problems don't come from a lack of resources. It's that we're underusing the ones we already have.

When you're trying to grow a business, it's easy to look at what you don't have. Not enough staff, budget, leads, or even time. I feel that last one deeply.

Sometimes that's absolutely true, but when you're resource-constrained, the temptation to go find something new right away can make you overlook what’s already within reach.

A relationship you've neglected isn't necessarily a dead relationship. An old idea isn't necessarily an irrelevant one. A skill you haven't used in years isn't necessarily gone. An audience isn't just a number on a dashboard.

There’s value sitting all around us. There are resources we can tap, so, don’t stop planting because you’re focused on harvesting.

People might be the most underused resource of all.

Not because people are tools to be deployed, but because relationships create access to things we can't create on our own: information, perspective, introductions, expertise, opportunities, encouragement, and sometimes just the answer to a question we've been stuck on for too long. Again, I feel that last one deeply.

That's one reason community matters to me. The value of a community isn't just the number of people in it.

It's what can move through it.

The network itself doesn't create the value. Activation does. Here’s how it can play out: 

When you're building, it’s worth asking whether the thing you're trying to add already exists somewhere in the ecosystem you've built.

Before launching another campaign to find a new audience, look at the people who already pay attention. Before commissioning another piece of research, ask what your customers have already told you. Before searching for another partner, look at the relationships already sitting inside your organization.

This isn't an argument for doing more with less. It's an argument for seeing more in what you already have.

📌 The Activation Principle

Before you build, buy, hire, or search for something new, pause long enough to ask a few different questions.

👉🏽 Who already knows how to do this?

Not who can I hire. Who already has the experience, context, or answer?

👉🏽 Who already trusts us?

Customers, former coworkers, partners, members, friends, people you've met once and never followed up with. Trust is an asset too.

👉🏽 Who can open a door?

Sometimes the shortest path to an opportunity isn't another application, pitch, or cold email. It's an intro from someone who already has access.

👉🏽 What have we already built that we're not using fully?

An audience. A relationship. A product. An idea. A piece of intellectual property. A capability. Don't assume something has no value just because you're not using it right now.

And one more thing: don't make every relationship transactional.

The strongest networks aren't built by keeping score. They're built by being useful when you don't need anything, making intros, sharing info, creating opportunities, and staying connected.

The most valuable resources aren’t transactional. They’re relational.

🔥 They become more valuable when they move between people.

✅ Now Hiring

Is someone you know considering what’s next for them? Here are a few roles with people hiring across the network. I list roles here every week, so stay tuned and make sure to spread the word.

💥 Sr Manager, Creator Content & Partnerships — Disney (multiple other roles open)

ICYMI Last Week:

💥 Growth Marketing Manager — Gamma (multiple other roles)

And before you go, consider who else might value this newsletter and what’s coming up on YouTube. Make sure to fwd this newsletter onward to them too. They can subscribe here for more directly in their inbox.. 🔁 

In community,

Fahad