The Story of Tod Nilson - Community building and the Woolly Mammoth -

The Real Work of Building Community

Talking with Todd Nilson reminded us how misunderstood community building still is. We often treat it like marketing: launch a platform, create some content, hope people show up. But the way Todd talks about community is much closer to psychology, art, and human behavior than to funnels or metrics.

What stood out most is his idea of the “woolly mammoth factor.”

People don’t gather around your product. They gather around something essential to them, identity, purpose, survival, pride, belonging. If the only thing a company offers is “join our platform,” nothing happens. If you speak to something bigger, activism at Patagonia, financial peace or job-seekers supporting each other in Todd’s Job Camp, it moves people. They feel part of something that matters.

And once they’re there, a community is never a self-driving machine.

It needs someone tending the garden, creating safety, giving direction, setting norms, but doing it lightly and humanely. Todd’s frame is simple: a community is not an audience. If the chairs all face the stage, it’s a performance. If the chairs face each other, it’s a community. And if one person stands in the middle of that circle… that’s a cult.

The other important shift is honesty about the lifecycle.

Communities don’t last forever. They begin, grow, plateau, and end. The Wednesday Web Jam is a good example, we built it in the early pandemic when we all needed connection, learning, and support. When the mammoth changed shape, we gave it a funeral, not because it failed, but because it had done its job. Marking endings is part of community leadership.

And leadership is the right word.

Community building is creative leadership. It’s creating a space where people feel safe, seen, and able to contribute. It’s not about control, but about intention. Not about influence, but about care.

Right now, that work is more important than ever.

Social media feels like a casino run by robots, loud, distracting, and increasingly flooded with content no one can trust. AI will only amplify that. The result is predictable: people start craving smaller rooms, softer voices, lived experience, and real stories. Not noise. Not performance. Not scale.

Connection.

Maybe that’s the future Todd is pointing toward:

More intimate communities, built around real purpose, shaped by people who understand how to create belonging. And eventually, blended with new forms, VR, AR, social presence, where digital spaces feel more human again.

But the heart of it won’t change.

It’s still about people.

It’s still about stories.

It’s still about the courage to bring strangers into a circle and say: “Let’s make something together.”