When five people show up to an event, most call it a failure.
I call it a best case scenario.
This strange belief formed in the early days of building this movement.
It started on Walk #13 in Austin, back in 2022.
It was a Saturday morning. 8 AM. I showed up to the coffee shop, and one by one, four people trickled out of their cars. I remember scanning the parking lot. Doing the mental math. Feeling the quiet little sting of a number that wasn't quite what I'd hoped.
And then we started walking.
Something about a group of five is different. There's nowhere to hide, which means nobody does. The conversation doesn't fracture into three lanes. It stays one. You feel each other. You can hear a pause. You can feel that subtle pulse of electricity in the air when someone's about to say the thing that cracks the conversation wide open.
“I don’t usually share this, but…”
We walked longer than we ever had before. 5 miles, to be exact. (That walk was the birthplace of our signature 5-mile distance.)
We got to depths of conversation most friendships never reach… and we did it in a single morning.
I drove home and thought: “Wow. That’s the new gold standard for this event.”
This is newsletter #13. About Walk #13 in Austin, our smallest group ever. This week was Walk #13 in Detroit… their biggest group yet.
I don't think that's a coincidence so much as a reminder: that the thing you're building right now, in the quiet, when the numbers are small and nobody's really watching, is the part that matters the most.
The roots are always invisible. That doesn't mean they're not growing.
The photo below is from that morning. Five people. October 2022.
Nearly 20,000 walkers and 13 cities later, it's still the walk I think about when I need to remember why building this is worth the effort. 🧡
Snapshots from our walking villages in cities around the world:
Austin Walk #13, back in 2022. (We’re almost at Walk #200!) We ended up talking for so long that we extended the route to 5 miles. What looked small became the standard. The rest is history.
Detroit Walk #13. Host Izzy’s biggest group yet. Three months ago, this was wind, snow, and a handful of people choosing to show up anyway. This is what happens when someone keeps tending the garden before it blooms.
Our first walk in Miami, Florida. Host Brian planted the seed last week… and he already has 31 RSVPs for tomorrow. Every city starts like this: a single yes that turns into something bigger.
Aveiro, Portugal. 25 mph winds and people showed up anyway. They stayed after for coffee, kept the conversations going, and started asking for more. You can feel when something is real… people don’t leave when it’s inconvenient.
(Don’t see your city? We post the photos in each Meetup group after the walk. Otherwise this email would be longer than a CVS receipt.)
Community doesn't just happen. Someone plants it. Someone waters it.
Every week, a few humans in our world do something worth celebrating:
🏆 “I’ve built deeper friendships in 13 weeks of hosting this walk than in 3 years of living in Detroit.” Izzy hit Walk #13 with 20 people — her biggest group yet. Regulars took new people under their wings without being asked. One person drove 30 minutes, found his people, and came back afterward to grab a flyer and say thank you. We love to see the walk working its magic.
🏆 There’s a regular in Sacramento who’s biked to every walk, including the one where it rained… as a self-described introvert. Some people find the walk and block out their Saturday mornings indefinitely. Shoutout to Megan for creating an un-missable experience.
🏆 Jenna in Aveiro, Portugal launched her chapter into a 25mph headwind… literally. The group stayed afterwards for coffee chats, and folks are already requesting sunset walks and weekday options. The walk just started and the community is already trying to expand it. That's how you know something real is happening.
The early days are almost always quiet.
This is what nobody tells you about building something meaningful, whether it's a friendship, a community, a creative practice, or a habit you've been trying to lock in.
Nobody's watching. The numbers are small, the feedback is sparse, and that silence can feel like a sign that it isn't working.
But it's just the tending phase.
Cristina showed up to an empty trail a few times before her London walk community became what it is today. Walk #13 in Austin was five people, myself included. The same walk that eventually became a movement of nearly 20,000 started with someone asking “should we still walk?” and me saying “heck yes, we're walking.”
The tending phase is the foundation. The part where you find out whether you actually believe in the thing, or whether you just believed in it when it was easy.
Whatever you're watering right now, keep going. The question isn't whether it's working. The question is whether you believe the thing should exist.
If yes, show up in person. Show up mentally. Show up when nobody's watching and the trail is empty and the selfie is just for you.
The garden always tends you back. 🧡
This week on The Board Walks, people brought these topics:
"What do you believe are the keys to a good life — and how much of it is tied to money?"
"What would you keep doing even if nobody was watching?”
"What part of yourself have you been slowly allowing back in?"
"Is there a version of you that only exists around certain people, and do you like that version?"
"How are you subconsciously holding yourself back?”
Screenshot these. Steal with pride. Bring one to your next dinner party to shift the conversation from “meh” to marvelous.
Quick hits:
🎉 New chapters are alive!
Miami, Florida.
Aveiro, Portugal.
Sacramento, California.
Know any curious humans who’d love the walk? Forward this email or text them our growing community hub, where you’ll see a list of all 13 cities and 3.6K members.
🌍 Global momentum. Host applications keep rolling in. Keep an eye out for new chapter launches over the next month. Know anyone who’d be the perfect fit to add a tree to our global garden? Host with us →
🔐 A new paradigm of social connection. This is our next chapter, which deepens and expands the magic of the walks so that anyone, anywhere, can experience what happens when the right people are in the same room.
There's a version of you that keeps waiting for the conditions to get better. For more people to express interest. For evidence that something is worth doing.
But here's what the tending phase teaches: belief has to come before the evidence. Not after.
The garden grows because you keep showing up.
Whatever you're tending — a project, a friendship, a new chapter, a version of yourself you've been trying to meet — this is your reminder.
The quiet phase is not a failure.
Roots don't show, but that doesn't mean they're not growing. 🧡
Never walked with us? Find your city and come say hi.
As a first-timer in Austin said last week: “I have never met a group of friendlier people. Like, shockingly friendly.”
We’re now in 13 cities. Austin. San Francisco. New York City. London. Denver. Columbus. Detroit. Boston. Atlanta. Boone. Sacramento. And our latest… Miami and Aveiro, Portugal!
Have a whimsical week,
Founder of The Board Walks
P.s. Love what we're building together? Forward this to one person who needs it. That's how the garden grows.
