Meet The Founder

Hi, I am Vanessa Smith, founder, facilitator, and hostess over at New Earth Collab. Here’s the longer story of my background, community creating experience, who I am, and what inspired to create New Earth Collab.

Back in 2020, I was very active on social media, joining multiple business groups, looking for tools to grow my business, and a community to connect with while doing so. It was hit and miss. Though many sounded promising, and some were helpful, the options mostly didn’t match what I would have loved to experience.

I thought I might have goldilocks syndrome, where nothing fit “just right,” until I started talking with others. What I discovered was, they were looking for the same thing – to get out of lone wolf mode, to build our businesses and shift the paradigm together, and gain a solid sense of community in the process.

The more conversations I had, the more ideas kept dropping in around how I can create something like this. Except it didn’t feel like a bunch of random ideas. There was a whole architecture to the vision that came through. New Earth Collab felt like something I was meant to, designed to, & called to do.

I am no stranger to creating communities.

Years back, when my son was 2, I was in many online mom groups. While sometimes helpful, there was too much emotional dumping for my preference. I wanted to connect with other moms, but not in that way, especially as an empath, I find it quite draining.

What I love to do, and also love to have done for me, are acts of service. I love to help, in very practical ways. I put up a post in one of the groups I was in and offered to help a mom with whatever she needed. The post blew up with requests for help and enthusiasm for the idea. That day, I went to a moms house, and watched her kids with my kid while she went to the grocery store by herself. If you are a mom, you know this is like getting a spa retreat to be able to grocery shop on your own.

Mamas Helping Mamas was born. It grew to 2700 local members, all located in the greater Portland, Oregon area in the Pacific Northwest. The premise of the group was simple: Ask for help. Offer help. Give thanks. Everything for free. The rules were to keep it simple, practical, with no additional story, simply the request, offer, and thanks.

Moms were helping and getting help in all kinds of ways. It grew to include subgroups beyond service, including free food, free items, and free classes. After a few years, it was time for me to move on from the group, and America. I have since relocated to Europe with my family. Our story of this intuition reroute can be found here.

Once settled in after our move, I had another idea. To create a community skill share as a way to connect with others via our skills, talents, training, and passions, in the form of in person classes. That group quickly grew to about 400 members in the city I was in. Many workshops happened, including making fire cider together, learning how to garden, cooking Indian food, sharing sustainable practices, and much more.

My husband, Paul, is also a connector and community creator. He created a group called Bliss, in the Bay Area, for holistic practitioners to get together monthly to trade, potluck, socialize, share our expertise, and teach. It grew to about 700 people locally, with a weekly newsletter of events, the monthly in person meet up, and bi-annual retreats. This was pre-social media (in 2000), growing mostly via word of mouth. We met at his first retreat.

Once we arrived in Europe, he also went back to his roots of community creation, and started Photography Utrecht, where photographers – both newbies and seasoned – gathered to walk around town, take pictures together, then socialize at a pub after.

The next community creation will be a joint one for us. We are designing an eco-village, creative performance space, community hub, and liveable co-housing experience in the south of France. If you are interested in learning more, you can drop me a line at the email listed below.

As for New Earth Collab, I’m so thrilled to be getting it off the ground and actualizing it. You are sitting in the beginning stages of it all, and very much a part of this build!

Here are 4 things to know about me as it relates to New Earth Collab:

I am a natural referrer. Always have been. When I find something, or someone, I love, I tell everyone about it. For me, that’s part of the joy of life. I share what has made my own life richer. That’s the real abundance, and we all have access to it at any time – to connect, share, and build each other up. It’s the way I envision community to be. It’s what I want my community to be.

I am a natural connector, intuitively and with “right timing.” Not only am I truly curious and interested in getting to know others, but I seem to meet people at just the right time. I will come across a resource that someone I recently talked to happens to need. Or I meet someone who wants to move to an area that I happen to know another already living there. I’ve even hosted a class where two of the students had gone to university together and were roommates many years ago, lost touch, and met again “randomly” in my class. You get the gist. This is also what makes me especially eager and excited about New Earth Collab, as I know it’s going to spark many “right timing” and long term connections for those who are in here.

I am here for the paradigm shift. This is in my nature, my design, and rooted in the work I do in the world. I am all about building the new, and know it’s done together. This time is about intentionally connecting with those who have shared values and mission. That’s what I’m calling in, and it’s a big part of why I created this community.

I love learning, especially about health and transformation. It naturally lights me up. When I ask what you’re up to in your business, I genuinely want to know because I think it’s fascinating. To have a whole group of these kinds of folks is like an ongoing dinner party for me.

There’s much more to my story, and you’re welcome to read it over here.

Thanks for reading, and I can’t wait to learn about you, too! Go join the community platform for New Earth Collab!