Heartbeats, Not Lightning Bolts: August Elliott, Co-Founder, Neighborhood Village Project

A man in a rural California town joined the Neighborhood Village Project and threw a potluck. Nobody came. So he asked what his neighbors actually cared about. The answer was the dried brush ringing their homes in a wildfire zone. He put up a new invitation. People who'd never spoken cleared 8,000 pounds of brush together, then stayed for dinner.

That's the method, according to August Elliott, co-founder of NVP. His own path to it started in Boulder's intentional communities, where a weekly open potluck called family dinner taught him that agreements, not intentions, are what let messy humans go deep.

When his co-founder Savannah moved into an ordinary apartment building and found neighbors averting their eyes in the hallway, she started knocking on doors. Within a year people had fallen in love and somebody noticed when a 91-year-old’s life alert ran out of batteries.

Charlotte asks for advice on her own street and gets three steps: start and forget perfection, attune to what's happening on your block, and think in heartbeats rather than lightning bolts. She shares her own breakthrough, knocking on a stranger's door with a measuring cup to borrow sugar and walking away with a standing invitation.

00:00 Welcome and Weekend Catch-Up

01:51 Today's Interview

02:58 Connected Cities Summit Update

07:11 August's Origin Story

11:44 Inside an Intentional Community

15:19 Building the Neighborhood Village Project

19:55 Three Steps to Start on Your Block

27:39 August's Vision for the Future