Why the loneliest part of working for yourself has nothing to do with the work, and what authentic business networking in Merida taught me about fixing it.
No one warns you about the quiet.
When you leave a job to build something of your own, everyone talks about the obvious stuff. The income that comes and goes. The long hours. The fear of the leap. What almost no one tells you is how loud the silence gets.
There's no team to bounce an idea off at lunch. No one in the next chair who understands why a small win feels enormous. You make every decision alone, you carry every doubt alone, and on the hard days you wonder if you're the only person on earth who finds this as difficult as you do.
You are not. I promise you that. And the fix is simpler than you think, though it does ask something of you.
In August 2022, I was sitting in exactly that silence.
I had left a sixteen-year corporate career to build a location-independent life here in Mérida, and on paper I had pulled it off. In reality, I was lonely in a way I had never been inside a company. Around that time I was listening to David Shands on the Social Proof Podcast, and something he said about building your own circle stuck with me. I realized I could keep waiting for the right community to appear, or I could build the one I needed.
So I did. I started the LinkUp Networking Group as a small gathering of entrepreneurs in Merida who, like me, were building things on their own terms and tired of doing it in isolation.
It grew because that hunger is everywhere. Mérida has quietly become a magnet for remote workers, freelancers, and founders, and what began as a handful of people has become a real community of business owners in Merida who show up for each other. We meet to share what's working and what isn't, to demonstrate our services, to dream out loud, and yes, sometimes to toast a milestone with a glass of something cold on the beach. The group has become far more than I first imagined, because that is what happens when you make space for the right people and then get out of their way.
I used to think of networking as a nice-to-have. Something you did when you had spare time and a stack of business cards. I was wrong about that.
For a solo entrepreneur, community is infrastructure. It is the thing that keeps you upright on the days the work feels impossible.
A real circle gives you four things you cannot generate alone. Perspective, because the friend two steps ahead of you can see the problem you're too close to. Accountability, because saying your goal out loud to people who will ask about it next month changes how seriously you take it. Opportunity, because referrals, collaborations, and clients move through relationships far more often than through ads. And celebration, because a win you have to celebrate by yourself barely feels like a win at all.
That last one matters more than people admit. Entrepreneurs in Merida are building businesses against real odds, and the journey is long. Having people who genuinely cheer when you succeed (and who don't flinch when you struggle) is not soft. It is what sustains you for the distance.
If the word "networking" makes you slightly uncomfortable, you're not alone. Most of us picture a room full of people exchanging cards they'll never look at again, each one waiting for their turn to pitch.
That kind of business networking in Merida (or anywhere) rarely leads to anything, because it's built backwards. It treats people as leads instead of humans. Authentic networking flips that, and over the years building LinkUp, a few principles have proven themselves again and again.
Lead with curiosity, not a pitch. The fastest way to be memorable is to be genuinely interested in someone else's work. Ask what they're building and why it matters to them, then actually listen. You'll learn more, and you'll be remembered as the rare person who wasn't just selling.
Give before you ask. Make the introduction, share the resource, send the client their way. Generosity compounds. The people who give freely end up at the center of every good circle, because everyone wants them there.
Go deep with a few rather than shallow with many. Ten real relationships will do more for you than two hundred connections you've never actually spoken to. Pick a small group of people you respect and invest in them over time.
Show up consistently. Community isn't built in a single great conversation. It's built by being the person who keeps coming back, who remembers what you said last time, who is still there six months later. Consistency is what turns acquaintances into the people who answer your call.
When you network this way, something shifts. It stops feeling like a chore you do for your business and starts feeling like the part of the work that gives back to you.
That is what we've built inside LinkUp. The connections here aren't transactions. They're friendships that happen to be useful, and partnerships that happen to be warm. People who started out as strangers in a room are now the first ones I text when I have good news or a hard question.
You don't have to white-knuckle this journey alone. Whether you're just starting out or years into building, the entrepreneurs and business owners in Merida who make up communities like this one are proof that the lonely version of self-employment is a choice, not a requirement.
If any of this sounds like the season you're in, I'd love for you to find your circle, whether that's with us or somewhere else entirely.
The LinkUp Networking Group is open to entrepreneurs, freelancers, and business owners in Merida who are ready to stop building in isolation and start linking up. We gather regularly, we look out for each other, and we genuinely celebrate every win along the way.
Come see what it feels like to stop doing this alone.
Jenita Lawal is the founder of the LinkUp Networking Group, a community for entrepreneurs and business owners in Mérida, México, built on the belief that no one should have to build their dream by themselves.