Beyond Luxury

Beyond Luxury

Everyone Is Building a Community, Yet Almost Nobody Has One

Founder Op-Ed || My perspective on what community actually means, why most brands are getting it wrong, and what it looks like when it is done right

Carlota Rodben
May 14, 2026
∙ Paid

Beyond Luxury exists because the conversations worth having rarely happen in public. They happen in the rooms after the keynote, in the private messages, in the moment someone finally says what they have been thinking for months.

That is what we try to create here. Thinking that changes how you see your industry, your work, and the decisions in front of you. Every voice that appears in this Substack has been chosen with intention, people from my personal network whose perspective I believe you genuinely need to hear.

If this newsletter has ever helped you see something differently, prepare for a conversation, or find the words for something you already knew but could not quite articulate, then it is doing exactly what it was built to do.

The best part is always behind the paywall. And it is always worth it.

Before we get into today’s piece, something exciting is happening next week. The Beyond Luxury podcast is back, relaunched, and coming to every platform you already use. Subscribe to our YouTube channel now so you do not miss the first episode. And we are launching a new column called Top Voices, where you will get the highlights of every episode distilled into something you can read in five minutes and always stay in the know. We cannot wait to share what we have been building.

xx, Carlota

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel

The Conversation Underneath the Conversation

I have been in a lot of rooms lately where the word community and human connection comes up. Board meetings, strategy sessions, brand reviews. Everyone says it. Almost nobody means the same thing by it. And very few of the brands using it most confidently have actually built one.

This piece is my honest attempt to say what I actually think about community, what it is, what it is not, and why getting it right has become one of the most important things a luxury brand can do right now. I am writing it as a founder who has spent years building one, making mistakes in it, learning from it, and watching the industry around me confuse the performance of community with the real thing.


More from Beyond Luxury on this topic:

The Architecture of Belonging: Demystifying Community Building

The Architecture of Belonging: Demystifying Community Building

Carlota Rodben and Caroline Cotten
·
November 16, 2025
Read full story
The Sociology of Humor and Why Luxury Is Obsessed with It

The Sociology of Humor and Why Luxury Is Obsessed with It

Maru Gougy, Mireia Salvadó, and Carlota Rodben
·
Feb 19
Read full story

User's avatar

Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Carlota Rodben.

Or purchase a paid subscription.
© 2026 Beyond Luxury Group LLC · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture