Support Your Friends Like You Mean It

We spend so much time hyping up brands, businesses, and people we don’t actually know, but somehow go quiet when our own friends are building something. If that hit a little—good. This is your nudge.

Supporting your friends doesn’t always mean spending money. Sometimes it just means being intentional. Being visible. Being real.

Start with Your Reach

You don’t need a platform to put your people on. Reposting their work, liking their posts, commenting something thoughtful, sharing a link—those little things go further than you think. Algorithms move off energy, and engagement is the fuel. If your friend is out here selling a product, offering a service, or curating an experience? Your engagement can literally bring more eyes, more clicks, and more opportunities.

If You Can’t Buy, Still Show Up

Listen, no one’s asking you to go broke trying to support every drop. Maybe it’s not your style. Maybe it’s just not in the budget right now. Cool. But that doesn’t mean you disappear. Share their work with someone who would love it. Offer to help behind the scenes. Volunteer your time. Help pack orders, model for content, test out a service, or just be a sounding board when they’re working through ideas.

Support is more than a transaction. It’s presence.

Be Mindful With Your Words (and Your Wallet)

Asking for a discount can come off tone-deaf, especially when your friend is doing everything solo—sourcing, packaging, marketing, customer service, all of it. You wouldn’t walk into a boutique and try to haggle the price down just because the owner knows your name. Respect the effort. Respect the craft. Their business is just as real as any big-name company, and often requires twice the grit to keep going.

Be There When It’s Quiet

The highs of business can feel amazing, but the lows? Isolating. If your friend opens up about burnout, slow sales, or self-doubt, don’t brush it off. Listen. Offer real feedback. Check in without being prompted. Being a safe space for your entrepreneurial friends goes just as far as any repost.

Watch Your Energy

Jealousy, backhanded comments, weird energy masked as “keeping it real”—don’t bring that around people doing the hard work. If you feel yourself spiraling into comparison, take a step back and reflect before projecting. You can either clap for your friends or create distance, but fake support helps no one.

If you haven’t supported your friend’s growth in any real way—no shares, no feedback, no encouragement—ask yourself why you still call them a friend. Because real friends show up.