Ep 111: Mastering Online Communities: From Building to Thriving with Bri Leever

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:01.104
Welcome to Tiny Marketing.

00:00:01.104 --> 00:00:07.264
This is Sarah Norblach, and this is a podcast that helps B2B service businesses do more with less.

00:00:07.264 --> 00:00:12.621
Learn lean, actionable, organic marketing strategies you can implement today.

00:00:12.621 --> 00:00:16.030
No fluff, just powerful growth tactics that work.

00:00:16.030 --> 00:00:24.946
Ready to scale smarter, hit that subscribe button and start growing your business with Tiny Marketing growing your business with tiny marketing.

00:00:25.007 --> 00:00:26.809
Hello you, beautiful, beautiful things.

00:00:26.809 --> 00:00:28.431
This is take six.

00:00:28.431 --> 00:00:30.272
That's how awkward I am today.

00:00:30.272 --> 00:00:41.904
Hi, I'm Sarah Noelle Block, and this is tiny marketing.

00:00:41.904 --> 00:00:47.698
You're listening to episode 111 with Brie Lever, and we're talking about a topic that is so freaking hot right now.

00:00:47.698 --> 00:00:48.420
It is communities.

00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:54.914
She is a community strategist and she helps people decide what kind of community they should have, how to launch it and how to monetize it.

00:00:54.914 --> 00:00:55.899
She's freaking amazing.

00:00:55.899 --> 00:01:00.768
She's the one who helped me choose the platform that I did for the Tiny Marketing Club.

00:01:00.768 --> 00:01:01.850
She's brilliant.

00:01:01.850 --> 00:01:02.813
I stalked her.

00:01:02.813 --> 00:01:03.493
Now we're friends.

00:01:03.493 --> 00:01:13.566
So today she's going to tell you about the three different types of communities that are available for you, and when and why you should choose each one of those.

00:01:13.566 --> 00:01:15.391
So stay tuned.

00:01:15.391 --> 00:01:20.185
I'm keeping this short, since I'm on to take seven and I don't trust myself.

00:01:20.185 --> 00:01:22.772
Hey, brie, can you introduce yourself to the audience?

00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:25.061
Yeah, hi everyone.

00:01:25.061 --> 00:01:29.727
I'm a community strategist and the founder over at Ember Consulting.

00:01:29.727 --> 00:01:49.621
We help creators, coaches and consultants create their online community, and I also live on Hawaii Island, where I'm a community strategist by day and camper van host by night, and you'll usually find me in the water, but I'm really excited to talk about all things community today.

00:01:50.444 --> 00:01:54.697
I mean, I knew all of that and I'm so jealous of your life.

00:01:54.697 --> 00:01:57.022
That sounds so fun.

00:01:57.022 --> 00:02:04.951
Before we go into community, tell me what is a camper van host?

00:02:04.951 --> 00:02:06.293
What do you do with that?

00:02:06.334 --> 00:02:13.531
Yeah, yeah, so it's like I'm like an Airbnb host, but for four cozy camper vans here on Big Island.

00:02:13.531 --> 00:02:17.366
So we rent them out to guests and they take them around the island.

00:02:17.366 --> 00:02:22.246
If you've ever been to Big Island, you know just how big it is, hence the name.

00:02:22.246 --> 00:02:23.829
Hence the name.

00:02:23.829 --> 00:02:25.271
So there's a lot of drive time.

00:02:25.271 --> 00:02:30.109
So just kind of came up with the idea and then went all in on it and now it's our little side hustle.

00:02:30.109 --> 00:02:31.391
That's awesome.

00:02:31.391 --> 00:02:32.322
That sounds so fun.

00:02:32.322 --> 00:02:35.889
Never a dull moment, for sure.

00:02:36.950 --> 00:02:42.320
Yeah, I had an Airbnb and I can agree it's never dull.

00:02:42.320 --> 00:02:44.828
There's always, like some, something happening.

00:02:45.590 --> 00:02:48.223
Yeah, yeah, but not so passive income we all sign up for.

00:02:49.165 --> 00:02:51.691
Yes, there's nothing passive about it.

00:02:51.691 --> 00:03:02.485
When I had guests, it was like there was a message every two seconds yeah, yeah, okay, so let's get into community.

00:03:02.485 --> 00:03:06.174
Why should businesses start thinking about building community?

00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:07.920
Yeah.

00:03:08.822 --> 00:03:24.854
So I could approach this from so many different angles, and I think what I'll start with is I don't think businesses should necessarily approach community only with monetary value in mind.

00:03:27.016 --> 00:03:53.752
So it's like one of the, you know, sexiest things I could say is it's a very powerful recurring revenue model for your business, especially the membership model, and I think part of what makes communities successful is approaching it from a vision for the impact that you can create for your customers and your members, as well as a really incredible return on investment.

00:03:53.752 --> 00:04:02.985
So part of what we're going to look at today is how community can support your business and the four different types of communities and how they support your business.

00:04:02.985 --> 00:04:14.562
And on the free side of communities, those communities are really have a have a history of supporting businesses in lots of different ways.

00:04:14.562 --> 00:04:33.892
There's lots of different types of communities that you can set up to get results on different business initiatives, but the model that I'm personally drawn to is paid communities, where the community itself is an offer, is an income stream for the business.

00:04:33.892 --> 00:04:45.369
That has a very clear impact on the business, but it also creates some really incredible results for your members as well, depending on how you structure it.

00:04:45.369 --> 00:04:47.163
So we'll get into that, yeah.

00:04:47.723 --> 00:04:59.343
So first let me start by saying community overwhelms me, Like the idea of being the host of a community feels daunting.

00:04:59.343 --> 00:05:04.788
So how do you do that without it taking over your life?

00:05:05.910 --> 00:05:12.916
Yeah, it is like that is exactly it, and you can get in way over your head really quickly with community.

00:05:12.916 --> 00:05:16.228
I believe you.

00:05:19.721 --> 00:05:22.509
Speaking from firsthand experience.

00:05:22.629 --> 00:05:28.701
I love your community, I'm a part of it.

00:05:28.721 --> 00:05:57.213
So one of the actually one of the really practical ways that I recommend not biting off more than you can chew is when we look at these four types of communities, what you're quickly going to discover is that you'll think of examples of communities that actually hit multiple types, like really mature, complex communities that serve multiple customers on multiple different journeys, and really the best way that I think you can really help keep your community boundaried early on is to commit to just one type and do that one type really well.

00:05:57.213 --> 00:05:59.687
I did not take my own advice.

00:05:59.687 --> 00:06:02.923
I think Go on.

00:06:05.242 --> 00:06:06.466
And I had to backtrack.

00:06:06.466 --> 00:06:11.184
I like I seriously had to backtrack because I tried to do more than I could In the launch.

00:06:11.184 --> 00:06:17.069
I tried to do two and it was more than I could market and manage at any one point in time.

00:06:17.069 --> 00:06:26.742
So that's my first piece of advice is to pick one type and really commit to that before you expand and make it more complex your structure.

00:06:26.742 --> 00:06:37.091
The second piece of advice I have is, if it ever feels, and especially if you're getting started and you want to test a community concept, put a time game around it.

00:06:37.831 --> 00:06:40.002
Time is such a lovely boundary.

00:06:40.002 --> 00:06:44.572
It gives us psychological safety, it gives our members psychological safety.

00:06:44.572 --> 00:06:53.627
So you can still call it a community but say, um, you know we're gonna, this community, we will be together for the next three months or four weeks.

00:06:53.627 --> 00:06:55.432
I love that.

00:06:55.432 --> 00:06:57.660
It just takes the weight and the pressure off.

00:06:57.660 --> 00:06:59.101
I feel safe already.

00:06:59.101 --> 00:07:02.687
Right, oh, we can all just like breathe a sigh of relief.

00:07:02.687 --> 00:07:07.293
So, and it also gives you a chance to test.

00:07:07.293 --> 00:07:22.598
When you put an end date on something, you get time to like, reflect on what worked, make tweaks there are some um, there are some obstacles to that, and that if you want to leverage the magic of that group.

00:07:22.598 --> 00:07:25.168
Again, you kind of have to relaunch to them.

00:07:25.168 --> 00:07:32.725
If you're going to create an end date, then you have to create a new start date, or you have to have a new offer ready for them before they exit the community.

00:07:32.725 --> 00:07:35.973
So there's something to the momentum there too.

00:07:35.973 --> 00:07:40.552
But if it feels too heavy and you're just trying to get your feet wet, give it a time limit.

00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:43.288
Okay, I want to get into that a little bit.

00:07:43.288 --> 00:07:48.184
So that makes me think of like challenges or boot camps.

00:07:48.184 --> 00:07:55.702
It's more like cohort style, where you're going through a journey together and then, whoosh, you're gone.

00:07:55.723 --> 00:08:00.492
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and that's exactly the it's.

00:08:00.492 --> 00:08:02.480
This is what I call a transformative community.

00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:14.028
So they tend to be these cohort-based, these time-bound experiences, and I call them transformative because they're centered on an educational journey, a very clear.

00:08:14.028 --> 00:08:26.298
It's like the family road trip we're all starting at point A, we're all going to go to point B together, and the paid learning experiences is where I put these like transformative communities.

00:08:26.298 --> 00:08:30.288
So there's a very clear transformation that's happening to your members.

00:08:30.288 --> 00:08:31.593
Yeah, there we go.

00:08:31.593 --> 00:08:36.351
Okay, so this is the Brie Lever matrix of business and community.

00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.429
We got so quickly into the types.

00:08:39.429 --> 00:08:42.590
I'm like we should have this up for anyone who's watching on YouTube.

00:08:42.590 --> 00:08:50.293
A lot of people listen to this just audio, but if you want to listen or if you want to watch and see this matrix, it's available on YouTube.

00:08:50.293 --> 00:08:51.926
The link will be in the show notes.

00:08:52.921 --> 00:08:56.527
Well, you led me so naturally there, so we'll just dive right in.

00:08:59.422 --> 00:09:04.871
So, for those of you who are listening, this matrix has a Y-axis going up and down.

00:09:04.871 --> 00:09:16.778
Education is at the top, connection is at the bottom, has an x-axis with free on the left, paid on the right.

00:09:16.778 --> 00:09:17.039
Super simple.

00:09:17.039 --> 00:09:21.605
Every community has a combination of education and connection.

00:09:21.605 --> 00:09:24.214
So the limit of this matrix is it makes it look like they're mutually exclusive, and they're not.

00:09:24.214 --> 00:09:30.215
That being said, what I mean by education is that learning journey.

00:09:30.215 --> 00:09:32.842
It's a communal learning journey with a very clear outcome.

00:09:32.842 --> 00:09:38.162
That's why we call the paid education-centric communities transformative communities.

00:09:38.162 --> 00:09:44.629
Down below, we have paid connection-centric communities.

00:09:44.629 --> 00:09:49.576
This is really where your membership and ongoing membership exists.

00:09:49.576 --> 00:10:05.471
Usually, that's like the structure that they will follow, because these communities tend to be more containers and the value of what's being created there is coming from the connections between your members.

00:10:07.312 --> 00:10:10.375
You, as the facilitator, are are.

00:10:10.375 --> 00:10:39.769
Make make no mistake, you're still doing a lot of work because you're you're creating the and these are these are the hardest to design for, honestly, because the outcome is um, like with the transformative community, usually like the community leader or a small group of experts are like guiding people through the content and they're primarily engaging with the content, but you slowly turn them towards each other to get value from each other, the connection-centric paid communities, which I call networking communities.

00:10:39.769 --> 00:10:45.341
Right off the bat, the value of what's happening there is the connection between your members.

00:10:45.341 --> 00:10:54.307
So you have to be really thoughtful about how you are architecting the space and Like you can bring together, let's say, a peer to peer mastermind group for three months.

00:11:26.179 --> 00:11:30.919
Usually, in a mastermind, members show up and like support each other, like do hot seats, or like one person takes on a new topic each week, like the value is coming from the members themselves.

00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:35.995
There's not like one like all-seeing person guiding everyone through it.

00:11:35.995 --> 00:11:40.167
Yeah, so you can still create a time-bound test for networking community.

00:11:40.167 --> 00:11:41.772
It just looks a little bit different.

00:11:41.772 --> 00:11:42.682
Does that make sense?

00:11:42.682 --> 00:11:43.865
Yeah, that makes sense.

00:11:43.865 --> 00:11:46.528
Okay, so let's transition to the free sides.

00:11:46.528 --> 00:11:53.674
This is like the world that I come from, which is building big brand communities that support a business or a product in some way.

00:11:53.735 --> 00:11:56.643
That's this, nurturing one, is what I see the most, I think.

00:11:58.225 --> 00:11:59.366
Yeah, it's really common.

00:11:59.366 --> 00:12:03.254
So free education-centric communities.

00:12:03.254 --> 00:12:04.884
I call these nurturing communities.

00:12:04.884 --> 00:12:08.633
It's where this communal learning supports an end product or service.

00:12:08.633 --> 00:12:21.352
Saas companies love nurturing communities because they tend to be selling a product that is a tool, and part of you getting value out of that tool is learning how to use it effectively.

00:12:21.352 --> 00:12:25.389
So some great examples of these types of communities.

00:12:25.389 --> 00:12:31.379
I would say the HubSpot community probably hits like probably all four of these in some way, shape or form.

00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:34.226
That's the first one that popped into my head too, oh, good.

00:12:34.386 --> 00:12:35.570
Yes, yep, exactly.

00:12:35.570 --> 00:12:53.264
So they have tons of learning content, but it's all within this like communal learning environment where you can like see what's working for other people, learn from others, but you're also like there's a pretty structured guidance and learning journey that you're going on to learn how to use the tool effectively.

00:12:53.264 --> 00:12:56.129
The Etsy community is another great example.

00:12:56.129 --> 00:13:16.011
There's like an Etsy seller community, which again probably has elements of like all four of these woven in there, but there is a it's a space where you can learn how to sell on Etsy more effectively, seen more effectively, okay.

00:13:16.011 --> 00:13:23.144
And then, finally, we moved down into free, connection-centric communities, and this is where all most, like 90%, of Facebook groups lived for the last decade.

00:13:23.830 --> 00:13:30.995
Okay, I'm glad you gave me that understanding because I had Noah reading the description like what would fall under this.

00:13:36.230 --> 00:13:36.389
What?

00:13:36.389 --> 00:13:36.850
How does this work?

00:13:36.850 --> 00:13:40.597
Yes, so this is where the connection between your members supports the product or the service in some way, so it's free to join.

00:13:40.597 --> 00:13:44.024
It's like based on member interactions.

00:13:44.024 --> 00:13:48.510
There's like like, if you think of most Facebook groups, there wasn't like a guided, intended journey.

00:13:48.510 --> 00:13:51.018
Some, some did, but it was like really clunky.

00:13:51.018 --> 00:13:59.432
Yeah, if they pulled that off, it's a miracle.

00:13:59.432 --> 00:14:01.298
Yes, yeah, yeah, I actually have an example of one called Be the Bridge.

00:14:01.298 --> 00:14:05.591
It's this like really amazing community for people exploring diversity, equity and inclusion.

00:14:05.591 --> 00:14:13.164
I don't know how they navigated the Facebook group for so long, but I digress.

00:14:13.471 --> 00:14:19.591
So these communities are the most difficult to prove ROI Anytime you have.

00:14:19.591 --> 00:14:22.357
You're on the connection centric side of the equation.

00:14:22.357 --> 00:14:31.303
It's so soft and fuzzy, like the value of, like the exchange between members, so difficult to calculate, so difficult to track.

00:14:31.303 --> 00:14:48.812
So you really, if you're going to start with a connection-centric community, especially if it's free, like really your upper level management and the person executing the community just has to pretty innately believe in like the value of community and trust that it is bringing in ROI.

00:14:48.812 --> 00:14:50.114
But it's really difficult to prove.

00:14:50.114 --> 00:14:53.100
To be honest, the tools are getting better but they're not quite there yet.

00:14:53.100 --> 00:14:57.274
But these could also be some of the most powerful communities.

00:14:57.274 --> 00:15:08.500
There are a few Facebook groups that I'm aware of and a part of that drive tremendous value for the brand, even if we can't calculate it.

00:15:08.500 --> 00:15:14.721
A sale hits and you see it's released only in the Facebook group and like their sales are through the roof Right.

00:15:14.721 --> 00:15:16.687
So it's like clearly something's happening here.

00:15:16.687 --> 00:15:27.059
Yeah, we can't tie it directly, but one of my favorite collaborative communities so I call these collaborative communities One of my favorite ones is Lego Ideas.

00:15:27.951 --> 00:15:32.163
So this is a community, like a community that comes out of their product department.

00:15:32.163 --> 00:15:48.118
So the like return on investment for the brand is that it's supporting product and product development and in the community, members come up with like their super niche, specialty CAD designs for the Lego sets that they want to see brought to life.

00:15:48.118 --> 00:15:49.179
That's cool.

00:15:49.179 --> 00:15:51.653
You're like all done.

00:15:51.653 --> 00:16:10.620
A taylor swift eras tour lego set is like proposed to the community and usually there'll be like several different like members who are, who are like elevated as designers, who will like propose different sets and the community votes on the set that they want to bring into production.

00:16:10.620 --> 00:16:28.283
And then they do and it's like this whole fervor and this whole and they've essentially like outsourced a huge portion of their product development just to a community and in the process, they're creating all of this like hype and fervor in their like branding for this new product release.

00:16:28.283 --> 00:16:30.754
So it's brilliant, it's super fun.

00:16:30.815 --> 00:16:34.017
I love it and people feel part of it.

00:16:34.017 --> 00:16:44.442
It's almost like how Kickstarter if you're in this product early and you contributed, you feel like you're on the inside, absolutely.

00:16:44.442 --> 00:16:45.794
Yep, that's exactly it.

00:16:45.794 --> 00:16:50.533
So my question about the connection.

00:16:50.533 --> 00:16:57.201
So, for anybody listening, the ones that fall into the connection are networking communities and collaborative communities.

00:16:57.201 --> 00:17:00.025
How do you fill these when they're new?

00:17:07.289 --> 00:17:11.249
That's the scariest part of building a community is filling it, so it's an actual community and not like a couple people.

00:17:12.529 --> 00:17:22.637
I know I actually asked the same question on my podcast to Mortjesa, who's the founder of Heartbeat, which is a community platform, so I'll maybe we can link to that episode too, because he had some great insights to share.

00:17:22.637 --> 00:18:15.075
But I'll summarize it the best method for launching one of those communities is to get a pre, pre-sale or, excuse me, to set up pre-sale or waitlist, something where you can get people to opt in and secure payment early, but then give yourself like however much time you need for for the initial runway to get at least, let's say, like 12 members in and providing value for each other, and then and then you open the doors all at once and usually, like my favorite way to launch a community is with a like kickoff event where people like come into the event and that's like at the event is when they get the login and like join information for joining the online community.

00:18:15.075 --> 00:18:24.410
So, like, everyone is like actually entering the community together online at the same time and it just makes it feel really full and really vibrant.

00:18:24.769 --> 00:18:25.810
That is smart.

00:18:25.810 --> 00:18:27.011
I like that a lot.

00:18:27.011 --> 00:18:37.498
So I'd love to just pause and noodle on that for a second, because I thought your podcast launch was the most brilliant thing I've ever seen.

00:18:37.498 --> 00:18:42.902
So can you walk me through how you launch?

00:18:42.902 --> 00:18:49.465
Like I'm guessing that you probably mirrored a community launch for your podcast because you did such a good job with it.

00:18:49.465 --> 00:18:53.853
Can you walk me through your typical launch?

00:18:55.095 --> 00:18:57.880
Oh well, thank you so much for saying that.

00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:01.333
I will say I had a lot of help from my podcast producer.

00:19:01.333 --> 00:19:14.371
I got her like whole marketing plan and so I think it honestly, though, it was like such a good reflection for me on what I do for my clients when we create a launch plan for them.

00:19:14.371 --> 00:19:30.218
And going through the experience myself for the podcast launch and feeling that resistance to launch and the tension, I was like, oh my gosh, I I just like I wouldn't have been able to do it without Rosa, my producer, and her team team.

00:19:30.218 --> 00:19:34.077
So it makes me give me new energy for supporting my clients in that way.

00:19:35.542 --> 00:19:46.346
But yeah, so the way that we approach a community launch, there's always like so many different levers that you can pull in marketing and it's pretty dependent on, like, what their existing marketing engine looks like.

00:19:46.346 --> 00:19:50.076
So we tend to build communities for businesses that have at least been around for two to three years.

00:19:50.076 --> 00:20:07.287
So they like they have offers out, they're not starting from scratch, they have like some existing marketing engine and so, depending on what that looks like, we we always start with their existing audience and that might be really small for me.

00:20:07.287 --> 00:20:08.750
I have, like when we launched my podcast.

00:20:08.750 --> 00:20:10.355
I have 600 people in my email list.

00:20:10.355 --> 00:20:11.619
Like I do not have a big audience.

00:20:11.619 --> 00:20:13.746
I'm a community person, not an audience person.

00:20:14.387 --> 00:20:17.693
Yet you have over a thousand downloads in your first episode.

00:20:18.936 --> 00:20:20.278
Yeah, I know.

00:20:20.278 --> 00:20:21.621
So here's what we did.

00:20:21.621 --> 00:20:23.505
So here was.

00:20:23.505 --> 00:20:26.823
So we will always look at what's their existing audience Like.

00:20:26.823 --> 00:20:43.723
We absolutely need to convert those people into the community and if we can't, that's like a really, that's a really good test for this soft launch about, like, what the interest is going to be, because if you can't sell it to the people who already love your work, the most, then it's going to be a validation tool right there.

00:20:44.491 --> 00:20:45.430
Totally, totally.

00:20:45.430 --> 00:20:55.025
So we always have like an existing audience plan in place and like kind of nurturing sequence for the month leading up to the community launch.

00:20:55.025 --> 00:21:30.060
So when my clients come to me and they get this package where we create the launch plan for them, we will provide them with like the timeline, the roadmap and the messaging that they need to like really nurture, tease the community and start to start to really nurture these seeds of like and messages of isolation, like being alone in your business or on this journey that they're facilitating, like kind of digging into some of the pain point and highlighting it, so that when it comes time to like launch the presale to secure your spot in the community, they've already been primed with some of that messaging.

00:21:30.060 --> 00:21:41.181
Now, the other thing that we did for the podcast that I think really contributed to the wild success was my community strategy.

00:21:41.181 --> 00:21:47.056
So, like for launching a community, it'd be like leveraging communities to launch your community.

00:21:47.056 --> 00:21:50.038
Yes, like borrowed audiences.

00:21:50.038 --> 00:21:51.597
Yeah, yeah, drink every time I say community.

00:21:51.597 --> 00:21:52.163
Yes, like borrowed audiences.

00:21:52.163 --> 00:21:56.816
Yeah, yeah, drink every time I say community, yeah.

00:21:57.617 --> 00:22:08.445
So I actually just released a guide on this because I think it's one of the most underrated like strategies in marketing and I don't approach it.

00:22:08.445 --> 00:22:20.356
I don't really consider myself a marketing person, I consider myself a community person, but I just noticed after the podcast how much of my community background and experience had been brought into the podcast.

00:22:20.356 --> 00:22:22.061
So what we did was two parts.

00:22:22.061 --> 00:22:32.980
One, we created what we called the Undercover Hype Squad for the community launch or for the podcast launch, and people were they opted in.

00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:38.161
So they got like all of the messaging, teasing the podcast, but the call to action.

00:22:38.161 --> 00:22:50.539
What I what I hated about, what I hate about podcast launches, is like when people are teasing it and I'm like, yes, so like I, I now I just want to hear it and like you're like, but I still have to wait, like four weeks, so were like how do we?

00:22:50.539 --> 00:23:04.060
For people who are like, yes, absolutely, I can't wait for this, I was like we have to like get their email on, like a specific list was that a fax machine?

00:23:04.102 --> 00:23:05.364
did we go back in time?

00:23:07.434 --> 00:23:09.378
sounded like it um.

00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:10.642
I'm in a hotel room.

00:23:13.298 --> 00:23:17.601
I think their eyes were like I didn't know that phone could ring.

00:23:17.601 --> 00:23:19.627
Okay, I hope that doesn't do that again.

00:23:19.627 --> 00:23:23.354
Maybe I'm just gonna unplug it here, I don't even okay.

00:23:23.354 --> 00:23:28.922
Yeah, oh, wait, yeah, okay, so I'm gonna go.

00:23:28.922 --> 00:23:30.544
Um, that is so funny.

00:23:30.544 --> 00:23:38.219
Yeah, okay, um, so what was I talking about?

00:23:38.219 --> 00:23:39.421
I said undercover hype squad.

00:23:39.421 --> 00:23:41.179
I think, yes, that's where you left off.

00:23:41.179 --> 00:23:45.847
Okay, so we started with the Undercover Hype Squad.

00:23:45.847 --> 00:23:55.555
We said the call to action up to the point that we launched the podcast was join the Hype Squad to help spread the word about the podcast.

00:23:55.555 --> 00:24:09.065
And honestly, I think what really helped in the podcast launch was I had a very clear vision of what I wanted this podcast to do and what I wanted it to be vision of what I wanted this podcast to do and what I wanted it to be.

00:24:09.065 --> 00:24:12.528
And it was a little bit on the edge, like it's kind of spicy.

00:24:12.528 --> 00:24:16.718
It felt a little bit like precarious for me, like it wasn't like safe, it didn't feel like always really safe.

00:24:17.184 --> 00:24:18.388
It's an original idea.

00:24:18.388 --> 00:24:20.295
I think it's freaking brilliant.

00:24:21.085 --> 00:24:22.086
Oh, thank you.

00:24:22.086 --> 00:24:25.829
I was it just all those pieces came together at like the perfect timing.

00:24:25.829 --> 00:24:27.451
I was it just all those pieces came together at like the perfect timing.

00:24:27.451 --> 00:24:48.752
So our like message was like when you help us like blow this podcast out of the water, you are making the community spaces a little less lonely and a lot less crazy and I think, getting that communal buy-in of like hey, we are all community people but we all struggle with these things and like the more that we can spread this podcast, the less lonely we can make it for everyone.

00:24:48.752 --> 00:24:51.598
And that really resonated with people.

00:24:51.704 --> 00:24:56.017
So we had 80 people sign up for the podcast launch squad.

00:24:56.017 --> 00:25:03.636
I sent them all little like match boxes if they lived in the US with like handwritten note, like it was like so much work.

00:25:03.636 --> 00:25:08.387
But I was like these are my people, who are like championing me and I really want them to feel on board.

00:25:08.387 --> 00:25:11.711
So I sent them a little snail something and this is from my community strategy.

00:25:11.711 --> 00:25:29.490
I ask how can I prompt them?

00:25:29.490 --> 00:25:35.174
What are the supporting resources and what's the reward for them doing that?

00:25:35.174 --> 00:25:41.193
And so ask the same question with the podcast launch squad how can I prompt them to do what I want them to do?

00:25:41.193 --> 00:25:44.615
How can I support them to make that like as easy as possible?

00:25:44.615 --> 00:25:46.732
And then what's the ultimate reward for them?

00:25:46.732 --> 00:25:54.296
And we did a couple like giveaways, but I think there's also like an intrinsic reward in helping someone that we also leaned on for our messaging.

00:25:55.984 --> 00:25:58.349
Well, it worked, you nailed it.

00:25:58.349 --> 00:26:02.971
Your podcast is doing amazing and it's called Dear Bree, right?

00:26:02.971 --> 00:26:06.111
Yes, okay, so go listen to Dear Bree.

00:26:08.605 --> 00:26:09.430
It's a lot of fun.

00:26:09.430 --> 00:26:22.435
It's an advice column for community fiascos, drama and conundrums, so you'll hear like the worst of the worst scenarios in the community world and I bring on experts even more brilliant than myself to tell you how to do it.

00:26:24.546 --> 00:26:28.395
That's the best part of having a show is I'm constantly talking to people who are smarter than me.

00:26:29.265 --> 00:26:31.272
Yes, I know it's really nice.

00:26:31.272 --> 00:26:34.311
Being a podcast host is kind of a sweet gig.

00:26:34.311 --> 00:26:36.277
It is, it is.

00:26:39.006 --> 00:26:44.478
Okay, so we can mirror that podcast launch for community.

00:26:44.478 --> 00:26:45.828
That would easily work.

00:26:45.828 --> 00:26:48.576
So you said I liked your.

00:26:48.576 --> 00:26:52.172
How do I get people to do these things prompts?

00:26:52.172 --> 00:26:55.298
What other kind of rewards do you offer?

00:26:55.298 --> 00:26:56.586
So you had some giveaways.

00:26:56.586 --> 00:26:57.930
What other ones do you have?

00:26:59.232 --> 00:27:02.058
Yeah, there's so many that we can choose from.

00:27:02.058 --> 00:27:06.118
I love especially early on in the community launch launch.

00:27:06.118 --> 00:27:10.953
Like the first thing that my clients always try to do, to like self-sabotage, is offer it for free.

00:27:10.953 --> 00:27:16.169
Like no, these are like our best people, we need to give it to them for free.

00:27:16.169 --> 00:27:20.869
And I'm like if they're your best people, they should be the most willing to pay oh my gosh.

00:27:21.050 --> 00:27:22.894
Okay, don't let me forget.

00:27:22.894 --> 00:27:26.548
I want to dig into that further, like other things that people do to self-sabotage.

00:27:27.469 --> 00:27:28.951
Oh oh God, the list goes on.

00:27:28.951 --> 00:27:31.394
I can tell you from experience exactly what they are.

00:27:31.413 --> 00:27:32.596
I mean, we all do that.

00:27:32.596 --> 00:27:35.799
I have definitely self-sabotaged many times.

00:27:36.839 --> 00:27:39.340
Oh, it's so tricky to catch yourself in those moments.

00:27:39.340 --> 00:27:46.902
But yeah, that's like it was another value of like working with Rosa and seeing like the value that I provide when I'm consulting on community.

00:27:46.902 --> 00:27:49.123
I'm just like man, it is so hard to.

00:27:49.123 --> 00:27:50.423
It's something this good.

00:27:50.423 --> 00:27:52.462
Bringing something this good into the world.

00:27:52.462 --> 00:28:04.248
You are just bound to self-sabotage Like there's no way, shape or form around it, and so to have like a guide who can like help keep you on track, help keep you from self-sabotaging, is just yeah.

00:28:04.248 --> 00:28:07.092
I was so grateful for it with Rose and her team for the podcast.

00:28:07.092 --> 00:28:10.696
That being said, let's go back to your question.

00:28:10.696 --> 00:28:11.758
Yeah, which?

00:28:11.878 --> 00:28:13.441
is free is the first thing.

00:28:13.441 --> 00:28:15.288
Don't do it as the reward.

00:28:15.288 --> 00:28:17.271
What are some good rewards, though?

00:28:18.074 --> 00:28:19.175
Yes, okay, yep.

00:28:19.175 --> 00:28:30.728
So we don't do free, but we I love to provide some sort of extra freebie that they can only get when they join the community and within a certain amount of time.

00:28:30.728 --> 00:28:40.273
So having some like time incentive and a reward for when they do join before that is up Strategic bonuses that are time constrained.

00:28:41.316 --> 00:28:48.492
Yes, Yep, Exactly, and sometimes you can like this takes a little bit of fornagling.

00:28:48.492 --> 00:28:52.660
You have to be really careful about providing something that feels unique and really valuable.

00:28:52.660 --> 00:29:01.493
A really nice time incentive for a lot of communities is like just the nature of the programming that exists in the community.

00:29:01.493 --> 00:29:15.272
So like our challenge is kicking off on this date, so you have to join before this date, and then the challenge being able to be a part of the challenge is sort of positioned as a reward, so you don't always have to come up with something new.

00:29:15.272 --> 00:29:28.565
Sometimes it just takes a matter of looking at your ecosystem and looking at the programs that you do provide, and how can we package this in a way that's a little bit more compelling for people to join within a certain amount of time.

00:29:30.087 --> 00:29:41.018
A couple other things that I love to do, maybe not for a new community, but like when you're in an existing community and you want to do a really big push to get new members.

00:29:41.018 --> 00:29:47.999
I'll often set up like we would call them initiatives back in the first community that I built.

00:29:47.999 --> 00:30:00.339
So like a recruiting initiative is what we would call it, and we would always layer over like an individual benefit for the person referring the new person joining and a collective group goal.

00:30:00.339 --> 00:30:07.028
So we would make the group goal like really realistic you have to be like really careful about this because you want it to feel you want to make sure you can hit the group goal like really realistic.

00:30:07.028 --> 00:30:11.028
You have to be like really careful about this because you want it to feel you want to make sure you can hit the group goal.

00:30:11.028 --> 00:30:20.018
Um, and framing it like break, tying that goal and the recruiting back to the purpose of the community.

00:30:20.278 --> 00:30:29.878
So, especially if it's like a networking community and you're getting value from other members inside saying like hey, we have this big goal for spring of 2025.

00:30:29.878 --> 00:30:32.143
We want to see 50 new members join this community.

00:30:32.143 --> 00:30:50.136
When you bring someone on, we're going to give you an extra, like a free hour of consulting or access to this like exclusive, like maybe you run like a little micro accelerator or boot camp that people only get when they refer a new member and maybe the new member gets access.

00:30:50.136 --> 00:30:53.201
So you have an incentive for people individually.

00:30:53.201 --> 00:31:01.515
But then you say and when we collectively hit this goal because this is going to benefit everyone in the community.

00:31:01.535 --> 00:31:14.239
So when we hit this collective goal, anyone who referred someone or you can say everyone in the community gets like this extra expert session, or I mean you can like pull in swag Some people do swag for rewards.

00:31:14.239 --> 00:31:23.731
I love to keep it like really focused on like what's most valuable to your members, and usually that's like provided inside of the community.

00:31:23.731 --> 00:31:27.980
So those are just some ideas, but that was like one of my favorite.

00:31:27.980 --> 00:31:39.678
I love the structure of that initiative where you're rewarding all the right actions and people at the right time, but also still making it feel like a collective, unified vision.

00:31:41.005 --> 00:31:47.424
I love that I have been so quiet during this talk, because I'm just absorbing everything that you're saying.

00:31:47.424 --> 00:31:58.059
There's so much strategy involved, so much more on the marketing end than I thought that there would be.

00:31:59.204 --> 00:32:00.811
Oh my gosh, so much more.

00:32:00.811 --> 00:32:14.805
And like we used to craft for these big like initiatives, we would have like our communication plan for these things was like 16 page Google Docs Right, and that's not even for like anything that's too complicated.

00:32:14.805 --> 00:32:22.939
But just like we again like, if we want someone to refer a new member and if that's a big part of this new marketing push, maybe that's even just one branch of it.

00:32:22.939 --> 00:32:32.788
Like you're going to go out and do all these partner workshops and other communities to get a new, to bring in audience members, but you're also activating your members to refer people like you.

00:32:32.788 --> 00:32:40.866
If, if you want them to do that again, you have to prompt them on like what are they doing and how are you?

00:32:40.866 --> 00:32:42.029
What are you asking them to do?

00:32:42.029 --> 00:32:43.854
How are you supporting them?

00:32:44.034 --> 00:32:48.222
So for us, that looked like um, I think done really poorly.

00:32:48.222 --> 00:32:54.416
What that all that is is like just like templated copy of like hey, send this to like five people.

00:32:54.416 --> 00:32:56.988
That's done poorly, but it's done.

00:32:56.988 --> 00:32:58.171
It's something.

00:32:58.171 --> 00:33:07.798
Yeah, when it's when it's done really well, that means like hey, think, think about your transformation that you have experienced in this community.

00:33:07.798 --> 00:33:15.749
Take a few minutes and reflect on this and think of someone who is in that position, where you were when you first joined this community.

00:33:15.749 --> 00:33:19.337
Now, what has being a part of this community done for you?

00:33:19.337 --> 00:33:20.567
What's your story?

00:33:20.567 --> 00:33:22.029
What's been your journey?

00:33:22.029 --> 00:33:43.916
So prompting your members to think about it for themselves and what their actual experience is, and then creating the bridge for them to share about that publicly or with a couple people, that's like, that's your sweet spot, that's like so much better than like come join the Ember community for coaches, consultants and creators.

00:33:45.346 --> 00:33:45.747
You.

00:33:45.747 --> 00:33:51.439
I just said exactly what I've seen on 33 different communities.

00:33:52.786 --> 00:33:56.596
It's just I mean it's fine, it's just, it's just tired, it's done.

00:33:56.596 --> 00:33:59.166
Yeah, it's done.

00:33:59.166 --> 00:34:00.690
Not well, but it's done.

00:34:01.191 --> 00:34:05.665
Yeah, that will be our new criteria for you.

00:34:05.665 --> 00:34:07.650
Did you did the bare minimum.

00:34:07.650 --> 00:34:13.965
It's done Exactly Well.

00:34:13.965 --> 00:34:17.693
Is there anything else you want people to know before we wrap up?

00:34:19.697 --> 00:34:20.826
Oh my gosh, Well there's.

00:34:20.826 --> 00:34:22.873
So this is such a huge topic.

00:34:22.873 --> 00:34:24.210
It really is.

00:34:24.210 --> 00:34:26.652
Yeah, I could talk all day.

00:34:26.652 --> 00:34:31.289
Trust me, love to talk If you want more information.

00:34:31.329 --> 00:34:35.688
Like I really the matrix that we talked about in those four different types of communities.

00:34:35.688 --> 00:34:45.117
It's kind of like the basis for how I think about how communities support businesses, but also the challenges that you're signing up for in your community.

00:34:45.117 --> 00:34:54.434
So if this is like new to you or maybe that framework is new to you and how you're signing up for in your community, so if this is like new to you or maybe that framework is new to you and how you're thinking about community, I do have I have a masterclass that goes through all of the different factors.

00:34:54.434 --> 00:35:09.188
So thinking about your existing marketing engine that is going to lend itself to support different communities here, like some communities more than others, depending on the type of marketing structure you have set up.

00:35:09.188 --> 00:35:11.875
Thinking about the impact that you want to see.

00:35:11.875 --> 00:35:20.143
Thinking about your own capacity as a community builder and what you have the ability to execute on.

00:35:20.143 --> 00:35:32.994
So we dig into all of that in the masterclass as well as like how to create a test for each of these communities masterclass as well as like how to create a test for each of these communities, so I encourage you to check that out if you want to dig in more.

00:35:33.014 --> 00:35:42.757
But as far as final thoughts and final words, I think just community can be a really impactful and powerful tool for your business.

00:35:42.757 --> 00:35:46.175
It's not for everyone, so do your homework before and do a test to understand if this aligns with your business.

00:35:46.175 --> 00:35:52.621
It's not for everyone, so do your homework before and do a test to understand if this aligns with your business and what you want to create in the world.

00:35:52.621 --> 00:36:02.313
Obviously, I think the world needs more communities and more connection online, so I think I hope that it does, but it's not for everyone and that's okay too.

00:36:03.398 --> 00:36:04.842
Where can we find that masterclass?

00:36:04.842 --> 00:36:07.110
It sounds brilliant yeah.

00:36:07.170 --> 00:36:07.873
I'll give you the link.

00:36:07.873 --> 00:36:12.918
It's on my website under the community page, so we'll put that in the show notes.

00:36:13.701 --> 00:36:14.101
Perfect.

00:36:14.101 --> 00:36:16.708
Yeah, it sounds great, all right, awesome.

00:36:16.708 --> 00:36:18.411
Thank you so much for joining me.

00:36:18.411 --> 00:36:21.436
This was so amazing.

00:36:21.436 --> 00:36:26.130
I felt like I learned so much during this conversation.

00:36:26.130 --> 00:36:27.273
I really appreciate you.

00:36:27.293 --> 00:36:29.157
Aw, thanks, Sarah.

00:36:29.157 --> 00:36:30.250
Thank you for having me on.

00:36:30.250 --> 00:36:32.052
I'm so, so glad to share some space with you.

00:36:32.105 --> 00:36:53.851
If you love all things tiny marketing, head down to the show notes page and sign up for the wait list to join the tiny marketing club, where you get to work one-on-one with me with trainings, feedback and pop-up coaching that will help you scale your marketing as a B2B service business.

00:36:53.851 --> 00:36:55.434
So I'll see you over in the club.

Ep 111: Mastering Online Communities: From Building to Thriving with Bri Leever

Listen On

Recent Episodes