Notes from Shana Lynn podcast (watch on YouTube) with Sam Ovens:
👉Most important elements in building a community:
- Having a commune cause (culture, vision or purpose)
- Defined believes and boundaries (identity)
- Communication (one2one, one2many, each others)
- Connection (starts from safety)
👉How to measure safety:
- Trust them first (say what you do and do what you say)
- Integrity (authenticity)
👉Safety issue if this happens:
- Members stops sharing there concerns, asking questions...(safety broken by leader or other members)
- In that case leader responsibility is (as a group not to individual) to protect the community
👉Four phases to build a community:
- Forming (uncertain phase): members are silent trying to figure out boundaries (like kids in playground for 1st time)
- Storming: growth
- Norming: protect community if rules broken (we don't do that here)
- Performing: members start collaborating
👉Negative feedback is healthy:
- Don't delete (because fear of spread...) negative comments if you want improvement
- I you want to delete, open a new channel (phone call...) about this negative comment
- Necessary iteration phase to build successful community (and the product...)
- By nature we want things that we don't have
- Beta stage (fixe bugs) that never ends (encourage feedback loop)
👉Clarity:
- Comes from strong leadership (if not you, so will be someone else)
- Stops showing up (not replying to negative feedbacks, get bored, overwhelmed...)
- Clear cause
👉Avoid the trap of being burnt:
- Encourage colloboration between members (invite connections)
- Create spaces for your community (platform, live event, zoom calls...): let members shine (being experts)
- Encourage members retention by recognition (thanks for comments...)
- Pay attention to your ego: I am the only expert
- Pay attention to greed: It's mine (but it's about the members not you)
- Want control (fear of being canceled...)
- Difficult to maintain (under the gun to produce content like on Tik Tok...)
👉Community in the physical word is degraded because of:
- Easy to move away because of modern transportation
- Fear to go deep in talks with people (divisive, being canceled...)
- Visits to commune places decreased (town all, church...)
- Hight cost of living (people moving away to cheaper places...)
- Internet (online communities, zoom calls...)
- Moving away to join an online community (same interests) as Sam O. hates Rugby in NZ, he moved abroad to join US friends: 🏉 Vs 💻
👉Shared goals with 4 pillars:
- Under culture: believes, boundaries and behaviors
- Cause: purpose, path and progress
- Communication: ongoing (me2them), incoming (channeled with me), internal (between group members)
- 3 keys to retention: relationships, results and recognition
- P.S. "Rules" wording sounds weird: better to say culture and cause
👉How to boost community engagement (like habit with triggers and rewards):
- Encourage members
- Events, contents, relationships... (like tools)
- Scale: automatisation...
- Create spaces (zoom events, accountability group...)
- Help them find communalities (industry, niche...) like a party host
- Accept members who are not fully engaging in connecting
👉 Online community issues:
- Mental health: need for real connections
- No physical spaces
- Proximity like friends at uni for example (clusters)
- Bring people together
- Create safety
- Stimulate constant engagement
- Fear to start one (being a leader)
- Influenceurs have fans not members and an audience not a community
👉Starting a community from scratch:
- Start with one (organic) and then ask to bring more (references)
- Easy to start vs a course
- Sacrifice the short term (but takes time)
- Care about the people you want in the community
👉Leveraging a free community:
- Nurture (build trust): give value...
- Prepare an onboarding (payed) path: more access to you, share your journey...
- Organic growth is the key now with a community
- Mastermind mentality or club (cf. "Think and grow Rich - N.H")
- Encourage desire for connections
- Growth ("flying wheel" with new members) by giving results and satisfaction
- Easy to sell products to members on the long run
- Encourage collaborative solutions
- Learn about their problems
👉Case studies to create a successful community and more:
- Jo Rogan podcast ("you can do it too" mentality)
- Mr Beast (audience to community)
- Chief start up (physical spaces)
Hope it helps 😉