Today I participated in an amazing 4-hour Community Growth Summit with Brendon Burchard hosted by Circle and I'm sharing my KEY takeaways from my NOTES!
The best way to build a brand is through relationship building and facilitating a community
This growth summit began with Brendon Burchard, a motivational speaker, best-selling author, and course creator whom I've been following for years. He shared his personal story about overcoming challenges in his life and his transformation over time to identify how he can help others. I highly recommend reading his books, my favorite is the Motivational Manifesto
"Questions about our life can force us to pay attention to our experiences and what we really want, asking the right questions is about doing the work, and failing is part of the journey. Let go of your doubts, and do the work."
A Circle is a way to bring your course participants together, share with others, and develop a deeper connection with them, and they have the opportunity to connect to each other, community is about the members in your circle connecting to each other and experiencing a transformation over time together!
He continued to share key tips for new community builders including his 5 top recommendations as a Circle host:
A community is your central organizing principle, a place to bring people together and guide them through curated content that helps them solve their problems. There isn't a lack of content on the Internet, there is too much content, so a community can aid in organizing your content to provide a pathway for customers.
A community can be your ascension model by bringing potential members into free space and "upselling" them by offering value at different levels. (This can get really confusing and if you are just starting out, I don't recommend this at all as a model, but it is one for those who've built a solid audience.)
The Future of Building an Online Business is Community and an online app offers a way for creators to monetize groups, spaces, areas, or content inside.
Falling in LOVE with Community Building will help you craft your message, offers, and monetization strategies by trying over, and over again to see what works for you. A circle is a way to organize content, you can do this in different “areas” which is what I call them, so consider your “main” area for your ideal members, clients, and customers.
A Community Structure helps you as a host and your members know who this is for, and who it isn't for, so the more clear you are on your offer, community strategy, and structure, the better you will be at "selling" your membership, subscriptions, masterminds, courses, or cohorts coaching programs. CLARITY is king. A community gives them a PLACE to be seen, valued, and heard and that is all you need to offer- a place to listen to them and identify their needs.
Community Structure Examples
Following Brendon, there was a discussion on what exactly is a community structure, and what that could look like with LOTS of examples.
Monthly Introduction Calls
Use LIVE video to connect
Group Coaching calls
Use a weekly call to bring your members together and offer a coaching session
Hot Seat or “Growth Seat” (is what we call them)
Allow members to share their idea, highlight them, and give them a stage to present an idea and get feedback from their peers
Host a Weekly Q&A - with a Twist
Be a host, bring your community together
Community-Led Book Clubs
I just did a podcast interview about a book club structured community
Let your members gather with a book, movie, or other visual content
Accountability Groups
Offer a space for your members to be heard
Small Cohorts/ Focus Groups
Small sub-areas inside your Circle to bring members together with similar interests, goals, challenges, or who identify with a specific passion, or theme
Don't get stuck on the tech tool, know your ideal members first
Here’s a checklist for you
→ I put together some notes and a “tech tools” checklist
As many of you might know, I have been a Mighty Networks Expert for 2 years now, and have really promoted that platform. Well I can see the benefit in a Circle for a few reasons, but what I really want to tell you is to start with the why, what, and who, before you start with the HOW. It is hard, I know. I did this too.
The biggest takeaway I can tell you is to compare Circle to Mighty Networks - If you want to sell courses INDEPENDANT of a community, go for a Circle. It is not possible to offer just a course without a membership on Mighty Networks, and a few clients I've worked with have run into this challenge. Get a free strategy session with this link.
Be Exclusive. Your community isn't for EVERYONE
Tips from Andrew
You DON’T need a HUGE email list of thousands of people
You just need a FEW people who align with your specific message
Send them an email telling them about whom you bring together
Community is about Exclusivity
Be really specific about WHO this is FOR and who it is NOT for
Get really picky with whom you invite to the door
Reach out with a discovery survey or invite them to chat with you!
Check out this podcast episode! This is how to validate your idea and identify your ideal and founding members!
Build a Circle → Learn more
Speaker Panel with 3 Community Leaders on Circle
Tom Ross has been launching communities for over 20 years and uses Circle for his community, newsletter, and other resources.
In his first launch, he was searching for 100 founding members
The mistake he made was bringing too many people into the community too soon
He recommends staging a community or phasing members
Community is fluid, pivoting is vital to growing your community
MVP - Minimum viable product → MVC → Minimum Viable Communities - know your minimum amount and have reasonable expectations
Leon Hill shared his community-building journey by sharing his community strategy including a 3-month pre-sale of his community, The Order, and shared that he didn't believe he had any competitors because no one was doing what he was doing.
A business has 4 Pillars -independent income, understanding of global structures, citizenship, residence, and investments.
A community is a place to go DEEP over time
He flexed his community structure and strategy over time, starting with $297/quarter and adjusting as he identified what was working over time.
"The biggest flaw or mistake is we should have capped the cohort, at 1K people, 0 to 3K in just a few months, we had a hard time dealing with that amount of people in the way we wanted to offer the value and connection."
Megan Gilger, the host of Fresh Exchange, shared her community journey with small groups, and different offers. She said coaching, as well as memberships, are a part of their business model.
Lead by example, when teaching, training, or speaking to your members, it builds a bridge between you and them!
I was doing way too much, I learned that I could spend less time, and make the same if not more money by offering LESS than I thought I needed
Just one piece of the business, not the most revenue-generating aspect of the business for them and she charges a lower monthly offer with an option to upgrade.
Mathilde (from Circle) Community Design
How to build a REAL community from scratch
Where do these principles come from? By observing what has worked for others and what our experiences are and learning more from them
Give people a reason to attend
Get the right people in the room
Dress your table
Welcome your guests
Be a great host
Keep the party going
What transformation will your members achieve together?
Identify the key reason why your members gather
Need inspiration, a showcase for community examples
Circle demo
Phillip Boyett
Examples of community setup on a Circle
Start Here Space - Onboarding, Community Guidelines, Tips, Support
Ask for Help Space - to get the conversation started with your members
Discussion space - to offer members a place to chat
An event space to keep the conversations going
Content Spaces / Examples
Settings - Open, Private, Secret
Customize the space by hiding or highlighting specific features (members)
Change the “view” of the content to tiles to make it easy to navigate
Creating a post
Put a title
Add a photo
Provide links to other content
@ for connecting
Post setting to hide or show different aspects of the post
Add an introduction, and step-by-step instructions to help navigate with others
2 HR Video→ Step-by-step instructions by Circle
Building a Brand Community - Glo
The final session was led by Glo Atanmo who shared how to build a brand community with some tips about cultivating your community vision.
Strategies for a deeper connection
How to identify those who amplify your message
Unifying your community
What is your tagline, mantra, or mission?
What do people say about you when you aren’t in the room?
What’s your BIG PURPOSE?
A Mission needs a movement - People want to feel like they're moving from one way of living, or thinking to another
Missions Need Momentum - People want to feel called to rise to the occasion with urgency and vigor for positive change
Missions Need money - if you can commit a full year dedicated to focusing on a single skill, so mission-driven, you will rise by default
Resources from Deb
Click HERE to Download Our Free Five-Step Guide: How to Launch Your First Paid Online Community
Do you like my notes? Say thanks with a cup of coffee!!
Book a FREE discovery call to talk about your community structure