No-one starts out with a huge community. We all begin from zero. But whether you realise it or not, from day one you are creating a community through your work and how you interact with other people.
I believe in P2P, or people to people relationships above and beyond everything else. Everyone who runs a business is a real person, and those that we’re creating products and services for are real people, too. So, it’s up to us to build those relationships and to get to know our customers as best as possible.
Building a sense of belonging and support
Building a community is about bringing people together who have something in common… at the end of the day, we all want to belong and we all need support.
And when it comes to building a community around your personal brand business, the thing people are uniting behind is you.
Caring about the content you’re putting out, the quality of the products and services you’re creating and the experiences that you’re giving your customers is key, yes. But, opening up, and genuinely caring about the people in your community, as well as their problems and how you can help solve them is where the real difference can be made.
Keeping up connections
One way you can guarantee a bigger, better and more profitable business is by simply talking (and listening!) to your customers on a regular basis.
For the last 6-years, every month I’ve had my team reach out to 4 random members of our community to schedule a 15min call with me. These are people that have either tweeted me, sent me an email, purchased one of our products, or a ticket to one of our events.
It could’ve been something as simple as just sending me a quick message via Instagram or another social platform. Regardless of how the conversation started, they’re invited to hop on a call with me so I can get to know them and their motivations better.
Quite often, those calls have led to discussions that have ultimately turned into a new product, or sometimes a piece of content, such as a podcast episode, that has then gone onto be downloaded tens of thousands of times, helping more people than I possibly could’ve imagined when I recorded it.
Allowing your audience to shape you
At the end of these calls, I always ask what’s the one thing I can do to help them, personally, right now. Whatever it is, I do my best to follow-up on my promise of helping out – whether straight away, or at some point in the future.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all those calls over the years, it’s that if you intently listen to your customers, they will ultimately be the ones that help you shape and grow your business over time.
Remember that building a community is an honour and a privilege. It’s one of the biggest game-changers for business owners in today's world. However, it doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and knowing that you’re in this thing for the long-term!
I hope you get as much joy from building your community of raving fans as I do from seeing members of the Youpreneur Community developing friendships, partnerships and celebrating their business successes together. It’s sincerely my biggest why and the defining focus for everything that I do personally, as a leader.
If you intently listen to your customers, they will ultimately be the ones that help you shape and grow your business over time. #Youpreneur Click To TweetWrap Up
If today’s video has helped you in some way… perhaps answered a few questions you’ve been having, or helped you develop a new idea or two.. let me know what your biggest takeaway was! I’d love to hear from you.
And don’t forget, you can watch my free training course ‘The Youpreneur Launchpad’ over on YouTube… it’s focused on helping you build, market and monetize your expertise better than ever before. I’ll see you in the next video!
Chris founded Youpreneur® in 2015. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling books “Virtual Freedom” and “Rise of the Youpreneur”. He hosts our podcast, live events and coaches our clients inside the Youpreneur Incubator. Chris is based in Cambridge, UK.
