Community & brand builder ✦ Writing about community, culture & the internet ✦ Helped 30 communities grow ✦ Mom & Wife
Joined April 2020
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90% of communities fail.
Why? Most founders are not intentional in what they are building.
Having worked with many communities, I am revealing my secret formula today:
The Web3 Community Canvas.
Use this proven framework today to become part of the 10%.
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B2C & B2B communities are not the same.
You need a different strategy for both.
But one thing that stays the same:
You are offering a transformation.
For consumers, you help them get from A to B.
For businesses, you help their business get from A to B.
What is always true: Communicate benefits instead of features.
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Next gen consumer products (whether social apps, CPG or community-based products) will let you build rituals - intentional, scarce moments that have meaning.
In today's fast-paced world, it often feels like we've lost the art of rituals, and this has had profound implications for our sense of meaning and connection - offline and online.
Benefits of rituals:
• They give people a sense of stability, and enhance focus, mindfulness and performance
• They make activities more meaningful, as they attach a symbolic purpose to them
• Collective rituals strengthen group cohesion, and increase community member identity & belonging
Rituals can be found in consumer products & communities:
• Social apps, think BeReal
• Consumer brands, think Oreo cookies & Apple’s unboxing
• Communities, think 2:16 club & Visualize Value
The playbook for community-based rituals:
1. Attract audience through content
2. Build community of die-hard fans
3. Build product to reinforce member identity & belonging
4. Create rituals around products to further reinforce member identity & belonging
So how can you create a ritual for yourself, your community, brand or product?
Here are the 5 steps you need:
1. Set the intention
2. Determine the trigger moment
3. Outline the flow
4. Specify the emotional reward
5. Use props (optionally)
My newsletter article about 'the art of ritual' just hit my subscribers' inboxes.
⚡ Subscribe to Modern Builder to explore the future of community, culture & tech. Link to subscribe in bio.⚡
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Check out the article and let me know what you think:
modernbuilder.beehiiv.com/p/…
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There is one major shift in how I approach building communities.
For years, I started with the purpose. Came up with something that people could get excited about.
Then defined who needed to be part of my communities.
Today I start with people.
Often you think you know what people want. What kind of purpose will sound good on paper.
But it’s not until you talk to people to better understand their need for a community.
Start with people. Then define the purpose together.
People before purpose.
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Onchain content will be part of next gen marketing funnels.
The further you move down the funnel, the more it will become significant.
Letting fans collect & remix parts of the brand narrative, key milestones, significant (for them) moments.
Sharing them as part of their digital identities.
Excited to see how media companies and communities will leverage it.
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be the community member that you wish you had!
The easiest way to build culture:
Exemplify desired behaviors.
People tend to copy the behaviors of others when they believe that these behaviors are the norm.
• Show how you want people to interact
• Encourage the right interactions
• Amplify voices of people that represent your culture
Culture is built one interaction at a time.
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The easiest way to build culture:
Exemplify desired behaviors.
People tend to copy the behaviors of others when they believe that these behaviors are the norm.
• Show how you want people to interact
• Encourage the right interactions
• Amplify voices of people that represent your culture
Culture is built one interaction at a time.
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Have been less active on social media for a few weeks now.
The impact:
• Better sleep
• Getting way more done (things that actually move the needle)
• Increased levels of creativity
I made good progress on a product, onboarded a new client and launched my newsletter since.
Yes, you open up so many opportunities with social media.
But the costs can be significant.
Sometimes the answer is to go all in. Sometimes the answer is to scale back.
Do what is right for you.
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The next wave of consumer brands are not simply selling products - they are becoming platforms.
We're experiencing an evolution of what makes a brand a brand, and communities are at the center of it.
This is how the concept of a "brand" has changed over time:
1. Brand → ownership & quality
2. Brand → positioning
3. Brand → company/entire customer experience
4. Brand → platform
In this last evolution brands are becoming places where people not just buy stuff but also create things.
And communities become integral part of this shift.
The 4 elements that make up these brands:
• Products → whether physical or digital, part of a larger narrative
• Content → co-created with fans
• Community → facilitating a space for fans to exchange around content & products
• Partners → building an ecosystem of value-aligned players
This is the age of multiplayer brands.
My newsletter article about "brands as platforms" just hit my subscribers' inboxes.
Subscribe to Modern Builder to explore the future of community, culture & tech. Link to subscribe in bio.
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The next wave of consumer brands are not simply selling products - they are becoming platforms.
We're experiencing an evolution of what makes a brand a brand, and communities are at the center of it.
This is how the concept of a "brand" has changed over time:
1. Brand → ownership & quality
2. Brand → positioning
3. Brand → company/entire customer experience
4. Brand → platform
In this last evolution brands are becoming places where people not just buy stuff but also create things.
And communities become integral part of this shift.
The 4 elements that make up these brands:
• Products → whether physical or digital, part of a larger narrative
• Content → co-created with fans
• Community → facilitating a space for fans to exchange around content & products
• Partners → building an ecosystem of value-aligned players
This is the age of multiplayer brands.
My newsletter article about "brands as platforms" just hit my subscribers' inboxes.
Subscribe to Modern Builder to explore the future of community, culture & tech. Link to subscribe in bio.
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Read more here:
modernbuilder.beehiiv.com/p/…
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When I started building my business, I was just eager to get a client - any client.
I made the mistake of making too many compromises, accepted any excuse why they wouldn’t show up on time. Or why they wouldn’t pay on time.
Don’t make the same mistake.
Once you get more confident in the value that you are providing:
Define your “perfect for me” client.
How do they show up?
What do they value?
When do they pay?
You might have to filter out some people, and that’s fine. Don’t underestimate opportunity costs.
Life is too short to work with people you don’t enjoy working with.
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The future of brands is community.
But not the way you think:
Not every brand will and should build a community.
Most DTC brands look the same, and stand for the same thing.
Start with a strong & unique reason to exist, a vision, a movement.
Then build products that reinforce that.
Not the other way round.
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Interestingly when working with founders we often move away from simple strategies & tactics and focus on emotional regulation:
• How to behave when someone in the community is fudding
• How to not get discouraged when no one seems to care about what you are building
• When a strategy isn’t working out, how does your mindset need to shift
Community (as any business) is about leadership - leading a group and leading yourself.
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Do things that don’t scale, and your community will scale later.
• Handpick first members
• Start 99% of discussions
• Establish bonds with new members
With every interaction you grow the bond with your community.
With every event you allow them to connect with each other.
This will attract new members.
There is a tipping point where members start providing more value.
Reach that point & you have the most powerful flywheel.
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Just finished reading “The Fourth Turning Is Here”. It depicts how the next years might turn out based on historic seasons.
Some insights:
1. History is not linear but moves in cycles - from the high, the awakening, the unraveling to the crisis.
Things will get worse - but they’ll also get better.
2. There’s a reason why us Millenials & Gen Z crave community so much.
The uncertainty during a crisis makes us long for a sense of security & belonging. This is what happens to all “archetypes” that come of age during a crisis.
Recommended read!
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I ran a half marathon yesterday.
After being woken up 5 times during the night because my 1 year old is teething.
After having Covid 3 weeks earlier and not running for 2 weeks.
After no proper preparation as the last months were filled with family health issues & loss, my husband almost losing half of his business and me feeling torn between taking care of my family and building my business. And everything that is going on in the world right now…
Still, managed to run 1:57. It’s nowhere near my initial goal of 1:45.
The run was brutal.
Still made it somehow. Not sure how. Just tracked my speed and the distance left.
The time I ran is not great on paper (for my fitness baseline), but the achievement is.
I’ve been feeling down for some time now, mentally stuck. Stuck with my business.
Sometimes what helps is to direct your attention towards something else for a while to feel better about yourself.
To prove to yourself, that you can do what doesn’t seem possible. That you have agency.
No matter the circumstances, or the context.
Physical activity is the single most effective way to do that.
So if you are struggling right now, just know that there is another person struggling as well.
And still find ways to get moving - any way possible.
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