Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 5 steps to building an impactful community in 2021 with tips from ex Glossier community lead Kim Johnson (solo episode)

Transcript

5 steps to building an impactful community in 2021 with tips from ex Glossier community lead Kim Johnson (solo episode) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, it's Dune here, your host and hype girl. Today on the show, I'm walking you through five key steps to building an impactful community in 2021 and a quick update on where things are with the non-alc brand. Let's get straight into it. This is me for Female Startup Club.
• 0:22
  Hello. Hi. I'm coming to you from Geneva this week. I'm with my family. It is a sunny day today, but yesterday it was pretty gloomy. But you know, all things are good, good here. Before we jump in to community building, I have some pretty cool news about Female Startup Club that you might have already seen, but of course I want to share it anyway. Hello.
• 0:48
  Last week, we were ranked in the top 10 Apple podcast charts in the US for entrepreneurship alongside people like Tim Ferriss and Gary Vee. And I am just...
• 1:03
  I'm literally in shock, to be honest. That is so cool. Top freaking 10. It's just blowing my mind. It's all thanks to you guys. All thanks to the listeners who are tuning in and leaving us reviews and...
• 1:18
  Spreading the good word. You might have also seen last week in other news for Female Startup Club that I announced my partnership with HubSpot. And so in joining the HubSpot podcast network, which is really, really cool coming into 2022, we have some pretty exciting growth plans in the works. So...
• 1:38
  Just wanted to share that. I am just like over the moon. It's been such an up and down year and this has just put a huge smile on my face and I'm so excited for what's to come. So I wanted to let you know. Aside from that, we also just announced the winners of our first small business grant, which had about 10 prizes in total. But if you remember, our main prize was $1,000 in cash.
• 2:04
  It actually went to a Hype Club member and a badass entrepreneur. Her name is Rae Dawn from Ballion. So I'm super excited for her. You know, $1,000 makes a difference to everyone, but especially when you are just getting started and launching a new brand. So super stoked. I also wanted to give you a quick update on where things are with the Non-Alk brand.
• 2:28
  We've just ticked off a few of those early kind of admin steps. Last week, I registered the company in the UK. It's really, really simple. It takes a whole lot of five minutes. I think you just fill out this information on company's house. Someone calls you. You fill out some more paperwork. You do an ID check, and then that's literally it. And that's kind of moved us forward into kicking off the actual branding piece of the puzzle. Yeah.
• 2:57
  which I must say has been so freaking exciting. The agency we're working with has totally blown my mind when it comes to processes and research and just their kind of method of working and their enthusiasm for the brand. I was actually saying last night to my mother-in-law, it really feels like they're part of the...
• 3:20
  my company. It feels like they're part of my team. They're just so, you know, they're showing up with energy and enthusiasm in every call. And it sounds kind of like, well, duh, of course they should be. But like anytime I've worked with other agencies, I just haven't had this level of care and excitement. So it's just been such a joy working with them.
• 3:44
  And I'm really looking forward to how this evolves and sharing more of that process in a specific episode around branding and what they did and how it's kind of evolved. But I'm going to wait until we announce the name so that I can kind of share a bit more deeply.
• 4:01
  I feel like I've been a bit vague in these updates and it's going to have to stay that way until we finalize the trademark in the UK and submit our trademark in the US. Once that's pending, then I'm going to announce the name. I'm just being kind of cautious.
• 4:17
  But besides that, we're also one step closer to finalizing our product, which is obviously such a big deal. In November, at the beginning of November, we're heading to see our supplier to finalize the product formulation. And fingers crossed from there, we can start placing a bigger order of samples to start getting feedback from our target audience. And then we can work towards placing our first order samples.
• 4:43
  Which I guess like when we're looking at a timeline, it's quite a slow production timeline because, you know, we need to get our actual wine from the supplier first. And that lead time is around eight weeks. They've just finished harvest. I think last week or this week they finished harvest. And then from they've kind of allocated us a set amount of wine. Then once we're ready to process an order, we order it from them. Then it needs to go to our supplier.
• 5:09
  manufacturer, I guess you would say, or our lab, which is where they will go through that dealkalization process and reformulation process. So it's a long journey. I was so hopeful that we would have something this year, which, you know, obviously that is well and truly out the window, but these things take time. All good things take time. So it is what it is. And that's kind of all my updates for the non-alk brand. Pretty
• 5:38
  Pretty minimal, but hopefully we're back on track soon, especially once I've actually gone to finalize the product formulation and things like that. But that aside, getting to the point of today's episode –
• 5:51
  I wanted to share some insights I learned in a recent Hype Club masterclass that we hosted a few weeks ago with Kim Johnson. She's currently the head of community at Geneva, which is what we host our community on for Hype Club. And before that, she spent five years building the community community.
• 6:11
  Glossier. So, you know, a really, really great example of community kind of builders and leaders in that space. So the masterclass was around what does building an impactful community look like in 2021? And what are some of the key principles or steps that we can use to build our own communities?
• 6:33
  For me, it's quite timely because Hype Club, you know, we only recently launched and soon we're going to start really focusing on the non-alc wine community too. So I wanted to share this because I think it's also just really relevant for anyone building a business in 2021, especially. Community is so important and it's the backbone of everything that you do in your business.
• 7:01
  And to build a great community, you first have to think about community in the broader world or our broader lives, because the key to any community really relies on those same essential principles, which are connectedness, presence and support. And it's really important to remember this because it comes back to community just on a human level.
• 7:25
  So I'm going to jump right in. There are five different steps we're going to cover. Step number one is getting to know your people. And this is so, so, so important. It seems really obvious, but it's one of the things that people often actually forget to do because you get caught up in the structure and the program and what it's going to look like or what it should be without actually asking what your community members need and want.
• 7:52
  So you need to talk to your community to understand what they think, what they want, what they care about and where they are in their journey of what you're creating. It's essential to be intentional about what you're building and with who in mind and what the common connection points are between your members. And then focus.
• 8:11
  This will essentially help you build something that's relevant to your audience, but also in partnership with them. It means your members will be engaged and present and continue to show up. And basically, it means you are growing together constantly. Which leads me to point number two, defining the value.
• 8:31
  You need to ask yourself, what can you uniquely bring to the table, i.e. your community? What are the through lines to which people can connect? And what do we gain? So what's also important to understand is at what specific point of the journey your members are on and adding certain touch points that are relevant to them at that point in their journey.
• 8:54
  And so a great example of this is if you were in the parent space, for example, and you were building a brand, say, for moms as a niche, and
• 9:04
  It's such a different journey based on where you are in that journey. You know, a mom who is in the first few months of their baby's life, so zero to three months, for example, is going through a completely different experience to someone who has a six to nine month old baby. They've got very different needs because they're solving different challenges and different problems, which leads us to this notion of creating a.
• 9:29
  what Kim was calling a community matrix. So when you start to understand where your members are and what your members need, you start to see different connection points that your members can connect on. So recognizing what those connection points could be means you can define the lines in your matrix and start building these experiences for your members to connect and get value from each other.
• 9:51
  So, for example, you could mix people who are in that same timeframe of zero to three months crossed with location, for example, and that's when you start hitting on some magic and having opportunities both virtually and RIL. Which leads us to point number three, which is bringing people together, IRL and virtually.
• 10:15
  When you start to build out that matrix for your members, you can then look to determine what opportunities you can build for your members in real life and virtually that actually makes sense for them. Because what often happens with community is you drop everyone in together, but everyone has different needs and is at a different phase or point in their journey. So you need to start drilling down who needs those connection points with others.
• 10:41
  And connection points can be things like location. It could be gender identity. It could be sexuality. It could be industry. It could be revenue. It could be likes. It could be dislikes. And when you have that data or that information, you can draw out a heat map where the key connection points are for your members. And you can start to be really targeted about how you bring people together.
• 11:09
  And it's important to note that often where people get the most value in community is actually in the smaller touch points. It's not in the larger touch points. So small conversations that build connection points that allow people to show up and be vulnerable.
• 11:28
  It's also really important to allow the community to build touch points themselves and not have the creator controlling everything. As the saying goes, if you build it, they will come. But if you let them build it, they will stay. And I really love this because if you create spaces and then actually let the people within it.
• 11:51
  kind of take it on, they will flourish and grow and it will start kind of taking on this own magic without you just as the creator. So the best community building is when the builder is the facilitator and not the focus. And this really actually resonated with me because I felt like
• 12:13
  in creating Hype Club, it was just all on me and I was doing that alone. Yet after this masterclass, I realized I have so many engaged members inside Hype Club who are amazing and could also be part of creating the group and owning spaces within it. I hadn't even considered that there might be people in the group who were already stoked to host something or to kind of show up in a more deep and meaningful way.
• 12:41
  Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes community is highly relevant in someone's life and sometimes it isn't. But as the builder, if you optimize for that and you know that sometimes people are going to be highly involved and other times they're just going to dip in and out, you can plan for that and not let it kind of get you down and get into your psyche.
• 13:05
  When you bring people into the community, you just need to understand where they are in the journey so you can move people along that journey or create sub-experiences for them wherever they are in the journey. Which leads me to step four, which is building rituals.
• 13:23
  This is where you inspire your members to take part in your community. These are experiences that members can come to expect and recognise as relevant to them.
• 13:37
  When you create rituals, you allow your group to grow together. You create consistency, which we all love and we all need. You build a process around co-creation and you can identify the folks who are most engaged to help you kind of stay on track with those rituals. So...
• 13:55
  In Hype Club, we have a few different rituals. For example, we have our Biz Wins and Fails chat, which is kind of a place where we celebrate both the wins, but also the fails, which are obviously far more interesting because we all learn a lot from other people who are going through those kind of lows or the things that are going wrong. And it allows people to be vulnerable.
• 14:19
  They can share, you know, throughout the week. But on a Monday is when Josephine comes into the group and she kind of cherry picks a few. And then we use those in our newsletter and our social media to shout out and kind of highlight a small business owner or entrepreneur who's part of our private network and give them a bit of a spotlight, which is quite cool.
• 14:41
  On Tuesday, we have PA, my husband, coming in to do performance marketing, kind of ads and creative insights and learnings. So he records a weekly update on what's working for him or what he's seeing in the industry. He answers any questions. Sometimes he's hopping on calls and basically allowing people to.
• 15:05
  get advice from an expert who aren't in a position to be able to hire his agency or our agency rather. So that's a really great ritual that I quite love and, you know, we give a lot of value there. Then on Thursdays, that's our usual day that we host our masterclasses or we have women from the show who are coming in and giving live Q&As or Ask Me Anything style posts.
• 15:35
  And then we have our kind of monthly rituals, which we have our resident business and marketing coach, Kelsey. She comes and does a session on building your marketing playbook. And then we also have, you know, members from Hype Club who are now starting to host their own masterclasses and their own workshops as well. So that's like a few of the basic rituals. And we're actually starting to introduce a few more.
• 16:01
  to give you an idea of how we're doing it. But, you know, there are so many different kinds of rituals that you could be implementing into your own community. Examples could be things like a weekly 15-minute check-in on a video call or a Monday morning guided meditation, different regular workshops, or maybe a Friday happy hour.
• 16:25
  It's basically the things that you can commit to doing consistently to inspire connection and engagement and also add a sense of comfort to your members.
• 16:37
  So another example, I guess, of this is if you're a busy mom and you're part of a mom community and your week is mayhem, but you know that every single Friday there's a locked in 30 minutes check in that you can rely on where everyone brings a glass of wine and has a chat online, that brings you comfort. Even if you can't make it, just knowing that it's there next week and the following week and the week after that brings you a sense of comfort.
• 17:06
  And this goes back to building those connections, growing in partnership with your people that has continuity. Sometimes you will start rituals that people aren't really that into and you'll be able to cut those and others will be a total hit. Same as any approach to business, it's about testing out new ideas and new rituals just to find what works for your members and what doesn't.
• 17:31
  And this is how you also find the people who are really committed to the group, who are putting their hands up to say, hey, I love it here and I'm engaged. Give me more responsibility, which is then when actually the real magic happens because you're able to start passing that responsibility and ownership to other people in the group. So recognize the people who are doing the hand raise and invite those people to work together to do more of that.
• 17:58
  Rituals basically become the binding force in showing your members what they can expect and how they can show up in ways that are suitable for them. And finally, step five, invest in the behind the scenes. So,
• 18:13
  Build your infrastructure to make your life easier. As a community grows, the builder or the creator will always find that the direct connection points to members start to loosen. And you actually need to find ways to keep track of information. And this is how you scale without losing the quality and also enable other folks to help co-create.
• 18:35
  And this could be something really, really simple like a Google sheet, an Excel sheet or an Airtable. I personally use a type form and I collect data through that that's then integrated into my Slack account. And then basically once it's all set up and running smoothly, it's really epic, makes your life really easy. And you just have a quick place where you can go and find all this information that you are capturing about your community.
• 19:02
  And that pretty sums up the five steps. Kim was such a joy. The final notes around the masterclass were building community takes a lot of time and it needs a lot of watering and you are always iterating as you go.
• 19:19
  This was super cool. If you don't already know, we record all our masterclasses with our experts like Kim, and you can access our library of content when you sign up to Hype Club. At the moment, it is $59 per month, and you can cancel any time.
• 19:35
  We have our resident experts in the group sharing their insights and strategies along with other founders, industry experts, people of all walks, giving interesting things, interesting insights into the world of e-commerce and helping each other find the way. So we'd love to have you join us if it's of interest. If you're an entrepreneur in the e-commerce space or the direct-to-consumer space. Yeah.
• 20:01
  You can find some more information online at femalestartupclub.com forward slash hype club. If you want to learn more or feel free to just drop me a DM or drop me an email.
• 20:13
  And lastly, if you're new here and you got something out of this episode or it sparked something new for you, please think about reviewing us. These reviews really help find new ears and it leads to magical things like being ranked in the top freaking 10 in the US for entrepreneurship. I'm just still pinching myself about that one.
• 20:37
  And also, if you aren't already subscribed to our newsletter, pop your email on our website to receive our Monday dose of the good stuff. It's useful for anyone, whether you're an entrepreneur or you're just interested in entrepreneurship and founder stories. There's something in there for you. That's all for today. I'm going to see you next time. Bye.
• 21:16
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 21:41
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 22:03
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show, and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.