5 Ways To Focus Your Business on Building Community

I’ll be honest; this past month or so has been hectic for me. I’ve missed out on some of the community building that I was focusing on in January of this year and am itching to reconnect and refocus on what truly matters to me – building friendships, connections, partnerships, and business relationships with fellow online business owners or entrepreneurs (and creating opportunities for them to connect with each other, too). Having a community and having people that support you and understand you is such a huge relief on this journey through starting and running your own business.

If you haven’t found your “spot” yet and feel too new, I have good news for you: this blogging/business world is so supportive. It’s amazing. I know people in so many other industries and businesses that are so intense, cutthroat, and competitive. It sounds stressful and lonely. Luckily for us in this online business world that is NOT the case. People who are technically my competition are some of my best friends. It’s incredibly and inspiring. I am so fortunate to be in this arena with great people.

If you’re ready to focus on community, I have five things I’ve implemented, experimented with, and seen direct benefits from. 

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BE AVAILABLE + ASK QUESTIONS

This has been one of the biggest assets to growing a group of people that I feel comfortable and connected with. I try to be as open and available as possible – whether it be by email or social media or hopping on Skype to chat. Building on that, when you are connecting with people make sure to put the emphasis on asking questions and getting to know them better versus talking about yourself. In getting to know people I generally can start to see how we can work together, collaborate, teach each other things, etc.

That’s something that I think transcends business relationships actually and applies to every type of interaction or relationship. I’m sure there’s an important quote about it, but I don’t know it off the top of my head. But my point is that the focus should be outside of yourself, if you want to build valuable connections. I try to approach every new person, especially in business, as “what can they teach me?” and “how can I help/serve them?” So far it’s served me quite well.

Being available can feel hard, especially when there are not enough hours in the day to do all the other things in your business – but it’s so valuable to your business. I think posting 10 things to Twitter a day is a good idea, but I think interacting with 10 people a day on Twitter is a much better idea.

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BE SOCIAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Building on that idea, make sure you use social media for its true purpose – to BE social. It’s not just a promotion platform. This is what I’ve been the most lax on lately (because I’ve been so busy) and I truly regret it! In January when I was more focused on social media and building a community I met so many amazing people daily just from being social on social media. I asked questions, answered questions, was on Periscope, was active in Facebook groups, etc.

So, clearly, that’s hard to manage time wise. I use time blocking so limit myself, but I do try to make a point to actually use social media and not depend fully on scheduling posts. Scheduling posts is useful but it’s not going to build a relationship. It’s not going to connect with someone on a personal basis. And if you want to focus on community – you need that personal element.

Another idea for managing time and social media is to focus heavily on the purpose/point you want to use each platform for. I talk about that more in this post but basically if you think Twitter is a great way to grow your peer relationships, then focus your energy and time on being social in that way while you are using Twitter (i.e. don’t waste time doing things that aren’t serving a purpose).

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INTRODUCE + REFER + PROMOTE

Once you start building connections and getting to know people better something amazing happens. People start to care about your business, talk about your skills, and send interested parties your way. It’s seriously mind blowing. Most of my clients have been referrals from my peers, which I can’t even begin to show how thankful I am for that.

But, that works both ways. There are a lot of things I could technically do for my clients, but these things aren’t necessarily my specialty (or what I offer). Instead of telling them a flat “no” I can instead refer them to peers that I know will be a good fit for the job.

So throughout your experiences and newfound community focus, make sure to actually remember and utilize the people you meet. It’s not a one-time talk that grows communities! It’s being a consistent role in their lives, and welcome their role in your lives (or businesses). Being able to easily recommend help to others (and be the person to introduce people to each other) really builds up your influence and trust, which ultimately grows your business.

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SHOW GRATITUDE

If you follow my blog you know that this is the MOST important thing to me for many reasons – but it applies to this blog post as well. You can most definitely never ever ever take the people who support you and your business and want to be along for the journey for granted. Ever. That is what makes your business successful! Without this support system you can’t grow to reach new heights.

Here’s what I mean: thank people for their support. It takes two seconds to say “thank you” when someone comments that they loved your post, or shares it with their audience. It isn’t difficult to be gracious; it takes just acknowledging the fact that someone supported you.

Something happens when you take the time to do it – suddenly there’s an opportunity for continued interaction and development. If you don’t take the time to show that you appreciate someone’s support then you don’t have the option to develop a possible friendship. There are people that I look up to for their business savvy, expert opinions, and amazing ideas – and that’s cool. But then there are also people I truly admire and want to bring in front of my audience, invest in products and services, and overall add to their success. What’s the difference in how I view these two groups of people? The latter have acknowledged my support, answered my questions or comments, and overall attempted to learn something about me – making me feel suddenly a lot more inclined to want to support them. 

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COLLABORATE

An awesome way to start developing a community is to collaborate with people. There are two different ways to look at this idea. First is that by collaborating with someone you can gain access to their existing community, or even just their audience (if they aren’t focusing on community yet). But another way is something that I am currently trying to implement in my own budding community – asking for collaborations (through guest posting on a blog, in this example).

Opening the doors to collaborating with people is such a good way to form partnerships and relationships because you are basically putting trust into someone else’s ability to do something and asking for trust from them. That’s the basis for relationships, right?

In my example I want to start a guest blog, so I sent out an email to my list and asked for submissions. I want to work together on a project and build each other up through this blog where we combine as one powerful resource! My thought was that starting this platform would be exciting, helpful, and allow cross-support between people involved. So, in your own community building plans think of how you can bring the interaction outside of “you” and “person” and make it more about “people” in general. A true community involves layers of support between everyone.

I hope this gives you some ideas about how you can approach building a community into your own business. 

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5 Signs You Need To Stop Consuming So Much Content

Let’s talk about a disease that can be hard to avoid in this world of online business. It’s called overconsumption and it can wreak havoc on all aspects of your psyche and your business. Reading, research, and supporting others is necessary and beneficial – but at what point is it too much?

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YOU USE IT AS A WAY TO AVOID WORK

The first sign that you are beginning to consume too much content is that your actual work output starts to dwindle. This is dangerous territory because at the end of the day you are trying to run a business. If you spend all your time reading how other people run their businesses, you aren’t actually putting money in the bank.

When I first started TheCrownFox I was guilty of this. I researched and read so many articles about business, because I knew my design skills were solid but my business acumen was not. This was mostly useful information, but it hardly ever got put into practice and just filed away in the back of my mind. I get it, I really do. You have to brush up on skills and knowledge where you might not be as confident – and the Internet is a great tool for that – but you also have to put things into the world and create and just go for it. I’ve had more success “figuring it out” than reading post after post telling me “what to do.”

Chances are what you really are doing is holding yourself back from those initial steps because you are scared of taking them. Completely understandable! I don’t know a single other business owner that hasn’t been terrified at some point along the way. Do you know what the trick to overcoming this fear is? Just going for it. Figuring it out. Saying “yes” more. Don’t let over consuming stand in the way of you starting your dreams. It’ll make you feel like you’re “working” but in reality it’s not translating into dollar dollar bills, y’all.

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YOU CRAVE A REBRAND

Another sign that you are over consuming is that you constantly find yourself craving a rebrand. This should be a red flag. If you find yourself viewing peers websites and social media and wanting to emulate their brand – turn away from the computer screen. I’m serious! I know it’s so easy to see someone’s success and want that for your business. I know it’s easy to see their beautiful images, their lovely client work, their amazing Instagram feed and think “I can do that.”

But, the thing is, you can’t. That business developed all of those pieces and parts for a reason – to attract their target client. For you to take that for yourself isn’t fair or right. Instead, turn off the consuming, and take time to figure out your target client. Figure out how you can serve them and who they are. Develop your own unique branding and strategy that caters to your target client, instead. That is better time spent and overall puts you in a position for success (in my opinion, copycats never see much long-term success, because they can’t maintain someone else’s vision and voice).

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YOU CHANGE YOUR SERVICES / OFFERINGS

This piggybacks off the previous point, but another sign of over consuming is becoming “obsessed” with a new idea every day. Maybe one day you want to be a branding strategist, and the next day a designer, and the next day a brand photographer, etc., etc. I get it, you might be good at all of those things – and other people might make them look really glamorous and appealing – but time would be better spent for you getting introspective and really seeing how your skills could benefit your target client.

When you’re busy being too influenced or too consumed with other people’s work and businesses and offerings it begins to cast a shade over you that makes you unsure if you’re on the right path (and more likely to waver, shift, or change your ideas). I get that. That happens in everything: the clothes we wear, how we style our hair, our beliefs, our values, etc. But I promise you this, when you start running your business in a way that feels comfortable to you and good for you, success starts flowing in.

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YOUR VOICE SHIFTS

This is one that I see happen very often. Similar to your visuals, it’s easy to become over-influenced with how someone presents their information. Maybe it’s the words they use, the idiosyncrasies they have, they way they structure their sentences, etc. Maybe it’s the examples they usually use (hi, I always talk about Chipotle. #basic), the stories they tell, or the way they insert their personality. Whatever it is – the reason you like it so much on them is because it’s natural and real and authentic to them.

Luckily for you, you have a unique voice already built in. You’ve developed it your whole life. You have stories, phrases, and ways of presenting information that is special and personal to you. That’s what people value and want to hear. No one wants to read my blog, head to your blog and read the same content, and then head to another blog and read the same content, and have all of them be exactly the same in voice. We can talk about similar ideas very differently because our perspectives, experiences, and journeys are different.

This is partly why I have had to stop consuming other branding designers content almost entirely. I fear being too influenced by their clever metaphors or great examples. It’s inevitable we will talk about similar ideas and topics, because branding is a niche, but we can present it in unique ways that relate to different audiences in different ways.

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YOU FEEL INADEQUATE

The absolute worst part about over consuming is the doubt, inadequacy, and comparison trap that it lures you into. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about community over competition and I support and love my peers’ success – but regardless of that, it’s still easy to feel a pang of “dang, I’m doing something wrong,” when you see other people moving quicker than you or reaching milestones before you.

That’s human. I get that. It happens. To stay focused on the good, and the community, I focus on building relationships with people in my niche and broader industry. I focus on actual communication and building a friendship versus just reading their blog non-stop. This fosters a real connection and potential for growth and feelings of gratitude and happiness, versus reading their blog and having no idea who the actual person is that wrote the content. If you are feeling filled with doubt over reading other people’s content, the solution is simple: stop reading it. Find other ways to connect and show support. Interact with them on Twitter or chat with them on Periscope, instead. To me, that is actually more supportive and more community-building than reading their blog, getting frustrated, and feeling resentful.

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If you want to hear me talk more about a similar idea, I did a Periscope last month that relates. You can click here and watch it! Otherwise, I hope that this helps you to come to some conclusions about what is a healthy amount of consuming for you and for your business. Let me know in the comments below where you struggle with consuming, or if you've felt any of these things before! I'd love to connect with you.

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