dream | act | succeed

It is Christmas, the event of the year everybody is looking for. We are getting back together with our friends and family, have a great time and enjoy a nice dinner. We are trying to give something back, donating money, sharing presents or just try to be there for the others, trying to not starting of a huge argument about something unimportant.

As everyone interested in car tuning and living in Germany has heard last week, the infamous “RS4 Limo” from Phillip Kaess was destroyed due to a fire. But why is this related to today’s subject?

In a video, the incident was officially announced, letting go of all the wild theories that had come up during the day, as the message spread across Germany like a bushfire. In reaction to that, JP Performance announced in the comments section of the video down below, that they are currently working on something to support Phillip during that time. What nobody knew, they were working on a “crowd funding charity account“, to collect 100000 € for the rebuild of the car. What followed next was just mind-blowing. It took them around 45 min to get to a great sum of over 100000 €. Forty-five minutes! Can you believe it?

I guess you have already understood, why we can use this example for the introduction of our today’s topic.

Having a community is important! How important? That depends on the kind of business you are running, but generally speaking, the greater the community, the greater the amount of people you can reach. If you have a wide-ranging community, there is a lot of potential, not only for earning money, but also for having an impact on this world. Changing something for the good.

Did JP knew that it will not take longer then 45 minutes to collect the money? No! I don’t think so. I guess, he was expecting that they will reach the 100000 € mark, but not in the first hour. That must have been a shock to them.

But what seems to be a kind of shock, is in fact “just” the power a community can have.

But how do we define the therm community?

That is a tricky question. Of course you can have a look at the amount of followers online, or your Facebook friends of the project, or the visitors your website has regularly. But these are not all. In order to get the right number, it is just a guessing game, especially if your company is already established on the market. If you have a small business, it will be much easier to calculate that, right?

How to we establish a community?

Depending on what business you are in, people like what you are doing or not. Let’s work with some examples. Do you know “Jon Olsson”? He has quite a large community online, and that is everything he needs for his kind of projects. He is a part of his brands, people like him or not. But obviously, there are enough that like what he is doing, (me included). But how has he done it? He is actively interacting with people, he has improved the quality of his videos and stuff, taking one step after the other in the right direction. Listening to what people want and giving them exactly that? Doesn’t sound too good! And yes, you are right! That’s the reason why Jon and others don’t do that. They do what they want to do, but trying to make you to feel like being a part of it.

Does the name Walter Röhrl sound familiar to you? In case it doesn’t, he is one of the best race car and rally drivers ever. His name is his reputation. Does he need to interact with everyone? No! Why? Because he doesn’t need to. Walther, who is famous for saying out aloud what he really thinks doesn’t need to try to be liked. His personality is so pleasant, that the community around him has built up automatically.

But back to us. How is this helping us today?

In order to get going with our project, we need to start building a community. We need to look for the right people, share our experience and grow together as a team. While there are multiple ways how to do that, some just have the money in mind, while others look for a higher purpose, for example in the way I am doing this. I want to help others. I don’t want to sell you something, or get you to start this online trading account, or what ever there is out there.

Step one: Start with who ever you already have.

People always make the mistake, that they think too big. “I have only 10 followers with my blog, I don’t need to work on my community. I will do that when I have 10000 followers.” The problem? If you can not entertain 10 followers, how do you think you can serve for 10000? That is not possible! Start with the people you already have. Ask them what they like and don’t like. What they are missing out. What they think about you and your product, or company, or what ever it is. And change the system in the way, that you can support them. As I have written in this blog somewhere between #1 and #179. “If I can help one person, just one, the project was a success!“

Step two: Build it up

Don’t push too much! If you are asking start-up people after really rocketing through the roof what they would consider as the best time of the project, most of them will tell you that it is the start, the beginning. You are uncertain if it will work, you are experimenting with customers, try to figure out what they want, what they need and how you should proceed. You are failing most of the time, but actually, you don’t care. Because you need to fail in order to learn. You keep on searching. Making it happen somehow or another.

Summary

In order to be successful, you need to have a community. “Size doesn’t matter, right?“, that’s the same for communities. It is not about how large your community is, it is about how good your people fit to you and your brand. Analyze your current community, set a goal where you want to be in the future, and then simply work on this goal every single day until you have made it! It is that easy.

So, if you think that I can learn something from you, feel free to get in touch with me, follow my journey and let’s make this world a better place.

See you next time!