A newsletter about growing profitable and thoughtful businesses that are engines for belonging and connection.
Trust or Control 🤲
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When you're growing a community, there are key moments when you have a choice...
These moments are usually sparked by a member making a generous offer. It could be to host an event, to start a new program, to mentor others, or to start a sub-group. Here's a great example from Sam Parr, founder of Hampton: All long-term successful communities have faced a moment like this where they could have kept things streamlined and managed directly. But instead, they chose to take a chance on their people. In the Scaling Community Workshop, Tony and I discussed the 4 models for scale. These all vary in their business models, power distribution, and purpose. But they all include some type of decentralization of leadership (even the centralized model!). The logistics of these are usually what we have questions about. But that's all figureoutable. The larger challenge is that scaling via any of these models requires that the community leader goes through a personal transformation. It's about getting super clear on the values that you won't compromise, letting go of perfection, and trusting your people. This is hard! Especially because those of us who gravitate towards community have a clear vision and tend to have trouble accepting help. It can get messy. And it's usually worth it. Have these crossroads moments ever happened with you and your members? What was your first instinct? And what did you end up doing? Hit reply and let me know! Would love to hear about your experience. PS. If you missed the Scaling Community Workshop, you can get the recording here. Nerdy things to click on this week📺 How to create more and consume less in 2024 by Tiago Forte. A reflection and framework for making and sharing more. 🎙 How to Get More Clients With Relationship Marketing from Michelle Warner's new podcast. I love Michelle's approach and this is a great intro to how to grow a business as a human who connects with other humans. 📰 When the Prescription Is for a Dance Class, not a Pill by Christina Caron in the NY Times. How doctors are prescribing community experiences instead of medication. A quote to ponder on a walk around the block..."If you do not trust the people, they will become untrustworthy." — Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching Friendly Nooks helps people get paid for the work of bringing more connection to the world. We do that by helping community founders build profitable businesses that are engines of connection and belonging. If that message resonates with you, consider forwarding this to a friend and spreading the word. ⭐️ |
Friendly Nooks
A newsletter about growing profitable and thoughtful businesses that are engines for belonging and connection.
A quick heads up that we’re announcing a Black Friday deal for Build a Community Business next week. If you’re starting or growing a community in 2025, this is everything you need to hit the ground running. We’ve never offered anything like it and won’t offer it again for at least another year. For early access to the bonus package that includes the course + a bunch of bonuses + a free 1:1 coaching session, click here to get on the waitlist✨. OR, if you aren’t interested and/or hate Black...
For entrepreneurs who value integrity and credibility when it comes to selling stuff online, Black Friday/Cyber Monday and the general over-consumerism of the end of the year can be a little hard to navigate. On the one hand, many of our potential members are ready to plan their upcoming year and often have budget to spend. On the other, it’s a time when a lot of us buy stuff we don’t need and never use. So how do we navigate this time and make decisions that both set the business up success...
Leadership, to me, is about: Embracing your own imperfections and using them as a way to connect. Integrity as a responsibility. Inspiring love, not fear. Taking every chance to scale leadership by spreading power to others. A deep knowing that it’s not about you. This election result makes it clear that many people have a very different idea of what leadership looks and feels like. I deeply believe that the best way to counter a vision you don’t agree with is not to spend time arguing with...