Episode 155. How to Build Community Around Your Thought Leadership

Whether you want to learn how to become a successful podcaster or grow your coaching business, building an engaged audience and loyal community who find value in your content and are excited to learn from you is crucial to your long-term success as a business owner or content creator.

In This Episode:

My definition of “community”
My version of “community” and what it looks like in my business
Being a leader for your community
Building a body of work that showcases your unique style of leadership
Your invitation to join the Thought Leader Club

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Building Community as a Personal Brand Entrepreneur

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The word ‘community’ has become a bit of a buzzword in the online space. Many of us may have heard marketers and coaches talking about how important it is to “build community”. But this term “community” is quite elusive.

When I first heard about people talking about “building community”, I could intellectually understand the importance of it, but I couldn’t quite picture what it looked like.

On one hand, I could see that community could mean having a digital space that’s not on social media, where your audience can gather and have conversations. Afterall, having a large number of followers doesn’t necessarily mean you have a community, especially because so many of your followers may not even see your content on platforms such as Instagram.

The argument here is that creators have little control over what their audience sees from them because of the social media algorithms. That’s why many argue that it’s so important to build a community off social media. The term I often hear is “you need to OWN your audience” so the algorithms don’t affect your business or what your people see from you.

All of this makes sense. That said, for me, I personally have a different approach when it comes to building community.

My definition of “community”

A community could *look* like a private membership portal, or it could look like a private Slack community. It could look like a public Facebook group, or maybe for some, it could mean a highly engaged Instagram audience, or a WhatsApp group chat or Telegram group chat.

A “community” can physically manifest in many forms.

On the other hand, in my personal opinion, all communities involve

1) members who share a similar mission, vision, or values, and

2) a leader who both models that mission, vision, or set of values, but also stands up for something (on behalf of their people) (i.e. They have a message or vision that unites the community).

In a nutshell, communities are built around shared values.

For example, a community could look like a group of 3-4 entrepreneurs who come together once a month to share their business challenges from the past month and their goals for the month ahead. They problem-solve together, exchange ideas, feedback and so on.

What might unite this intimate group of peers who may or may not be in the same industry is, for example, their common vision for the lifestyle they want to build, the business model they are building, as well as their shared values in terms of how they want to create and build their businesses and lives.

Or a community might look like thousands of individuals who all love a certain podcaster. The podcast host might run an in-person event. And hundreds or even thousands of people come together for the event, simply because they resonate so much with the ideas that the podcaster shares throughout their podcast content.

In this case, it’s likely that you want to be a part of the experience simply because you want to be a part of anything the podcast host is organizing. Because you see the podcast host as someone who you deeply admire and respect.

Or maybe you’re not necessarily an active audience member of a certain community. But the community hosted a virtual event, which focuses on a topic that you’re very, very passionate about. This topic matters so much to you, and you’re excited to learn more about this topic, participate in in-depth discussions about it, hear different perspectives related to the topic, and so on. Here, perhaps you decided to partake in the “community event” because you share the same fervor and passion for a specific topic.

These are examples of what a community might look like for me personally.

The common thread among these examples is that there is some sort of shared values, shared vision and shared interests.

However, what a community is NOT, in my opinion, is trying to “own your audience” or “build relationships” for the sake of making them an offer eventually, after you’ve given value and nurtured them and built “know, like and trust”.

I personally do not see building community as a way of diversifying your revenue streams, and I don’t see community as starting a membership model type of offer in order to have recurring revenue.

Put another way, for me personally, the purpose of community is not to sell your people something. But it’s because for me, I genuinely want to be a part of spaces that are driven by a shared set of values. That’s first and foremost why I would want to be a part of a community.

Eventually, if you choose to make an offer to me for a product or service, that’s fine. But first and foremost, what I care most about as a community member is what YOU stand for and whether I want to be a part of that vision that you have.

My guess is that for anyone who also wants to “build community”, what matters most for your people is what your vision and values are, and how you can communicate that vision and values to your people at large so they can make a decision about whether or not this is something they want to be a part of as well.

My version of “community” and what it looks like in my business

For myself, when I think about “building community”, I see two types of communities.

As a podcaster, I , like most people, would love a large, global community of individuals who genuinely enjoy listening to the show on a regular basis. Who are excited to share the show with their friends and colleagues and genuinely find value from the show.

The common values that unite our podcast listeners are:

We believe in building a body of work that lets you become known for your unique thought leadership, your story, and how amazing you are at what you do.
We deeply desire to show up bigger and bolder, both online and offline, in order to make a name for ourselves, to confidently speak on topics that matter to us, and to attract clients and opportunities from all over the world.
We also make efforts to empower ourselves to take courageous action toward our dream life, business, and career.

On the other hand, when it comes to my work as a coach, the community I’d like to build is much, much smaller in size. Even though, in my head, it would be awesome to have a very large paid community, I know that I truly prefer to work with a smaller number of clients at a time. The common values that bring together our peeps inside the Thought Leader Club include the following:

We are no longer driven by check boxes or traditional metrics of success. For instance, we roll our eyes at marketing language such as “I will help you through a step-by-step blueprint to a 10k month”. Instead, we desire creating success on our own terms.
That said, success and achievement DO matter to us, but we want to do it in non-conventional ways such as building a body of work in order to become known for something and hence attract opportunities.
We care about being proud of the work that we do. We want to build something of our own. We want to become known for something. We want to make a name for ourselves. This is an innate desire of ours.
We are, on one hand, very logical and structured, and have a deep sense of work ethic. But also, we are very creative. We have bursts of boldness and we can be quite playful at times.
We desire to become acclaimed and widely recognized speakers, authors, and thought leaders. And we are willing to put in the reps to make this happen, no matter how long it takes. This is a lifelong journey we are committed to.
We care deeply about the quality of our work we put out. Helping others and making an impact is the bare minimum. We care about going above and beyond while doing so. We’re committed to continuously honing our skills and doing even better, because we care about what we do and we want to be damn good at it. We are truly life long learners.

These are some examples of the beliefs and values that drive our container inside the Thought Leader Club. In other words, this is the CULTURE of the Thought Leader Club.

This culture is not just felt by myself, but also by our members inside the Thought Leader Club. Recently, some of the members of the current cohort of the Thought Leader Club shared with me the following:

“I like that you’re a work in progress and you bring that to the container. You do the work with us. You’re leading the group and you’re also a participant. It shows humility and authority at the same time”
“You inspire me to be prolific. You pave the way for what’s possible and alternative careers for recurring high achievers with Asian backgrounds.”

This culture is something that I’ve not just communicated with clients inside my programs, but it’s also something I’ve intentionally weaved into podcast episodes, Instagram content, email newsletters, and even the trainings inside the program itself.

If there’s something you care about, you need to communicate it to your people. This creates not only a culture among your audience, but also a sense of community.

This is how people are able to see your visions and therefore look at you, your work, and think, “YOU are just like me. What YOU are saying is really landing with me. I want to be a part of YOUR community.”

Being a leader for your community

If you want to build a community, you have to be a leader who creates a community that people actually want to be a part of.

We all want to be part of a community where others think like us, are striving towards the same goals, who get and understand us, and so on.

But it all starts with you, as the leader of the community. To build community, you’ve got to start demonstrating leadership for your people.

Here’s what I mean. The more deeply you embody your message or vision, the more leadership you exude. The more leadership you exude, the more your community trusts you and hence choose to follow you and your message.

Put another way: Be willing to lead, to take risks, and to go first. Your community will soon start to gather around what you’re putting out.

Embedded in the work “thought leadership” is the word “leadership”.

And here’s the thing about leadership: Leadership doesn’t mean you have to be a highly acclaimed medical doctor or professor or a managing director of a financial institution in order to consider yourself “enough” to lead.

It also doesn’t mean you need to have hit a certain annual revenue number in order to be “enough” to lead.

Most importantly, leadership doesn’t mean you need to exhibit certain qualities or characteristics in order to be considered someone who has leadership.

For example, you can be highly loving and nurturing, always known for your generosity and kindness. But at the same time, you are completely willing to kick someone’s ass if you see injustice happening. That style of leadership might be on brand for you.

Perhaps your style of leadership can be described as friendly, approachable, yet firm with boundaries.

Or maybe if you’re like me, you have a lot of bursts of playful energy every now and then and this sort of wholesome vibes is what drives you here and there. But at the same time, you can be deeply calm, thoughtful, and grounded when it comes to topics that you deeply care about. That is my style of leadership, for example.

There is no right or wrong way to embody leadership. We each have our own way of being a leader.

So the question is, what is your style of leadership? And then, what body of work will you need to build to demonstrate your style of leadership?

Building a body of work that showcases your unique style of leadership

To help you think more about what this body of work might look like, here are some questions to think about.

First, are you even sharing your story, values, and honest opinions or perspectives? Are you sharing these really important parts of you that will bring together other people who have the same perspectives, experiences, vision, goals, and values?

To take it a step further, are you sharing your story in a way such that even if your audience didn’t go through the exact same situation, they are still able to extract helpful nuggets from the story?

Where might you be omitting or tampering down the details of your story, opinions or viewpoints out of fear of what people think? Pay attention to that when you’re creating content that’s centered around your story, values or opinions.

Second, how are you serving as a beacon of light for others? And I don’t mean this in a savior, kind of dramatic way. Perhaps another way to put it is, how are you leading by example?

Because oftentimes, we join communities for the hope and possibility that the community offers to us. We join communities because the other members of the community show us what’s possible.

So for you, how are you expressing your belief in your people’s potential and capability? In a similar vein, how are you showing your work and showing what you are working on? How are you leading by example and going first, and showing that you, too, are a work in progress?

Because when others see how you’re constantly working on yourself, it empowers others to do the same for themselves as well.

Third, do we see your community being represented in your body of work? Note that this doesn’t just mean photos of your paying clients, but start to think of creative ways to showcase your people in your content pieces, so that your people can easily see themselves as being a part of your community.

Fourth and finally, what do you want to be more vocal or bold about? Where are you currently watering down what you’re trying to say, and how can you actually instead say what you really mean?

We as community members want to be a part of a community where the leader or others members are clearly walking the walk, not just talking the talk. How are you being a walking, breathing example of the community you’re building?

How are you demonstrating, through your words, actions and decisions, the values and culture that drive your community in order to draw in the best fit people for your community, and repel the not best fit people?

Your invitation to join the Thought Leader Club

A lot of things to think about and implement as we enter into 2024.

To wrap up, I want to extend an invitation to those of you who have an inkling that the Thought Leader Club is the room you want to be in, in the new year.

This is THE room to:

Start putting in the reps to create your thought leader career and become highly prolific and consistent at building thought leadership
Build a body of work that lets you become known for your unique thought leadership, your story, and how amazing you are at what you do
And ultimately set yourself up for making your 1-3 year dreams a reality

Your next step is to book a discovery call with me so we can have a conversation about:

1) What are your dreams in the next 1-3 years

2) The coaching, skills, and actions you need to make these dreams happen

3) How coaching together will support and guide you with all the above

You can schedule a discovery call by first filling out a short application form on the sales page for the Thought Leader Club. After you submit the form, you’ll get a link to book a discovery call.

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.