The economy is falling off a cliff but community-led businesses are still going strong.

Here's how I built a $1M/year community in 6 months:

The first thing:

Audience ≠ Community

An audience is a group of people that you speak to.

A community on the other hand is not just a group of people that you speak to, but one that also speaks back to you and to one another.

Here's a great visual:

Great communities never form by accident.

They are created through:

• Clear strategy
• Careful planning
• Intentional Execution

Here's how:

Identify Your Target Persona

Communities thrive by bringing like-minded people together.

• Build a hypothesis
• Start reaching out to the target persona
• Iterate and refine your thesis

Your end product: Community Guidelines on values they share and goals they have.

Create Shared Rituals

Communities are living organisms.

They aren’t static, they’re active.

That means communities “do” things together.

Rituals are powerful as they:

• Help people build routines
• Create belonging for new members
• Elevate relationships between members

Here are some of the shared activities from my community, Founder OS (steal these):

• Weekly Q&A with me
• Content power hours
• IRL community meetups
• Founder OS Community collaboration
• 60-Day Founder OS Content Challenge

Reward Desired Behaviors

Communities are about maximizing positive interactions.

Powerful communities are driven by their members more than their creators.

• Create community guidelines
• Reward top contributing members
• Highlight what great community engagement looks like

Build Community Pride

Cultivate a “when one wins, we all win” mindset.

Wins are a great positive reinforcement cycle:

• This process works
• I want their outcome as well
• Let me double down and get to work
• Achieve the win
• Share it with the group
• Inspire others

Write a Community Manifesto

A community is only powerful when you stand for something.

Write a manifesto to help clarify:

• What type of people are our members
• What type of outcomes do we achieve
• What type of principles do we stand by

Want to build a profitable community?

I will give away a (free) Profitable Community Playbook in 3 days.

Join 40,000+ founders who will receive it 👇

www.mattgray.xyz/newsletter

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