Biz and Tech Podcasts > Business > Beginner Maps
Interviews with operators of top community business where they share their secret magic sauce. Learn the best of what operators of top community businesses have already figured out.
Last Episode Date: 30 August 2024
Total Episodes: 48
Ashley has managed to turn on-demand courses into a community experience that supports 1200+ paying members of Smart Passive Income’s All-access Pass community started by Pat Flynn. She has created an innovative "accelerator" model that allows her to deliver the benefits of a cohort-based course without the hassle of doing live lessons. We spent 75 mins exploring her community management workflow in this interview. Resources: Curated Connections, the tool to create connections in your community - https://curatedconnections.io/ Beginner Maps, magic sauce of 20+ top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/ Connect with Ashley - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleynlagrow/ Connect with Nityesh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ SPI All-access - https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/all-access/
Jordan Godbey has built communities for world's top creators like Justin Welsh and Ali Abdaal. He helps experts start a new business line by helping them build Circle communities at his company Growth Community. In this episode, he discusses his strategies, philosophies and tactics that you can use to start a $10k MRR community. Resources: • Work with Jordan at Growth Community - [https://growthcommunity.co/](https://growthcommunity.co/blueprint) • Curated Connections, the app to send automated 1-on-1 introductions - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Jordan's $10k MRR community blueprint - https://growthcommunity.co/blueprint • Jordan’s interview with Ali Abdaal - https://youtu.be/cMUyhYi3iOU?si=icVCiOWKXTvQLlgf • Magic sauce of 20+ top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 03:40 Who are Jordan's Customers 06:41 Collecting killer testimonials 10:41 Jordan's journey 18:46 First 10 clients 23:24 10k MRR community blueprint 24:33 Peer community 28:41 Creating Member-to-Member Connections 34:18 Starting from Scratch 35:06 Proximity Community 38:38 Starting a Mastermind Community 41:19 Kicking off peer-to-peer conversations 43:53 Balancing Community Management and Content Creation 46:28 Why Circle 50:19 Creating a Compelling Offer 53:10 Afraid of community going quiet? 01:00:01 Handling Community Churn and Longevity 01:04:41 Community in the world of AI
Stephanie Baiocchi is the community team of one at IMPACT where she manages the membership behind the bestselling book - They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan. She single-handedly manages a 3,000+ member community, runs masterminds, hosts 2 annual conferences, and creates manages the on-demand course library. We spend an hour diving deep into her playbook for building a thriving community around a bestselling book. Resources: - Curated Connections, the tool to foster authentic connections - https://curatedconnections.io/ - Stephanie’s guide to online community management - https://www.impactplus.com/online-community-management - They ask you answer book - https://marcussheridan.com/they-ask-you-answer/ - The Membership Economy book - https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/the-membership-economy/ - The Art of Gathering - https://www.priyaparker.com/book-art-of-gathering - Stephanie's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniebaiocchi/ - Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ - Magic sauce of 20 top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 04:22 Community Structure and Membership 07:04 The 'They Ask, You Answer' Framework 08:44 Adapting to Market Changes 09:32 Stephanie's responsibilities as a Community Lead 13:29 Favourite communities 17:03 Community platform of choice 19:24 Notification blindness problem 21:34 Getting members to open an email digest 24:36 Creator to community 26:29 Scaling a community 30:08 Free to Paid Memberships 33:17 Hosting Mastermind Sessions 37:03 Challenges with Masterminds 40:28 Anti-lesson for masterminds 41:39 Events and conferences 44:14 Making events memorable 46:07 Don't start with administrative stuff 48:18 Fostering Community Connections 50:34 A strong end
Bri Leever is filled with actionable frameworks for building a profitable community. She has honed them over the years by building communities through her consultancy - Ember Consulting. In this interview, we explore some of these frameworks. We discuss: • Why you don't need a huge audience to start a community • The key differences between "transformative" and "networking" communities • When to use platforms like Circle vs. Slack for your community • Strategies for fostering member-to-member connections • Tips for designing effective ambassador programs • Top lessons learnt from doing Community Dissections Resources: • Submit your fiascos here - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetFlKX2aZ3kskqoZiWuOvd5sbs7qOUSScw3Wtk9yxEq93xGQ/viewform • Use Curated Connections - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Bri’s previous interview where she shares her journey of starting her consultancy - https://youtu.be/URWyR0qKvAg?si=k08Gt7T9qQG_i2V7 • Join Bri’s cohort - https://www.emberconsulting.co/join-community • Magic sauce of top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:39 About Curated Connections 03:33 Bri's new community 05:47 Balancing Consulting and Community Building 08:19 The Value of Live Sessions in Community Building 10:28 Starting a Community Without a Big Audience 14:28 Designing the community 21:38 What type should you create? 25:34 Circle, Heartbeat, Slack vs Facebook 31:00 When to Invest in an All-in-One Platform 32:16 Choosing the Right Platform for Your Community 34:33 Engagement Strategies for Different Community Types 38:20 Fostering Connections 42:50 Ambassador Programs 50:12 Insights from Community Dissections 55:35 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
Scott Amenta might be the most experienced person you'll ever met when it comes to building community businesses. He's simultaneously running multiple 7-8 figure community businesses through Sylva, and building software to help community founders scale. Listen to this episode to understand: • How he identifies healthy community businesses as an investor • Why Slack is still his preferred platform (despite its flaws) • Why data enrichment is crucial for personalization Resources: • Curated Connections, the app Scott uses to automate connections - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Scott's new product Miitra - https://www.joinmiitra.com/ • Chief of Staff Network - https://www.chiefofstaff.network/ • Scott's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-amenta/ • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ • Beginner Maps crash course on community building - https://beginnermaps.com/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:13 Understanding Healthy Community Businesses 03:28 Engagement Metrics in Community Businesses 05:15 Total Addressable Market and Growth Opportunities 08:51 Scott's Journey with Chief of Staff Network 11:00 Challenges and Opportunities in Community Building 11:48 Sylva's Role in Supporting Communities 12:34 Community business buying checklist 15:42 Revenue Streams in Community Businesses 17:05 Good communities vs bad ones 23:41 Not happening on LinkedIn 24:58 Pricing Strategies for Community Businesses 27:18 Growing a community business 30:54 Tools and Technology for Community Management 35:10 Why Slack? 37:43 Other tools 42:39 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Shin Takeda is changing the game for creators by creating done-for-you membership Slack communities for them. Creator funnels their audience, Shin handles end-to-end operations of running their paid community. That includes events, moderation, content, website, strategy and everything in between required to make sure these communities thrive and customers stay happy. Obviously the creators love it. But more importantly - members love it too! We spent 45 minutes diving deep into his process: - Why communities are the next big opportunity for creators - Shin’s tactics for building engaged, high-value communities - How to reduce churn in paid communities - The tech stack he uses to run world-class communities - Why Slack is still king for professional communities Resources: • Democratize Knowledge, Shin's agency - http://democratizeknowledge.com/ • Beginner Maps, magic sauce of top community businesses - https://beginnermaps.com/ • Curated Connections, the connections tool Shin uses - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Shin's X - https://x.com/shinnosuke_san • Nityesh's X - https://x.com/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:48 What is Democratize Knowledge 06:17 Shin's Journey into Community Management 16:30 Engagement tactics for creator-led communities 22:19 Reducing churn in paid comunities 24:07 Why Slack is still the king of professional communities 28:28 Limitations of Slack 31:19 Shin's Tech Stack 36:02 Final Thoughts
Jordan Cutler (@jordancutler) has done what most of us aspire to. He grew his newsletter to 50,000+ subscribers in just one year. Along the way, he has made $35,000+ in “passive” income, with $20,000+ coming from a cohort-based course on Maven. Resources: • Beginner Maps for more such case studies - https://beginnermaps.com/ • High Growth Engineer newsletter - https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/ • Jordan's Maven course - https://maven.com/jordan-cutler/mid-level-to-senior • Jordan's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/ • Jordan's Twitter/X - https://x.com/highgrowtheng • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ • Nityesh's Twitter/X - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/ • Ali Abdaal video mentioned in the interview - https://youtu.be/ETA6D3SkAZo?si=6MucSW0yVTbx52wj&t=1261 Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:43 Time per article 05:27 Not forcing LinkedIn posts 07:14 How Ali Abdaal helps him avoid the rat race 10:49 The Importance of Authenticity 12:04 Journey to 50k subscribers in a year 15:40 Strategies for Newsletter Growth 23:14 Starting a Cohort-Based Course 25:26 Running it while Working Full-Time 26:24 Partnering with Other Creators 31:55 Using Maven as the course platform 41:12 Advice for Aspiring Creators
Ryan Wardell is the CEO and cofounder of Startup Sauce, a private membership for SaaS founders outside of Silicon Valley doing $5k+ in MRR. This community is special for a couple of reasons: 1. It's members are super accomplished CEOs who only have extremely nice things to say about the community 2. The guy who runs it, Ryan, is not a "startup expert". In fact, he has never even been a SaaS founder. In this episode, Ryan shares his "magic sauce" that has allowed him to get there. Resources: Beginner Maps, our free email course containing the "magic sauce" of top communities - https://beginnermaps.com/ Startup Sauce, Ryan's community for founders doing $5k+ MRR - https://www.startupsauce.com/ Ryan's master list of 320+ places for SEO backlinks - https://www.startupsauce.com/list Ryan's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwardell/ Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:43 Startup Sauce stack 05:47 Aha-moment masterminds 07:58 Magic number for a mastermind 10:23 Making introverts feel comfortable 14:30 Magic sauce: matching people 20:18 Facilitation tricks 20:57 Tangent: Hiring a rockstar community manager 23:06 Facilitation tricks contd. 23:50 Giving people a reputation 27:10 Don't pretend to be the expert 28:26 Getting ridiculous retention 30:45 But why $33/month??? 33:18 Screening calls for new members 36:29 How he really makes money 42:13 Ryan's future end game 44:00 Why the 5k MRR barrier 48:45 The idea 52:12 First 20 customers 01:01:05 Content marketing miss
Shreman Shrestha is the Head of Community for the Friends of Lenny’s Slack community. This community comes bundled with the Paid subscription for Lenny’s Newsletter and at the time of recording there are 17k+ members in here. In this episode, Shre discusses how this community is able to organise 200+ in-person meetups per year, challenges with organising a great mentor matching program, working with volunteers and more. Resources: • Beginner Maps - free crash course on building a community business - https://beginnermaps.com • Curated Connections, the community engagement app - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Shreman's Twitter - https://twitter.com/itsDrDrewithaSh/ • Lenny's community + newsletter - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/community • Nityesh's Twitter (host) - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 03:09 Lenny's community persona 04:33 Why people join the community 09:12 Increasing retention 10:52 Shre's story 13:10 Shre's responsibilities 17:52 Member-led city meetups 22:18 Guidelines for meetup hosts 25:29 Finding hosts 26:45 Financials of a meetup 28:21 Dealing with low attendance 31:46 Mentor matching program 37:07 Workbook for mentor and mentee 38:54 Building a great volunteer program 42:49 Advice for creators with audience 48:33 Observing members to get new ideas
Daniel Vassallo is the cofounder of Small Bets - a private community membership for indie hackers, solopreneurs and wanna-preneurs. This community recently crossed 5000+ paying members and has been doing $400k+ in annual revenue every year since its inception ~2 yrs ago. Daniel is a guy filled with hot original takes. He does things differently in this community and it works. Things like charging a one-time fee for a lifetime access or paying guests to do live classes in the community. Or, even the existence of this community itself, which is more than 5,000 members strong, but still very engaged. Needless to say, Daniel has been a dream guest of mine and this is one of my personal favourite interviews. Resources: • Beginner Maps free crash course on building a community business - https://beginnermaps.com/ • Curated Connections, the community engagement app - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Small Bets - https://smallbets.co/ • Daniel's Twitter - https://twitter.com/dvassallo • Nityesh's Twitter (host) - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 03:31 Why pay guest speakers for live classes? 07:45 Paying as a filtering mechanism 11:45 Daniel's selection process 15:49 Hot takes for running a great Zoom class 20:22 ROI of a repeat class 23:18 Lifetime membership - a great business strategy? 32:26 Overdelivering as a marketing strategy 34:30 Referrals 36:38 Why Daniel doesn't like doing surveys 38:45 Case study from a lifetime customer 41:37 Negative referrals from churned members 42:58 Case for recurring subscriptions 44:52 Small Bot 52:22 The failed community business 57:32 Small Bets origin story 01:00:56 New revenue streams
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