A small community can be a powerful catalyst for your business or ministry. But is your small thinking keeping your community small? In this episode, we’ll look at three myths about building a community that result from small thinking and bust them by looking at community in the early church.
The #toughgrace truth is that you can’t depend on Google, or social media, or Pinterest to get your great idea in front of people who are going to snap it up. It just doesn’t happen that way. You need a following of eyeballs that are going to actually see your offer. And here’s a little secret … if you’ve built an engaged community, instead of just a following, you can have successful offers without a huge audience. A great example of this is my friend Eva Kubasiak, who said on a recent bonus episode that she made her first $1000 when she had less than 1000 followers. Listen to the bonus episode with Eva here.
But just because your community starts small doesn’t mean it is best for it to stay small. Throughout this series, we’ve been looking back at the early church in Acts chapter 2, where it says: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” This verse gives us a great basis to address some of the biggest myths about community building.
Let’s see if you have heard or believed any of these myths.
1. Community only happens in private groups
2. Community only happens in small groups
3. Community only happens with high-maintenance effort
These three myths have a common theme: they are based on small, closed thinking centered on a personality, rather than open, expansive thinking centered on common goals, passions, ideals and messages.
ACTION STEP:
Dive into your community and spend time with them. Whether it’s in the comments of your public social media posts, your private group, or in your direct messages … build those strong ties that will connect people with your message.
There are two other special opportunities to learn about growing a community that buys or buys in. Check out the Christian Woman Business podcast with Esther Littlefield, starting at episode 57.
And as part of this series on building community, I’m releasing a bonus episode each week of conversations with some of my friends about how they have built communities around their message on different platforms. The next one is with Wren Robbins, who shares how she has built a community through podcasting. You’ll be encouraged by our conversation, so be sure to follow the podcast wherever you listen.
RESOURCES:
Esther Littlefield and I have a new resource coming to help you build a community that buys. Visit the Cultivate Your Community page to sign up and be notified when it is ready!
Book Recommendation: Moving Forward: Inspiration for the Go-Getter Jesus Girl by Me!!! (The Find Your People section has some good thoughts about community.)
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