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The magic of this forum is the relationships you build

Anything related to matters of the mind

Andy Black

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Many forum members never learn that the magic of the forum is the relationships you build.

Some are insta-banned for posting a link to their crappy affiliate offer in their first post.

Others post long pieces of "content", wonder why they get a negative reaction or no reaction at all, and leave blaming the forum rather than themselves.

Their problem is they see forums, Facebook groups, and other online communities as "marketing channels". They join to generate leads for their business.

It's sad. Sad because they may never learn it's exponentially better to make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins.



Here's some tips to help you make better use of online communities like this forum:


1) WHEN YOU'RE STARTING OUT:

Join communities of PEERS and make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins.

Do NOT go in trying to find clients. If your target market is electricians do NOT join as a web designer / digital marketer to get clients. You're a wolf in sheep's clothing and not a genuine community member.

Examples for me are communities like thefastlaneforum, Facebook groups for Irish business owners, people using New Zenler (course software I use), etc. I'm a PEER, the same as everyone else. I join because I want to engage in the community and learn as well as contribute.

After you join, make sure you don't lurk...

2) WHEN YOU'RE ESTABLISHED:

When people start seeing you as a helpful and valued community member, AND as an expert at XYZ then you will start to:
  • Get *INVITED* into groups of electricians (by the group owner).
  • Get *INVITED* in as the resident expert in XYZ (by the group owner).
  • Get *INVITED* in to do regular workshops for members (by the group owner).

How do you get invited by the group owner?

"Be so good they can't ignore you."
(Steve Martin)


Examples for me:
  • Getting invited to do monthly Google Ads workshops for a Facebook group of 3k Irish business owners - by the group owner.
  • Getting invited into large groups of B&B owners, Personal Trainers, Permanent Makeup Artists, etc - by the group owners.
  • Being given free membership to a dozen paid communities - by the group owners.

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TIPS FOR YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE

Just use your personal profile when you join Facebook groups. Have a genuine profile, where you're mostly sharing non-business stuff like everyone else. Occasionally post business stuff, but just sprinkle it in.

In your bio (and maybe your banner) give a nod to what you do. Don't be like those outbound guys who have a banner stating how they're a high-ticket closer, a business coach for agency owners, a dadpreneur, or any of that cr@p. No-one wants to connect with them.

Let your talking in the Facebook group "show don't tell" that you're helpful, supportive, a good guy/gal to know and interact with, and competent at XYZ. This is what makes you referrable, and what will get those people already interested enough to check out your profile and follow their nose to your website.

Below is a screenshot showing what my personal profile looks like. I'm happy to just leave a few subtle breadcrumbs for anyone interested in learning more.

----

Further reading:

----

Screenshot of my personal Facebook profile:
  • It's a genuine personal profile, yet people who want to learn more can follow the breadcrumbs...
2022-07-17_19-40-23.png
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Thanks Andy for the write up. Bump.
 

JustMorpheus

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It's sad. Sad because they may never learn it's exponentially better to make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins.
That's interesting because Naval Ravikant said something very similar. "All returns in life come from compound interest in long-term games" He says that relationships compound over time too. So he says we should find people who you can build long-term, win-win relationships with, and it will compound by a large degree.
 
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Black_Dragon43

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Good thread @Andy Black. Relationships are very important in business, there’s no denying that.

How much you invest into building relationships imo should be a function of your specific situation. I think a newbie just needs to secure work as fast as possible - building relationships takes too long especially when you don’t have confidence in the skillset and lack experience. For freelancers starting out, I just recommend you head on to Upwork and start doing jobs. Get some experience applying the skills and grow your confidence and expertise while working there.

For a more advanced business owner, relationships grow in importance significantly. Especially if you’re selling very expensive products ($25K+) or you have centers of influence who already hold your clients and could give you access or your market size is very small. In such one sale, super high reward situations, relationships are everything.

Going down a level from that, say talking about $5K-20K per client levels, you generally need high volume of sales outreach to find those who have the problem now and want to get it solved. There is little trust, but trust gets built along the way while solving the problem in my experience.

The more I’ve grown in busienss, the more I realise that there are successful people around doing all sorts of things, and following all sorts of different paths. I’m getting less trustful of general rules - everyone seems to have their own way. Otherwise how can we explain the fact that one person becomes successful with their business by building relationships, and another does it by pushing their product onto the market? The funny thing here is that very often opposite answers can both be right - it’s hard to wrap your mind around it but business is complex, there’s no one-size fits everyone.
 

Rauschmi

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Thanks for the post Andy. Great reminder to get out there and make some friends. I definitely need to get into more groups of my PEERS and not just find a group to lurk in.
 
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Andy Black

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Two tips:
  1. If you read something that helps you, then reply with your takeaways and what you'll do different going forward. Keep the conversation going, and be helpful and supportive.

  2. When you post something, ask people what THEIR takeaways are and what they'll do different going forward. Keep the conversation going and encourage others to be helpful and supportive. You'll be surprised and humbled what people's takeaways are.
 

KushShah9492

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I can 100% agree with this.

You will never succeed in life or business if you aren't genuinely interested in building a relationship with other people and helping them out.
 

Andy Black

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In my mind, building a relationship is more important than making a sale.
 
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