Email 2.12 - Let's Talk ROI

? Baily Hancock ?? Professional Friend-Maker , Cole Johnson ?? , Chris Miles , I admire very much your support of the latest episode of a newsletter, and thank you so much for talking back to me ????

For others - talk to me, help me help you ??

In Today's Issue

• A dream come true - meet the Community ROI podcast! ??
• Helping Chris to deal with finding new clients.
• Curated chaos of making new connections.

Let's Talk

When I had a Freelance Sucks conversation with Steve Folland , I asked a question I always ask my guests:

"If you were starting freelancing today, what is one thing you would have done differently?"

And he answered:

"I started a podcast that was speaking to other freelancers about freelancing. I was learning, I was meeting new people. That's brilliant.

But what I didn't do was start a podcast that showed my skills and worked for me to bring clients to me."

This conversation made me think,

"Okay, I host the Community Life Show , where we have fun and get to know the human sides of interesting people around me, but what can I do to bring clients to me and other community builders?"

And today's edition is all about thoughts and ideas sparked in conversations with others.

So let's talk about it!

Community ROI

I've been dreaming about it for a long time, and finally, it's here!

The Community ROI podcast is alive! ??????

(if you'd like to support me, go like this post so more people know and can learn from it)

In this podcast, I speak with experienced community builders, CEOs, and founders about how a community impacts business growth! ????

My first guest was amazing Chris Catania - an award-winning enterprise community-building expert with more than 20 years of experience ??

So here are 10 quotes to learn about community ROI:

1. "Aligning community goals with business objectives is essential; it transforms community efforts from standalone initiatives into powerful drivers of business growth and cost savings."
2. "To truly demonstrate the value of community, you need both hard metrics and compelling stories—this combination speaks to both the head and the heart of leadership."
3. "Building strong relationships across departments is crucial; community efforts are most effective when they are integrated into the overall business strategy."
4. "The real power of community lies in its ability to directly influence business outcomes, whether it's reducing support costs or driving product innovation."
5. "Communities can serve as a continuous, organic focus group, providing invaluable insights that help refine products and services in real-time."
6. "Storytelling is a powerful tool for showcasing community success; it's not just about numbers, but about sharing the human impact behind those numbers."
7. "Community feedback is a goldmine for continuous improvement; by listening and acting on it, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty."
8. "One of the biggest opportunities for communities is to lower acquisition costs by turning customers into advocates who naturally promote the brand."
9. "Effective community management is about more than engagement; it’s about demonstrating clear, measurable ROI that aligns with broader business goals."
10. "To get leadership buy-in for community initiatives, you have to speak the same language—focus on how community efforts can directly support business goals."

And if you'd like to know even more, go listen to the full episode here ??

Youtube

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Mastering Freelancing

After the previous newsletter, Chris Miles messaged me:

I'm new to freelance, and I know it's something I want to do to extend the runway for my game studio. With that in mind, looking for new clients feels like a scary venture because I'm jumping into a large pool, and I don't know what's in the water???

So today, I'll answer Chris's questions, and if you have any questions, too, ask me right away!

What approach should I take when trying to get leads?

First, you need to clearly understand your offer and who you want to work with.

When you understand your ICP (ideal customer profile), go to Linkedin and search by keywords to find relevant profiles.

You'll definitely have like a thousand results, but choose 5-10 people who best fit your ICP and ensure they're active: they don't have to write a ton of posts themselves, but at least add reactions and comment on others' posts.

Check what they're interested in and talking about, and start participating in some of those conversations to make them see you (and if you add value to the table, they'll see you for sure!).

Next, start posting stuff relevant to their interests, and you may even invite some of those people into a conversation by tagging them in your posts, like:

"Recent post by Name Surname inspired me to write about this..."

Also, after having some online conversations, start inviting them to coffee chats to introduce yourself and find out if there is anything you can help them with.

In this way, you'll let people know that you're an expert and that you're just one message away!

Yes, it's a rather long journey, but by doing it, you'll become better and better, and in a few months, you may find really good clients!

P.S. Tell everyone about what you're working on and who your potential clients are so people have you on top of their minds when they hear about something relevant! ??

Where do I look for those needing my services?

I'd say that the main source is LinkedIn (update your profile by clearly highlighting your services so they can also find you) but also google for some other places where your people from your ICP might be.

They can be in some relevant-to-what-you-do business communities, in-person meetups, professional conferences, on Reddit, other social media, etc.

While preparing your ICP, you'll get many more ideas and understand where to find them! ??

I'd love tips on how to close on a client, what to do if they are hesitant, and how to describe the impact my services will have on their community.

The best way to describe the impact is by sharing cases you've worked on before. After finishing working on every project, ensure you prepare a small showcase of the problem, what you have done, and how your work impacted their business.

Also, you can do a little research on their community beforehand and prepare a hypothetical 30-60-90 days plan based on your experience on what impact you expect to have while working on their community.

But always tell them those are planned results, and the real results will be available only while doing specific actions (unless you have a crystal ball ??).

To understand how to close clients, I'd suggest you read a "SPIN selling" by Neil Rackham or just briefly catch up on what it's all about (this article is rather good).

So, in general, SPIN stands for Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff Questions, and the latest set of questions is exactly what you need to close a deal!

Here are some Need-Payoff questions from the abovementioned article:

• What would solving this problem mean for your business??
• How would finding a solution help you succeed in your role??
• How would it help your peers, partners, and subordinates?
• How would solving the problem enable you to do A, B, or C?
• Would X solution increase stakeholder buy-in?
• Would Y tool help your team do A, B, and C?

If you do it right, you'll open up the client's problem and create an urgency to find a solution, and hopefully, your solution will be the best ??

Chris, hope this info is helpful to you, and if you have any more questions, ask them right away, and let's continue our conversation!

Human Connections

I recently had a personal conversation with my friend (you know who you are if you're reading this ??), and we separately came up with the term "curated chaos."

And that's exactly how I feel about the connections I make nowadays.

It's when I have no expectations of anyone and am open to helping random people I meet to deal with their challenges, supporting different endeavours they're in, having coffee chats, and even meeting with people for the first time while recording a podcast ??

However, I always listen to my gut feeling, and if I feel we don't need a coffee chat but just a few messages exchange would be valuable, I do it.

I don't let anyone "pick my brain", just a few good people, and I'm always super honest about it.

If I can help someone and it takes me up to 5 minutes, I do it easily.

If some friends and folks I know well ask me for help, and it takes up to 1 hour, I will find time to do it.

For everyone else, it's either an async conversation or a consultancy call.

I never say "no" to new connections and helping random people, so it's a chaotic part, but I clearly understand how valuable the time of my life is, and it helps me curate those connections!

And how do you feel about curated chaos? ??

Curiosity Corner

“I won’t always know where I’m going—but I can always know whether I’m going in the right direction.”

Excerpt from "Designing Your Life" by Bill Burnett

Upcoming Events

• Between Two Watercoolers Meeting 123 on Friday, August 30th @ 10 am PT (7 pm CET) - to meet new and old friends from the community world

Valuable Materials

• Turning Community Engagement Into Cost Savings (Video and Audio) - Community ROI conversation with Chris Catania
• How Freelancers Can Transform Sales Into A Joyful Journey (Video and Audio) - Freelance Thrive conversation with Nick Raeburn
• How To Price Your Expertise As A Freelancer (Video and Audio) - Freelance Sucks conversation with Baily Hancock ?? Professional Friend-Maker

In upcoming newsletters, I'll share even more tips and tricks I learned from multiple conversations with experienced community builders and freelancers, so stay tuned ??

P.S. I help build communities for startups and fast-growing companies that want to foster trusted customer relationships and grow together!

If it sounds your way, message me, and let's make it happen! ????