Email 2.19 - Believe. In. Yourself.

? Cole Johnson ?? and DIANE WOODFORD , thank you a ton for being amazing you, and supporting me in the comments of the previous newsletter ????

For others - talk to me, too!?

If my experience helps you succeed in your professional and personal journeys, tell me about it because that's exactly what helps me stay motivated and continue sharing my experience!

Help me help you ??

In Today's Issue

• The Community ROI conversation with Corina Gheonea
• How to stand out as a freelancer
• Act nicely to a bad behavior

Let's Talk

Recently, Jim Wrubel introduced me to Ted Lasso, and...

Oh! My! God!

I just love his approach to life, his team, and especially the people around him!

The way he trusts, supports, and believes in people is just amazing, and that's exactly what he lacks in our everyday lives.

I wish I had Ted Lasso in my life, but I bet I already do, even though it's not one specific person, but a collective image of amazing people I know ??

So let's talk about that!

Community ROI

This week, it's another episode of Community ROI with Corina Gheonea —a seasoned community professional with over 12 years of experience in community development and entrepreneurial environments! ??

So here are 10 quotes to learn about community ROI from Corina:

1. "Community is not just a side initiative—when aligned with business goals, it becomes the engine that drives growth for both the organization and its members."
2. "To connect community and business goals, you have to listen deeply to both sides. Understand the company’s mission, and then integrate that with what the community truly values."
3. "A community can be a powerful catalyst for business growth, but only if you’re honest and transparent with them about your objectives and invite them into the process."
4. "Community success isn’t a one-time achievement; it’s about building long-term relationships that foster business growth while empowering members to contribute meaningfully."
5. "We need to democratize access to knowledge and tools—when the community feels empowered, they’re more likely to drive innovation and push the business forward."
6. "Being the bridge between community and business requires humility, honesty, and the ability to shape objectives that reflect the needs of both sides."
7. "When community goals align with business objectives, the results go beyond short-term wins—they create a sustainable ecosystem where both the business and its community thrive."
8. "The real value of a community is in its ability to generate feedback, content, and insights that directly influence product development and strategic decisions."
9. "Community isn’t just about participation; it’s about building a vibrant ecosystem where members feel empowered to engage, and that engagement directly impacts business outcomes."
10. "By nurturing a community, you’re not just building users or customers—you’re creating advocates who can elevate your business in ways traditional marketing can’t."

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

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In this podcast, I speak with experienced community builders, CEOs, and founders about how a community impacts business growth, so please, go like this post so more people know and can learn from it! ????

Mastering Freelancing

Recently, I received a message from a freelancer in the 9am community:

"Honestly, I'm feeling a bit down because it seems like most positions here require German language skills and references, which I don't have... I only have my experience to offer"

And, damn, it resonates a lot! ??

Many freelancers with whom I've recently had conversations told me that it's hard to find a project to work on, and they are considering or even already moving back to 9 to 5.

However, the lack of "good-fit" projects or high competition is not the main problem for freelancers...

See, you can't influence it...

But what you can influence is how you stand out and let the world know how amazing you are!

As a freelancer, you need to clearly understand your Ikigai!

In other words, what you're good at, what you love doing the most, what people need, and what you can get paid for! (thank you Hugo Paquin for introducing me to Ikigai ??)

If you're freelancing already, you definitely understand what you're good at, or at least what you can do.

The next step is to understand what you love doing the most - what helps for me is simply listing all the services I can propose and then ranging them from 0 - hate doing to 5 - love doing based on how I feel while doing them.

What the world needs and what you can be paid for is a little harder to find out; still, you can find this information by analyzing job postings and other freelancers' LI profiles and websites.

Yes, it takes time, but it'll be rewarding in the future ??

Now, you need to combine all of those and come up with how to present yourself to the world??

Here, USP and UVP will help you:

• Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - what sets you or your service apart from competitors. It answers, "Why should customers choose this over others?"
• Unique Value Proposition (UVP) - highlights the specific value a product or service offers to its customers. It answers, "Why should customers care?"

For example:

Domino's Pizza's original USP was "30 minutes or less, or it's free," emphasizing fast delivery.

Slack's UVP is "Be more productive at work with seamless team communication and collaboration," highlighting the value of improved efficiency.

And it's still not enough because it will only make you understand why you're different and why your potential customers should care!

At this point, you must believe in what you've come up with, as Kourosh Ghaffari Ghazi Said said to me once, "Eat your own dog food"!

When you believe in it, like if someone wakes you up in the middle of the night and asks what your offer is and why they should care, you'll immediately describe it ??

Then you have to go out there and network like crazy!

Everyone must know what you're doing and why you're the best!

Otherwise, no matter how great your experience is and what you offer, you'll still be struggling with projects...

How can someone hire somebody they don't know exists? ??♂?

Once again, you're amazing and super brave already just because of trying freelancing!

You've got this! Know it! Own it! ??

And yes, it's so much easier said than done, me myself are on the step of finding my Ikigai ??

Human Connections

Every time someone insults Ted Lasso, or when he faces some complicated situation or is dealing with a hard decision to make, I expect him to lose his temper and act defensive, as most people usually do.

Still, every single moment, he finds some very unexpected ways of dealing with those things, and most of the time, in a very kind and heart-warming manner ??

That's something I'm trying to do while dealing with some angry community members or product users who, for some reason, didn't get what they expected and send messages or emails that consist mostly of curse words ??

When you ignore those messages or answer similarly, you're just adding fuel to the fire...

However, when you answer nicely and continue the conversation in that way, no matter what you read or hear from another person, you'll be surprised by what might happen!

Once, I received an email where a person told that,

"the product you're selling is very bad, and I don't really like you at all"

but the original message included only the words "the product you're selling.." all others were swear words that mostly started with "f" ??

And, definitely, my first reaction was to answer in the same way, just without swearing (I needed to be kinda professional)

still, I chose another way:

I wrote,

"Oh, wow, you must have felt very angry and frustrated after using our product, so you wrote such a message.

I would love to understand why exactly you've felt that way, and is there anything I can help you with to make you feel better? ??"

In the next email, this person described in detail what didn't work and even apologized for using such words in a previous email.

And the fun thing is that we've finished this conversation having a great suggestion on how to make a product better and a person who turned from Hulk into a lovely user after just one email ??

So, every time you face some not-that-nice behavior, think, what would Ted Lasso do ??

And if you haven't seen this series yet, go check it out!

Curiosity Corner

"If we added up all the hours spent trying to figure out life, for some of us they would outweigh the hours spent actually living life."

Excerpt from "Designing Your Life" by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Upcoming Events

• Between Two Watercoolers Meeting 130 on Friday, October 18th @ 10 am PT (7 pm CET) - to meet new and old friends from the community world
• The Future is Freelance Forum on Friday, October 25th @ 8 am PT (5 pm CET) - an exciting collaborative event for stakeholders from all levels of the freelance ecosystem by Sarah Duran
• Freelance Xmas Party on Tuesday, November 26th, in Berlin - parties are not only for full-time workers, huh ????
• Freelance Unlocked 2025 - May 14th-15th, 2025, in Berlin - if you're a freelancer in Europe - you must be there ????

Valuable Materials

• How to Bridge Community Success and Business Objectives (Video and Audio ) - Community ROI conversation with Corina Gheonea
• 10 things to learn from 10 freelancers (Video and Audio ) - Freelance Thrive Season 7 summary
• How To Stay Focused On What Brings You Money (Video and Audio ) - Freelance Sucks conversation with Lisette Sutherland

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! ????