99% Of Community Builders Get This WRONG—Don't Start with GUIDELINES

These three things, purpose, connection, surprise. That's what creates a magical first experience. In today's episode we are covering the magical first experience. The magical first experience is one of those things that, you know, we really stumbled into and we stumbled into a magical first experience and creating a magical first experience for a couple of reasons. Number one, it was becoming really clear when we looked at communities that did not have any engagement that the first experience was all about logistics. Mechanics is another way to sort of think about it. And rules with very little ways that connected back to those members. Best year ever. Their big purpose, why they're there, who they're going to meet, and worse, in addition to rules and mechanics and basically homework assignments for people when they first join, there was also only one place to go. And this is true in a lot of especially like either legacy platforms or like new upstart platforms that just aren't particularly evolved yet. Where you go to the chat and the chat is basically the same five people just dominating and those five people dominating the chat, plus emphasis on rules and mechanics. This community feels like work. This doesn't feel fun. This doesn't feel like it's connected. Back to the results that I decided to join to achieve. And this is certainly true on other platforms, not so much on mighty networks. But I have to go to like some channel and that's where people are introducing themselves, but no one's actually going to that channel, so. So no one's actually seeing where the new members are. So we took it from the top and we basically said, okay, if that's the, if that's the baseline, like the baseline is, you know, mechanics, rules and a chat with the same five people that has no context for a new member. What would create the exact opposite of that? So that's where I'm a huge believer in, number one, thinking about your guidelines as the culture that you're creating. Starting with what do you want members to do? Because engagement is going to come when you're like, hey, this is what we do here. This is a place where you can show up and the first thing you can do is explore who else is here. You know what the best way to explore who else is here. Make sure you fill out your profile so you can see similarities between you and other members. Now listen to that. It's like this is what's in it for you versus what 9 out of 10 communities do, which is fill out your profile. Fill out your profile for what? Why? What is it? What does it actually get me when you creating magical first Experience, you are starting with the benefits, the results. What are you going to do? You're going to meet really cool people and you want to fill out your profile and because they're going to be able to see more about you and be stoked to meet you. Another thing I like to do when it comes to creating a magical first experience for your members is think about those other cultural elements, those other ways of tying the things that you want your members to do to the value that they're going to create. For example, oh my gosh, we have got these Tuesday 9am live streams that are amazing because you're going to be able to meet other members. And we tackle this month's theme broken down into four weekly calendar live stream items. And it's super fun and you're going to meet people and it's going to be great. Now, when you start with the positive, when you start with the value, it doesn't mean you're ignoring the guidelines. It doesn't mean you're ignoring, hey, don't spam people, don't sell your stuff, don't show up and be a jerk, don't show up and be negative. And the real opportunity for you is to emphasize the positive, emphasize the fun. So to recap, the formula for a magical first experience is to reinforce the purpose, like, why are people here? They are here to meet other people who are, who are going through the same transition, that are excited about having a very similar best year ever, that are really looking forward then to the second component of a magical first experience, which is to meet other members. That's why at Mighty, we've got the People Explorer. It's why every profile shows similarities to you and the member whose profile you're looking at, as well as being able to explore other members who are similar to that member. Kind of obvious stuff, but it's only obvious if you are sitting there with a community where people don't know each other yet and you gotta find ways to introduce them to each other. And finally, what makes it magical as opposed to just a first experience? Surprise, surprise. So what could a surprise look like? Well, maybe your community has a playlist and especially it has a new member playlist that is designed for a new member to play while they're starting to explore other members in the community or they are listening to or watching a video while they are filling out their profile so that they can meet the most interesting people. Or a surprise is your welcome committee of other founding members who might actually be checking out who those new members are. And sending them a really nice quick note. These three things, purpose, connection, surprise, that's what creates a magical first experience. So I know this is controversial, but I want to encourage you to reframe it into these are the 10 things we want people to do and why it's valuable to them. And then share the guidelines, but just make it like 10% of that first experience, not the primary thing that you have to go through at the very beginning in order to even join the community. So with that, why don't I open it up to a question?

Hey, Gina. I really feel passionately about getting my community ethos out there at the very top because I've run into some major problems before with this. How can I have my members first experience being magical but still do all the rules and stuff at the top?

This is a great question. There's a couple of pieces I want to tease apart in your question because I think they're really important. Number one, you are going to have problems if you're building a Facebook group. And for a lot of people, a Facebook group was the first and in some cases only community experience that they have. And so here's the problem with Facebook groups and why they get so toxic so quickly is because most people experience your Facebook group or a Facebook group in their newsfeed. And when they experience it in their newsfeed, it means that, for example, your meditation community is being shown to somebody in between a highly charged political post or. Or something related to somebody's family. It's out of context and it means that people can be coming in pretty hot because that is how Facebook and a lot of the other social platforms keep people engaged is heightened emotion. They don't care if it's heightened happy or heightened mad or heightened sad, just as long as it's heightened. Now, when you are creating a community of your own in your own space with your own big purpose and your own ideal member and your own definition of that ideal member's best year ever. It is different. So you actually have a different challenge, which is somebody showing up and they're like, what do I do here? So the way that I like to think about it is paint the picture of the culture you want to build. Give your members things that they can do that are going to get them those early wins that people are going to respond really well to versus saddle them with a lot of work right up front. So a simple example. Fill out your profile. It is the number one thing that people have been told whenever they join a membership or a community and, and, and candidly, in a lot of cases, they should be filling out a profile when they're doing an online course. And maybe if they did that, more people would stick around for online courses than they actually do when it's just that content and just that course alone. So instead of fill out your profile, it's meet other members by filling out your profile or see what you have in common with other members by filling out your profile. Another one would be, hey, answer the daily polls and questions, because that's a fantastic way to meet people. Another would be show up to our weekly live streams where we talk about different things, but more importantly, I'll bring members up on stage so you can meet them. Or another one would be Play with the people explorer. Maybe that's just for communities on mighty networks, but play with the People Explorer so you can see who else is like you and who else is near you and who else cares about the same topics. So those are the kinds of things that build a culture. So what I would say is, yes, there are the things like they gotta watch the video, they gotta, you know, they gotta know how these things work and how you've set up your network. But I would encourage you to start from the place of what can I offer a new member to get them their first win as quickly as possible? So take it from their perspective back, not you as the host, are like, I need them to do all of these things. Then think about what are the connections that you want them to make. How, for example, do they meet members who are near them? And then what are those elements of surprise? A playlist, a ritual, a surprise welcome message that someone records really quickly and DMS to that person and that person being that new member. There are so many different things that you can do that create a community culture of the things you want people to do. And the first step is just spending a little bit of time brainstorming, imagining, thinking bigger, dreaming bigger about what this can become in people's lives. And then obviously make sure that as you are dreaming and thinking when you launch and go through the dip, and then just make sure you get to workshopping, because that's where all of the magic truly happens. That is what unlocks growth. And when you think about that magical first experience, start with the positive. That's really what I'm saying in all sorts of different ways. I'm saying start with the positive. Start with, how do you get your members those quick wins where they see the value of what you've created and who you've brought together and what they're going to be able to get from it. Because that member's experience in your first session, in their first week, that actually determines what whether they're still a member and getting value from it six months from now versus not. So if you take one thing away from this podcast, from this conversation, it's get your members purpose, reinforce the purpose, reinforce connections and sprinkle it with surprise. That creates a magical first experience. And I'm gonna just brag a little bit here. It is easier to create a magical first experience with these three elements on a mighty than probably anywhere else. And so if we can help you with that, let us know because it really does make the biggest difference. So we got People Magic Profit the Masterclass 10 modules, 9 things that you gotta do to create the fastest path to a million dollar community. I gotta tell you, that response so far has been absolutely overwhelming and it's really motivating me to maybe keep doing this. Let me know in the comments if this is something you'd like to see more of. Please let me know on your favorite social media channel if you've got more questions for me. And with that, stay tuned for what's next. Thanks for listening to People Magic. Want more of a deep dive on today's topic? Well, check out People Magic Profit, my nine part free masterclass on how to launch your own wildly profitable paid membership and community. Do you have your own burning questions you'd like me to discuss on this podcast? Well, I want to hear them, so leave your questions in the review section and keep tuning in.