A founder explains how he built a payroll market community by personally funding it for a year as a brand sponsorship, then used the trusted-advisor reputation to drive sales for his label and poster business instead of monetizing the community directly.
Well, how am I going to put some skin in the game? I realized that this community was necessary. And I basically said, I don't want to be the who to do this. I'm not a great facilitator. I'm not that guy. I'm a great visionary, a connector, and I make things happen. So I sat down with Jeff and I actually financed Jeff for the first year. I made it worth his while not to go look for another job because he's in a transition stage. And I compensated him for the first year out of pocket to be able to build enough members to support the concept that you, you know, visited a few weeks ago. So looking back at it right now, I don't monetize it. I make no money in it. I'm not involved in it. It's a total who, not how, right? I did put some cash up front to get Jeff up and running. But basically it's sponsored by Poster Elite. So my brand is out there. Let's talk about the branding side. Look, man, you didn't get to know me and didn't know everything that I did until you were in this peer group. So yeah, I don't spend money in traditional marketing. This is how I invest my funds. This is how we go to market. We trusted advisors to this community and we've built a reputation of being trusted advisors.. It just happens that we're in the label or poster business. So that was the vision. Look at that group that you were in the room with. Look at the transitions in their lives. You should interview each one of them and ask them what was their lives before.
