Transcript excerpt of Penny Power describing core pillars for building a B2B community: intimacy, transparency, and servant leadership. She argues community managers should de-emphasize personal ego, treat members as the central value, be open about operations (including sharing financials), and foster a family-like, supportive culture.
Chapters
And so, to me, my first pillar would be the one of intimacy. I agree with you, Thomas. What I would also say, and I think a lot of communities are built by people with a guru style of attitude. You know, join my community and listen to me. I'm incredible. We, Thomas and I, turn that completely on its heads. I. Our members are the incredible ones. We're there to build a culture and to build a place for them to care for one another. And in doing that, that means we have to. I think a community manager or community person has to put aside their desire for their reputation, their ego to matter in this and realize that there's a servant leadership style, style of leadership within it. And a lot of. A lot of that is also about transparency. We are very, very transparent with our members. You know, I had a mentoring session with one of our members yesterday. We were talking about their business and how they grow it. I talked to them about a cash flow forecast, and I showed them our cash flow forecast with all our numbers in it. I haven't. We don't have anything to hide about it because. Because I truly believe that if you are skilled and confident in your skills, your credibility is not damaged at all by the different experiences you go through. And we are, you know, so I think intimacy and transparency and, you know, we are one of you. We care for you. We're a family with you. We're not autocratic parents. We are in it. In it pulling up our sleeves and. And serving you. And I think that's very important.
