What Makes A Community A Community?

Welcome to the Freedom Business Podcast. Your host, Siddharth Rajshekhar here. Great to have you here. This is where we are going to be talking about how we can redefine our education system by building vibrant learning communities. Take your knowledge out to the world and be awesome. Let's get in.

We hear the word community just thrown loosely like that by so many people in the online space. But are they really building a community? That's what I want to be covering this podcast because I want to get into a few elements on what can you, what are the elements of a community like what makes a community truly a community? Is it just a bunch of, you know, numbers on an Excel sheet or is there something deeper than that? The first thing is purpose. For a community to truly call itself a community, there has to be a common vision or a common purpose for the community. For example, the Internet lifestyle hub. Our purpose is to redefine our broken education employment system by creating a new breed of teachers and leaders. And I keep driving the same vision and mission again and again and again and again. So when people are a part of this vision, they, you know, it's like they're able to be.

So much in tune with this bigger purpose and everything else in between becomes secondary. So if somebody has to learn new skills, they have to build, you know, their systems. Sometimes there's overwhelm that kicks in. But when they are able to re reflect back on the bigger purpose, they're able to go through whatever they have to go through. So what makes a community community is a strong purpose that is beyond the founder of the community. Like it's beyond the person who started the community. The second thing that makes a community to community is the leadership style. You know, there are dictator leadership styles. There is most like a service leadership style. Like I've taken on more on the service leadership style because I don't want to be the highlight or the center of attraction of everything that I do. I'm a very private person. I don't like to show what's going on in my personal life. I like to create an environment or an atmosphere for people to grow. And there are some other communities where it is very dictator style. That means whoever is the leader of the community, he has to show everybody that he's the boss or she's the boss. And it's like very controlling type. Like you know that they have to call the shots themselves. Whereas the service leadership style is more of empowering others to do things and letting it be and be more free flowing and not being a control freak. Okay? The third element of what makes a community a community are value systems of the community. For example, we have six codes of honor, which is freedom, growth, clarity, efficiency, abundance, and contribution are the six core values of Internet Lifestyle Hub. So for each value, I have defined what it is. For example, freedom is to be able to live and run a business anywhere in the world. Growth is to learn, do, and teach simultaneously. You know, clarity to show up every single week to give clarity in marketing, mentoring results, and strategy. Okay? Then we have efficiency to take action with speed. And money loves speed. Number five is abundance to get multiple streams of income. And number six is contribution to give back towards causes and charities that you believe in. So when you are able to create a set of values that is beyond just tactics and tools and stuff like that, and you keep drumming up and driving these values every single week to your community, people will fall in line. There could be some people who are not aligned in the values, but the more they hear it and more they see others doing it, you know, it just creates an amazing set of, you know, people that come together with a common set of values. The fourth element on what makes a community a community are rituals. Like, in our community, we have a ritual like listening to the strangest secret in the world every single day, writing the goals every single day, and also listen, reading affirmations. And I've got a whole bunch of stuff that I've created for the community members that they can do on a daily basis. Like, we have seven habits of highly effective coaches which they need to implement, and this especially for our diamond members. So all of these are also a part of what makes this a community. Number five is the lingo or in other words, the vocabulary in our community. So in our community Internet Lifestyle Hub, you know, in the beginning, it just started off with, you know, I use some keywords in webinars like bio, bring it on, or, you know, bo, bulb on, and, you know, game on, and money, love speed. And I've got a whole bunch of series of stuff that I've been doing. And, you know, the best part is I made all these into T shirts. Now, now, the best part is even though this started in ilh, you know, many of our members are attending other calls or they're attending other trainer sessions. You know, the lingo has gone outside ilh, you know, in fact, one of my close friends and colleagues, Rajiv Talreja, when he's in the session, he's saying, hey, when I see bio, I know it's that guy, the person is from your community or when Pooja is training and if she says bulb on or whatever, she knows they are from ilh. So I never planned it this way, but it happened so naturally and that's how it really moved forward. And even the concept of an mpty, you know, more power to you see all these small things make a big difference. Again, I never really planned it. It was just naturally, you know, flowing. And even now when people meet each other, when they, let's say my facilitators do a call, the same feel and the same lingo is used everywhere. So people feel that they're a part of something and the same. I've seen this even in other religious movements or political movements. They have their own a vocabulary that people can understand. The sixth thing that makes a community a community is the flavor of the community. Now the flavor is determined by the leader of the community. So what do I mean by flavor? Is like.

Is it more friendly? Is it more open, is it more strict? Is it more like discipline oriented? Is it more.

To the point and like or, or is this community more free flowing and there's a lot of fun. So every community has a vibe. Like whichever leader starts depending on their mental makeup and what they're made of, it actually permeates into the community in every single way. And I've noticed in my case, like even when I was launching my four different quantum groups, when I was launching the first group, I was so, you know, daredevil mode and I attracted daredevils. Second, I was very methodical and I attracted people who are more methodical. Third, I was very more technical in my mind and I attracted a group of 25 people who are more technical. And the last one is I was getting more into spiritual zone and attract a lot of spiritual people. So when I say flavor is what you are, you attract. If you are blaming and complaining and you know, putting other people down, you'll attract people who are just like that. Okay, if you are very egoistic and it's all about you and you know, it's the it's all me, me, me stuff, you'll attract people who are just like that. So if I have any situation in my community where somebody is, you know, having some negative feedback and this and that, I actually, instead of blaming the other person, I look at myself on where have I been thinking like that? Or where have I have attracted that into my life? So it's a beautiful thing. When you're building a community at scale, you will start to see Some of these amazing insights based on how your mood is and that permeates in your flavor. When I say flavor, also like the music that you play, the branding flavor, the colors that you use, the Personas, everything else. Okay, next is the seventh aspect of a community. What makes a community a community is a content delivery style. Especially if it's a knowledge based community. You know, how are you delivering the content? Is it more to the point, no fluff, no bs, no bs, point shooter style or like beating around the bush? Okay, then we have communities. The other element of a community is gamification. Okay, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Number eight is gamification. Do you have some kind of reward system as when people complete, they are able to get rewarded. That leads me to number nine is rewards and recognition. These two are connected. Gamification are what are the criteria that you're going to be having to evaluate somebody's progress. And rewards and recognition are what are they going to get? What are they going to get? What are they going to receive as a reward or an award as they complete these different milestones? Like we have the Freedom Finisher award, we have the hall of Fame award, we have the one Pro Champion award. And now this whole gamification concept has picked up like wildfire all over the coaching industry. Again thanks to many of our top coaches who have graduated and gone through the ILH process. They're truly building, you know, vibrant learning communities that make people take action and make progress, where it's all a fun game, like playing a video game. Finally, the 10th point that makes a community a community, a real community is loyal and empowered leaders. Like, I've got an amazing group of facilitators, our quantum facilitators and our regular diamond facilitators who come in there and they don't get paid for doing what they're doing in ilh. They come in, they deliver amazing value once in a month, twice a month, thrice a month. And they hold the space for the rest of the community not because they want anything from this, it's because they want to give back. And that is such a pure and beautiful feeling. And I don't pay a salary and none of that stuff. They just want to come and give back because they have benefited from the community and they're getting results themselves. And you can't buy loyalty, you can't buy loyalty. It has to be earned by you being a leader who truly appreciates people for who they are and who truly is able to help them reach what they want reach their goals really fast. Okay, so just to recap, the 10 aspects that makes a community a community are purpose, leadership style, value system, rituals, lingo or vocabulary, flavor, content delivery style, gamification, rewards and recognition, and finally, loyal, empowered leaders. When all of these come together, you can truly call what you're having into a community. Otherwise, it is not a community. Catch you in the next episode and click on the link below. If you're not my diamond member yet, I would love to teach you more on how you can build communities like this in my next level diamond certification process. All the best. Catch you in the next one.