How to Use Tribal Mentality to Your Advantage
We all have a desire to belong.
Most of the time that means belonging to a group of people who are like us. And yet, who we are as individuals changes depending on the context.
Online we hang out with those who think like us and share our views (that’s not always a good thing as we’ve seen).
At a sporting event, we cheer with all the other fans of the same team, even if we don’t follow those people online.
In old Scotland, we painted our faces blue and charged into battle with William Wallace in the name of freedom. Yet, we wore a different shade of blue than the one we wore to the football game.
You get the idea. We’re all a lot of people rolled into one.
But one thing we all have in common is the desire to belong to something bigger than ourselves. We all have a tribal mentality. Though in the modern era, we belong to several tribes depending on the context.
How to Find Your People
When you’re building a community around your business, the experience is no different. You have to know what it is that makes people feel like a part of your community. That’s why I wrote a business backstory for Rogue Mogul. It helped me understand who I want to reach.
You can also take it a step further and develop personas. Think of personas as the characters who populate the backstory. Once you have some idea of WHO those people are, you can use tools like SparkToro to help you figure out WHERE they are online.
Once you know who they are, and where they are, engage them. That’s how you build your community.
ProTip: When you start finding your people, follow them, subscribe to their channels, make lists of them, and engage. Some of the best conversations I’ve had on Twitter aren’t ones that I started. They are conversations where I jumped into the comments. I’ve also picked up most of my followers that way. Comment on their content and be selfless in that regard.
Building Your Community
I’m using the words “community” interchangeably with “audience” here. There are differences, but I prefer the idea of building a community as opposed to an audience. Community makes me feel closer to the people I’m connecting with, but don’t over think it.
I also want to be clear that building a community doesn’t mean you have to do something on Circle.so, Mighty Networks, Slack, etc… Those platforms are incredibly valuable, but managing a community at that level (and doing it well) is a different game and can be very time-consuming.
The main thing to remember about building a community is that for the people in that community to connect, with you and with each other, you have to give them something to rally around. What is your purpose? Why are you doing this?
For Rogue Mogul, I’m obsessed with creating businesses that give me the time and freedom to do what I want (and I have some expensive hobbies). But I’m also very passionate about helping others do the same.
Why? Because I believe it will make the world a better place if more people control their time and are financially sovereign. And also because the more people there are with that kind of freedom the more there are that I can have cool experiences with. I don’t want to play in the sandbox by myself. I’d rather hang out with my tribe!
ProTip: Last week I talked about forming peer groups. I want to encourage you to jump on that sooner than later. Working with others can be one of the best ways to jumpstart building a community. You’ll connect with more people faster that way. If you missed it last week, let me know and I’ll send the newsletter to you.
Tell Me Your Why (Yes, I want you to actually do this. Fill my inbox. It’s fine)
If you’re here, you’re as interested as I am in starting/running a 1-person business. Or maybe you want to run a few of them.
Either way, pick the one you are most focused on right now and tell me what it is and why you are doing it.
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