Suzanne Chadwick 0:00
Hello, my lovely, how are you? Welcome back to the podcast. As always, I always say that I'm excited to dive in. But you know, here's something this is one of my favorite things to do, which is being your ear buds and chatting with people who I love and talking about things that I love that hopefully you love to and that help you to build your business, build your confidence, build your revenue, and all of the good things. Yeah. So today I am chatting with one of my favorite humans Tiffany Accardi. She is an old friend from clubhouse. And Tiffany is also a community champion, strategist and Evangelist working with businesses and not for profits, to help them create powerful communities that are connected so that they can have more of an impact. So tiff was like one of the clubhouse Oh, geez, like she was the originals. And she built a following of 35,000 in just three months on the platform, because she was so incredible at building community and holding space for community. And she has built a range of communities for different entrepreneurs and consultants, to organizations on how they can tap into the power of their community. And so I knew that when I wanted to talk about this particular topic, she was the person that I wanted to go to. And so today, in this episode, TIFF is going to break down what you need to know and what you need to be thinking about when it comes to building your community. So we're talking about the difference between audience and community, how to build your community, what makes a great community, what tech is hot right now for community building, she's going to share some free ones that I had to go and look up as well. And she's also going to talk about the upside down Kingdom model, and how to do it your way when it comes to building a community. So I love this conversation. There are some absolute gems in here. And it really got me thinking about how I build communities. So I've got you my gorgeous podcast community, I've got my paid communities. So BBA amplify bold speakers collective courageously, you and then I've got my followers on Instagram. And I do just think I would love a place where everybody can come to connect with one another. So now she's got me thinking about how am I building my community? Because one of the things that I love that she talks about is that, you know, we don't own our community, we co own it. It's about us bringing our community together so that we can not only connect with them, but they can connect with each other. So the wheels are turning, the cogs are turning I am thinking about how I do this yeah, and what it looks like so that it becomes something that is really valuable, and a place where you can meet other like minded people. So I'm excited to share this episode with you. Make sure that you grab your notebook, take notes, if you've got any questions, let me know but also go and connect with Tiff on Instagram as well. She's just that Tiffany, Alyssa, which is a ly essay on Instagram, too. But yeah, let's dive into this week's episode. It's such a goody. Tip Anyway, welcome to the brand builders lab Podcast. I'm so excited. It's been in the works for a while. We obviously met on I love how I say obviously because everybody obviously met on clubhouse. And it just feels like it feels like not that long ago. But it was like it feels like it's like ages ago now. Was it the beginning of 2020?

Tiffany Acardi 4:23
Beginning of 2021 on one Yeah, so like a year and a half now. Crazy.

Suzanne Chadwick 4:29
Oh my gosh, so good. As a tip when I got on the platform you will like you will like the OG already, which is hilarious. So my audience know a little bit about clubhouse it was I feel like it's still an audio social app kind of thing where you can get on and it's like radio and podcasting. But you can have live conversations, but you were a moderator, which is kind of somebody that runs the room, and you will live moderating every room under the sun. So just before we dive Before we dive into talking about community, which I'm so excited to talk to you about, like, what was your journey on clubhouse? How did you get there?

Tiffany Acardi 5:08
Yeah, so I had seen a friend that posted it. Because Oprah had posted about it being like an up and coming. Oh my God, there's so many you know, that happen that you see that and you're like, it's not really going to take off like you think of buying or you think of everything else, you know, but I wandered on there. And then I got terrified. I was like, What is this app? I don't know. It's app is and that was like early November of 2020. And then December, all of a sudden, I started seeing a little bit of a peek within like social media marketers, digital marketing, everybody's like, you know, a clubhouse. And that's kind of like when I crept in, you know, and then like, enjoyed the sweep of clubhouse, like, like CS was referring to, like, it was like, a moment, I think that impacted us. And change just changed us in so many different ways. But it was also like such a short spent, you know, it was like a three months run, and we all formed relationships that we get to be part of, to this day, like, even mazing, this exchange, I mean, honestly, it's changed my life forever. And I'm so grateful for the connections and the relationships that it brought. But it was a really fun experience. And I think, even more so just kind of thinking about in the digital marketing, like climate as things change, and thinking about what people needed right then and there. You know, like, we were kind of at the like, halfway point of COVID. Nobody knew what was coming, what was next what that was supposed to look like. And so we're all in our homes, in our pajamas. Like not having seen a soul, you know, for a couple of months. And we're just connecting with people all over the world. And then you literally watched the app climate change as those relationships went online to in real life. Because all of a sudden, people stopped spending as much time on the app because it was like, Well, wait a second, let's all hang out together. And then by that summertime, the world started to open up again. And then clubhouse started to you know, keep going on downward turn. And you know, that was it. But it was such a fun, like social media experiment to be a part of. Yeah, and I always just always makes my brain turn of like, okay, what's, you know, like, what's happening and what's coming next? And yeah, absolutely. How did you end up being like a moderator on so many, like, in so many rooms? Oh, gosh. So I am the ultimate like, what do you call it like, stalker? I'm like, I need to find a better word than that. If I like the most curious person ever connected. Maybe you're the ultimate connector rather than I definitely connector. Yes. But I call myself that is because I was like, too scared to like, speak up in all the rooms. But I would like tuned in. And I'm like starting to follow all these people. And I'm like, okay, like, what's going on? And then there were times that I like would click, like the button to join the stage to like, ask a question. And then they'd call on me. I'm like, my microphone. Oh, my gosh, like, that's all petrified I was to like, get involved. And then it was so funny, because there was this room of these people that I had started to kind of get to know and exchange conversations with. And it was like one o'clock in the morning. And that's how I ended up having so many international relationships. Because the night and I'm like, Yeah, Australia's up. And it was like, one o'clock in the morning, and they desperately needed somebody to moderate and I like was like, okay, like, everybody's asleep. Nobody can judge me. Yeah, and I did it. And I ended up like holding the room for like, six hours. And everybody, like woke up the next morning, and they're like, what's going on? And then all of a sudden, everybody was like, who's Tiffany? Who is this girl? So I always tell people like, that's why I was so passionate about helping others navigate the app, because I was petrified of using my voice or speaking up. And then once I worked that muscle and built confidence, I was like, I want to help everyone get their voice and yeah, find their way on clubhouse. And so that's how I got to know so many people. And yeah, last night, I got paid to moderate rooms. I was like, wow, like, Who would have thought you know?

Suzanne Chadwick 9:37
Yeah, experience that's so amazing. But a couple of things that I just want to like point out here is that sometimes a new platform will come and people are like, oh, like I don't know. I don't know. Now clubhouse we were only on it really for three months. It's still around. It was around before us. It'll be around after us surprisingly, but but sometimes you can get on to Something for a short period of time. And it can be life and business changing, like the number of relationships that I created on clubhouse that are now like, you know, you and I just caught up a couple of months ago, like, just for a chat. And now we're doing this podcast and I know that clubhouse was a massive, you know, catalyst for your business as well as far as the work you do around community and people wanting to understand like, what do you do around community? And how do we build a community? And how do you build an audience and, and so I kind of that's what we're going to be talking about today. But I just really want to point out that it doesn't have to be for ever, like when you do something, it doesn't have to be forever. I think that's one of the benefits of sometimes jumping on something early because you can kind of decide, number one, is this for me or isn't it? Number two, you know, there might be a really big flash in the pan where it was like incredible for you to use it during that time. And then you go on to something else or it fizzles out, but you can get what you need out of it. And it has been great for building community too. So for my listeners, can you just tell us a little bit about, I guess, the community that you've built, and what you're doing now, and then I've got all of these juicy questions for you on how we can build our communities?

Tiffany Acardi 11:22
Oh, my gosh, yes. So yeah, serendipitous to just what Sue's was saying, you know, I think all the you know, like, as new platforms are coming out or new opportunities, it gives you an opportunity to really narrow in on what you want your voice and your vision to be. And you can kind of play around in the sandbox, if you will of like, what are people asking? And like, what are the questions that are coming up. And then it will start to, you know, have some of those aha moments that formulate of like, wait a second, I can really come alongside people and partner with them and think about whatever this area of expertise is. And for myself, I built a global community called gals at brunch, where in 120 cities around the world, over 90,000 women and I did this for seven years, building a business on the side while running in corporate America, I was moving all across the US. And I was like, how do you think far it's like never even thinking that that would be a thought in my adult life. And it wasn't for lack of putting myself out there, which I think we've all been there. And we know how, just how hard that is. And then furthermore, you put yourself out there and then just how long the integration of connection and relationship take. And so I made six cross country moves in a span of five years, I worked in higher education previously, and I plopped down to a new city. And I'd have to start all over again. And I realized once I made my second move, I was like, I don't ever want anybody to walk through this. And I have kind of like a longer tale story that I won't go into. But it was one of the most heartbreaking seasons of my life that I was like, how could it take someone this long to find community and continue to put yourself out there and it makes you question things about yourself and your identity and all the things that it looks like that looks like and so it's just how important community is because community is what knits us back together. It's the people that are across the table that are like calling out like this is who you are, you know, and reminding us at the end of the day. So I built gals at brunch, and like almost broke myself doing that. Because here I was climbing up in the corporate world, working 5060 hours a week. And then all at the same time this global community movement was taking off. And it wasn't until really probably COVID You know, the the blessing in disguise, if you will, that everything came to a halt. Because to that point, we're growing two new chapters a week, interviewing chapters, onboarding chapters, like all the things, and I had a good friend that reached out to me and I like she was just wanted to ask me questions about how he built girls at brunch. And I was like, What are you talking about, you know, like, Oh, you just do this, you do that like two and a half later, she was like Tiffany, like, you're never allowed to give this information away for free, like ever. And so I think everybody that's listening to it's like, I want to encourage you oftentimes we underestimate our natural giftings and the skill sets that we already carry that we don't realize you're like, Oh, you mean this is easy for me. It doesn't come naturally to some other people. And so that's a skill set now that you can think about how you can utilize it in building your business or your brand with and clubhouse came around a couple of months later. And that had just started to make me think about it because I was just the gal that brunch girl, you know, and you know, people didn't really know who Tiffany was. I mean, most people didn't even know who created Gauss at brunch even though it was a worldwide organization. And so, clubhouse came around. It was a opportunity that I built my personal brand of okay, like I actually think I can utilize this and start building you know something around teaching other people how to build community. And so, all that to say kind of like a longtail answer to like, ending up here now like that's like, literally just the journey of the process and the evolution of realizing, oh my gosh, like, I've actually accidentally fallen into what I believe is my life calling. And here we are, you know, 18 months later,

Suzanne Chadwick 15:27
which I love, which I love. And I think that's the other thing is that we just never know where we're going to be in 18 months time, like I think, you know, I was talking about following the breadcrumbs. It's like, Oh, I really love to do this. Let me do more of this. And then, you know, clubhouse comes along. And it's like, this seems like fun, like, and people are asking me how to build community. So let me follow the breadcrumbs. And let's see where that goes as well. And now, we're talking about a lot of really big, amazing business things that you're going to be doing that I cannot wait to share with my audience as well. Because I think that you have such a natural knack. And you know that I'm such a huge believer in community, I love my community. Doing big heart shaped actions, you know, we just had like, when we're recording this, I just had supper club, which is a community and client dinner that I have, like every four months or so. And we've got other events coming up. But for me, I just think that that is where you get that real support, like online is fantastic. But when you come together and you have conversations and you break bread, and you like really spend time with one another, talking about things that matter. And talking about things that you're passionate about, I think that that's where incredible opportunities, connections and collaborations happen as well. So I'm so there with you total high five on community as well. Good, so good for TIFF. Now, for my audience, I wanted to talk about how we build community today and how they can do it. You know, as I shared, we've got a lot of solopreneurs. We've also got sort of SMEs and some corporates too. But you were talking earlier about audience before we started audience and community what's the difference?

Tiffany Acardi 17:18
Oh, gosh, yeah, loaded question. I have found myself like so much like so as I've kind of come into this niche as like a community strategist, like on my soapbox, because I've realized how not aware we are that we flippantly use the word community so often now, and especially now in the marketing world, it's like, community is all of a sudden, kind of like the next buzzword if you will. And so I'm like, Excuse me, let me get on my soapbox. Break down community for you a little bit, ya know, a lot of social media influencers are saying you know, their audiences, their community, and your audience isn't your community, your audience is a great way to build your community, though. And so when you want to think about it in its most basic definition and form is that your audience is a broadcast to many, you're talking to many people all at one time, your community is where you're creating connection relationship, you're creating spaces, that people can actually interact with one another, and you actually don't own your community, your community co owns it with you. And so from an Instagram platform, tick, tock, whatever, you know, Facebook, all those different pieces, that's actually something that you're, you know, you're broadcasting out a message to people but, you know, I'll oftentimes we're not necessarily listening for what the response of somebody else would be other than, you know, a little like, or a button or things like that. And so, it really postures us as business owners and future business owners to really be thinking about, gosh, like, Where have I so lack of basically use the word community in some ways, because what I kind of like to say, in some forms, you have to roll up your sleeves and do communities the hard and holy work, like if any one of us know what it takes to put the blood, sweat and grit into making a marriage work into making a friendship work, adult friendships, that's a whole nother level when you add kids into the picture. And, you know, building a business on top of that, you know, like relationships take work. And so so often people callously use the word community, and it's like, you haven't earned that right to use that word. And so, again, it just kind of postures us to really think about what does that look like? And we're dealing in a day and age where you're dealing with a smarter consumer now, you know, people know, like, ads, you know, all the different aspects of things. And people really want to know, at the end of the day, that they're being treated like a human being and a person and that you've earned that right of their time, you know, so that's kind of like the short end of it of you know, start To noodle, you know, of the difference between an audience and a community.

Suzanne Chadwick 20:04
Yeah, I love that. And I love that you just said, you know, you don't own your community, your community co owns that with you, which I think is just that's such an incredible definition and differentiation as well around that. And so if we've got an audience because I guess, you know, if we're talking about Instagram, or whatever platform people are using, we've got all these people that follow us, we've got these people that are listening to us that are interested in what we've got to say, or just being around us and our energy, whatever that is. And so how do we transfer that? How do we create that into a community?

Tiffany Acardi 20:40
Yeah, like, I'm gonna break it down to y'all like this is the like, love a break down, tip, break it down. This is the heart, this is the hard work, because when you think about it, at the end of the day, like I'm going to be honest, I've been in the like, digital marketing space, Instagram world, Facebook, world, social media world, you know, I grew up with it. And if like, simple math, like over the last seven years, I have probably spent, I don't even want to think about the time that I've spent building those audiences. But you know, like just an example, we were on clubhouse, I built a 35,000 person audience in three months on that platform, Instagram, over the last seven years, I've built over probably 100,000 person, audience between my personal brand, my business brand, like all those different things. And at the end of the day, only 1% of those people are seeing when I'm putting out there, we don't own these platforms. And we're putting in so much work at the end of the day, where actually the algorithm is starting to own us. And as business owners and personal brands and people that are building things, it's time to be like show the algorithm who's box, you know, like, oh, nobody's seeing my posts or whatever the case may be. I'm gonna put that on a quotable, it's time to show the algorithm who's boss. It's so true, though. And so I don't know about you. But that makes me sick. That makes me put a stake in the ground of like, I didn't work this hard and come this far. Page, praise. It eight Sunday, but we're praying chance. So I true years into creating content all day long for people that are never going to see that information. And so it's, it'll make me cry sometimes. Because community is like the very first step that you could do. It's not even overcomplicated. It simply inviting somebody does something, inviting them into something greater. You know, I typically like to talk about how it looks like in forming a friendship. Like, close your eyes. And like, what is your online home look like? You know, like when you're What are you inviting people into, and I, I love Sue's brand. Because everything's colorful. I'm sure that's what brought so many of you to her platform. Because you feel like you're probably all sitting together in her living room and all these bright colors and throw pillows and blankets everywhere and things like that. Like those are the types of things of intentionality that you have to think of when you're starting to build an audience on social media. What does that look like? And then the second thing is, is what are you inviting people into, and I was, I previously worked in higher education for years. And my job was to help retention to help make sure that colleges could maintain federal funding. And it's interesting how that all kind of comes full circle into community, because at the end of the day, the number one thing that algorithm functions off of is sticky rate. So when we think about like, the the, like, closest definition to what a sticky rate is, is how long are you keeping people on your page. And so when you think about Instagram, or Tiktok, or whatever the case may be, it's like, Alright, so those platforms, similar to clubhouse are going to reward content creators on those platforms, for however long that you are keeping somebody on your page. And so when you think about it, it's what type of deepening engagement are you inviting somebody into, like, first and foremost? Like, I would love to start to hear your thoughts about that. And I am like totally criminal to it. Because people will comment on my posts. You know, sometimes I'm like, thanks. But it's like, no, that's an opportunity to invite deeper engagement. Oh, my gosh, thank you so much for loving my posts. How can you know I continue to support you or what stood out to you or something like that increasing dialogue so that people stay on your page longer? And then ultimately, those platforms start to reward you as a content creator because you're keeping people stickiness, right. So that's first and foremost. And then the second piece is, sometimes people are like, Well, I have a couple 100,000 audience like how would I ever start to form community with them? I can't build relationships. to 200,000 people, you don't you take your top 10 super fans like the people that are Ryder dies that Danny all the time that comment all the time you know who those people are, and start to honor them for the time that they are spending with you. And just take a moment to like reach out to them and say, hey, I want to acknowledge you, I see what you're doing. I am so thankful for your support, and start inviting them into greater measures. If you're a product based business, that's an opportunity for you to even ask them some questions. Those are the types of things that start to create that sticky point that people are going to be with you for a longer term than just like, oh, I liked one Instagram post she did I followed and now I never see her in my feet again, and I could care less. And then those 10 people feel so empowered, and so excited about what you're building, because they feel like they have a voice into what you're doing that now they're helping protect your culture at no matter the cost, because they don't want to lose what special engagement you created, invested into them already.

Suzanne Chadwick 26:08
So yeah, I love that. Yeah. And so tiff with that, like, obviously, you know, we're sort of talking a bit about Instagram here as well. But when you are wanting to create that community where where people can meet each other, where they can engage with each other, like, what are some of the things that you're seeing, or what do you think is working? Well, like, I know that, you know, Facebook groups used to be huge, and I know that sometimes they still are. But when we're trying to bring people into and build that community, like where do we do that?

Tiffany Acardi 26:42
Yeah, it's totally up to you. It's one of those moments like I shared in what is your online space look like? And what platform provides that. So oftentimes, there are still people out there that use Facebook groups, and I'm not going to knock them because that is what they've culturally built into their online home. There's other platforms. I mean, it's so one of the things statistics I haven't shared yet, is that community building is in the top five growing jobs within the next five years, from every organization across the board, businesses and organizations are recognizing the need, that they have to start thinking about how they build community. And so now, there's apps in programs and different platforms and technology systems that are following along with that. So there's new community platforms that are coming out at the speed of light, like every single weekend learning about something new that's been introduced, but you have to kind of think about, you know, what, is going to work best for your audience. I love Geneva is really fun and user of it. Oh, it's so fun. It's really, really fun. You can So is that a pied platform to have? No it's free? chinmay. Good to be true, because you're like, Wait, why is this free? But it's a platform built by Gen Z years. Watch out world. Gen Zers terrify me but they're all what do you want to use? I love you Gen Z years. But they built Yeah, they build out this platform. And you can do I have a friend that does you know her probably from clubhouse Sophie burrin. She point of views, which is like a Gen Z talk show. And she uses Geneva as a way to do a weekly talk show with her community. And people can comment and post in there and leave quizzes and you can kind of take your community through the journey. But what's so comical to me is that Geneva has copied discord from a format, which Discord is actually one of the fastest growing social media platforms out there. That's right underneath tick tock and YouTube right now. But a lot of times people have an adverse reaction to discord because it was primarily a gaming community. And now, crypto and if T's are coming into the market, which they're the leading charge of community right now in web three, and web 3.0. And, you know, things like that, because they recognize for an NFT or crypto to take off the ground, they have to have a thriving community behind it that's ready to go ride or die to, you know, make it successful and spread the news about what benefit it provides the world. But yeah, there's so many circles, one of my favorites that I know a lot of top creators use. Slack has actually been up and coming as a great community tool. Like there's just, there's so many that every week I'm like, Oh, wow. You know, like, and I'm part of multiple communities that you utilize all these tools. And you can't go wrong. It's just you know, ultimately, what do you culturally want to build and what platform really provides that in the best user? Easy, you know, way to navigate?

Suzanne Chadwick 29:56
Yeah, it's really interesting. There's a couple of things. Number one, I've just You've written down like a whole lot of platforms. So I'll put that in the show notes as well. Like, I'll definitely go check out Geneva. There's Facebook groups mighty networks is another one. Kajabi has got a community discord, my son is trying to get on Discord where like no chance. He's like 10. Like, yeah, no circle slack boxes. So the mastermind that I'm in, we use Slack. And then I, I'm in a Voxer group as well, which, which, obviously, then you can like chat with one another and stuff like that. It's really interesting. I think one of the blocks that people have around it is our buddy, somebody's really gonna go. So there's two things here is somebody's really going to go off the platforms that they're using on a regular basis, like Facebook, etc. And go to another platform, I think that's been something that people have struggled with, like, getting people to engage and use it. So my, my second thought, or question, which I feel like would fix that block is what makes a community sticky? Like when there is like a new place. So let's say you open up a space in Geneva, and you're like, calm and, you know, join me here. What is it that makes a community sticky? That makes people want to come back to you think?

Tiffany Acardi 31:16
Yeah, I mean, I feel like first and foremost, it's what kind of value are you providing? Second, it's what is the client journey that you're taking people on? What is the what is the community journey? And I think for all of us, when you start to think about building a community, I often say that it's out of your greatest pain becomes your greatest gifting. And so, for a lot of us as business owners, I don't know about you, but there are several areas in my life and platforms that I am like shaking my fist in the air of like, how come this doesn't exist yet? You know, type of thing. And I could imagine that if I'm frustrated, that there isn't a mechanism out there, the existence, things like that, like, those are the pieces that we have to start to think about in building a community, like I don't know about you, but community, I think has so much to do with your voice in how its honored, how it's fostered, and how it's nurtured and how it's empowered at the end of the day, and how it's edifying you and finding opportunities. And I don't know, for you, like, how oftentimes I go into a room of a mastermind are something that I invested in, or whatever the case is, and I feel lost, or, you know, like, I'm like, okay, like, what does this look like? And how do I get involved in how do I deepen my connection? Or I know that I have this expertise. But where do I go? And I don't know about you, but oftentimes, sometimes I come home, and I'm like, Man, where was the ROI in that, you know, like, return of investment. And those are the types of things that you can never lose in building a community, it takes, you know, there's a high level of leading with empathy and thinking through that, that's probably your potential community members are looking for answers that are probably oftentimes the solutions that you truly carry. And those are how you start to create your client journey. And a lot of times people overcomplicate it, and it's like, I honestly say, like, you know, like I, I call myself yeah, I'm a community strategist. But at the end of the day, I also call myself like a soul, do doula. I'm really passionate about getting like spiritually healthy mentally, you know, in all the different ways. And oftentimes, we disconnect, or we numb out, or we don't realize like how not Intune we are with ourselves, and the blueprints and the DNA of the communities that you know, that you're burning in your heart for more already reside within you. And so it's taking a moment for like, what currently doesn't exist? And how can I build that in to my infrastructure, that's going to take you from zero to hero, if you you know, want to put it in? In that form?

Suzanne Chadwick 34:03
We love zero to hear it. It's all good. Yeah, it's so interesting, isn't it? Because like you were just saying at the beginning, we spend so much time creating content that 1% of our audience say, imagine this is the light bulb moment that I've just had. So I want to share two things. I always like to let you know what the number of things I'm about to share with you. The first thing is that sometimes the block is if I create a community, it's going to be really time intensive, like it's going to be it's going to take a lot for me to build it a lot for me to engage it a lot for me to like, create that valuable content, all of that sort of stuff. So that's like the block the barrier that a lot of people have. It's like, Well, number one, if I take it off off the usual platforms that people are on, which we think is Facebook, are they going to come? But then If I do it, oh my gosh, it's going to be so time intensive for me to then build and keep it. But when I think about the amount of time we spend on the ERP like on Instagram for me, like the amount of time I spent there, the amount of time I spent creating content, all of that sort of thing, if I invested that amount of time, in my own platform, instead of giving it away to somebody who like to, Ted's gonna fall off in a minute, if she nods any more to what I'm saying. Instead of, instead of like putting it into something else, it's, I'm just like, Suze, what are you doing, I've got a beautiful community here. And I've got great community within my programs. But I do want to build bigger community. And I do want like all of my followers on say, Instagram, or Facebook, to be able to connect with one another, and to be able to connect with me. And yeah, it's just, it's so interesting. Like what you just said,

Tiffany Acardi 36:07
it's kind of like an upside down Kingdom model, if you think about it, and I don't know what that is, what is that, it's like, when the world tells you like, this is the way to do it. type of thing, because they're like, You need to build it this way, you know, type of thing. And it's just an upside down paradigm, if you start to think about it, in this way, and at the end of the day, it's what, like our souls Our hearts are crying out for is to feel seen and felt and heard, you know, so as business owners, it really puts the stake and not everyone's called to build a community. But the people that know like, like, I know you, like I know, like you are built for massive communities and people to get the impact of what you teach and things like that. And so for you, it's like, you just think about the the time paradigm shift a little bit, because I think my heartbeat for at the end of the day is like, Yeah, I'm a community strategist. And I help people build scale, nurture communities, but the philosophical side of it is that I want to heal society and impact culture. And I'm tired of seeing so many burnt out leaders at the top, that are running themselves into to the ground, because they think that nobody else can handle the burden of their calling. And so they try to put everything on their shoulders, because they don't want to, you know, let anybody else in or nobody could understand what I'm pioneering or what I'm walking through. Whereas when you start to think about a community, and you start to spend your time incorporating and fostering and nurturing a community, your community starts to come alongside of you to carry the weight of that mantle that's on your life. And then we start seeing healthier leaders at the top, because they're not taking all the pressure on themselves, to continue to build whatever they're out to build and what that looks like. And your community is helping curate your content, your community is helping create content with you, your community is now part of your voice. Because now you've been a leader that has unlocked and unleashed other people's creativity, which I know that you do so beautifully. Like you help people become professional speakers, you know, like, you help people build personal brands like you already do that. So naturally, in so many beautiful ways. So in thinking about how you could continue to do that at a mass level. It's just, I think, a really unique and fun opportunity that I get to lean into.

Suzanne Chadwick 38:37
I told you, it's not Sunday, but we are preaching. That was just like, I'm just sitting here just going. You go girl. That was amazing. That was so good. That's my little short there. That's gonna be on socials. I'm just like, oh, my god, that's amazing. And so I think the other question that, that comes up for a lot of people as well is like, how do we make the decision between paid and free community spaces? Because it's like, well, do I just build a community and invite everybody, and then everybody's got access to me? And everybody's got access to everything, and it's free? Or do I only like look at paid communities? Like, what what are you seeing in the market? And what do you think needs to be maybe the thought process between what you decide to do?

Tiffany Acardi 39:25
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I think that you can't go wrong, I think you have to really understand what feels right for you. And oftentimes, you know, like, we're all striving for, like this balance that doesn't necessarily exist, you know, like, there's like seasons that you get to build and then other seasons that you get to come back around to you know, things and so, it might look like for you like to make best use of your time that I'm going to offer a paid community. But what's going to happen is as I'm investing time into this paid community, I have all these members that are underutilized, that like one Get their gifting out there. And maybe they're ones that I can incorporate back into a free model and seeing if they're ones that want to help me moderate and help lead a free community what that looks like. And so I think oftentimes we put pressure on ourselves to make a decision, because especially I know, for a lot of us, we're small business owners, and you have to understand what your bandwidth and your capacity is, at the end of the day, and then ultimately don't make a decision to move forward. Either way. You know, I think from a from a free community aspect, oftentimes, it's going to be looked at a little bit of like, what's your stake in the ground, you know, so for myself, you know, I spend time doing girls at brunch, we have a free membership, and then we have a paid portion of it. And the free membership piece of it is because at the end of the day, like my heart cry is for community, and I want to make sure that it's accessible, and that it continues a community movement that inspires people to get into community. So you might have a message that's similar to that, that you want to be accessible in some ways. But it's also doesn't mean that they get everything, it just means that you get to have an opportunity of maybe that's where you nurture people, and you build relationships, and then you offer an extended invitation and to a greater level of intimacy with you through a paid membership. And so I think ultimately, it kind of it depends on what you're looking for, like I know, like, and even thinking about your business, as soon as it's like, I know that you impact like a lot of leaders and influencers and things like that. So you might be like I don't, I don't really feel called to the free outlet, because I'm impacting leaders and leaders. And I know that that's going to carry my impact a lot further than I could in doing this. And then other people they might, that might not be who their ideal audience is. And so again, they want to get that information out there. So I think that's kind of what you have to discern through and think about what makes it right for you put make a decision, you know, you can't be it's not gonna be right or wrong, and you can pivot and you can evolve along the way. And what it looks like in the beauty of community is as long as you take people on the journey with you, because like any of us who likes change, but I know about me when I worked in corporate, like if people ever included me in that change, I was like, a lot more open to coming on the journey with you, versus being told. And then I was gonna sit in the corner and be like

Suzanne Chadwick 42:41
Hello, this is so good. Oh, my gosh, I love this content. I'm just like, Oh, it's just so juicy. It's so juicy. I hope if you're listening to this, you're like, This is juicy. I hope you've got your notepad and your pen, you're like, right, how am I going to build community? What's the difference between my audience, my community? Is it paid? Is it not? What's going to make it sticky? Like we're giving you gold here, people? This is amazing. Thank you, Tim. So good. So good. And so who are some people that are doing really cool stuff in this space? Like, what are you seeing that's working really well? And that you kind of think is like, like they're doing it really well? Is there anybody that comes to mind?

Tiffany Acardi 43:19
Yeah, so I feel like for a lot of us, if you're in any part of like the design or branding world, Christo has been, you know, he's been doing an amazing job at building community incorporating it through free and paid offerings. You know, he was he spent a lot of time on clubhouse and, you know, spend some time and watch, you know, how he navigated the world. There's also an up and coming guy, his name's Tom Ross. And he's also from the design and branding world, which makes it very intriguing how design and branding influencers are capitalizing on community earlier on and other people. Yeah, he actually wrote a free guide that's like, I can't believe that he's giving it away for free. It's like a 250 page Community Guide. And so that he created interviewing some of the top community influencers and providing tips and different things like that. So he would definitely be somebody that I would check out. I would say that, if anybody's familiar with like Stu McLaren, yeah, he does a tribe, which is called something else now. Oh, yeah. So Chaga like the membership course?

Suzanne Chadwick 44:40
Yes. So yeah, he's connected with Amy Porterfield. So I'm part of a group it was it is it is a it is a course group. But it's also a great community, which is brand master secrets, which is Steven Horahan, which is an Irish guy. He's on YouTube. And there's a lot of connection and community in there, which is really good too. So In the design and brand and creative space, I think that they do community very well.

Tiffany Acardi 45:05
Yeah, it's so it's so fascinating to me.

Suzanne Chadwick 45:09
Yeah. So interesting. Are there any women that are doing great things? I feel like we've named a couple of Do you know, I'm like, well, Tiffany Accardi is coming. COVID I'm like with my cape. We're waiting with bated breath. Where is she? She's coming. I know, a good friend of mine. Her name is Shana brashaad. She is also from clubhouse. She worked with Stu for many years, and helps him build his community. And she really focuses on the back end of community operationally. And so I just, she's a little bit smaller. And not a lot of people know, her. But she's the person behind a lot of big names. That's interesting. Yeah. And building community. And so I love her. And I love like, we always bounce off community off of each other, you know, different things like that. Whereas like, I'm on the like, start a movement, side, build community, you know, galvanize people around that she's on the back end, like operationally very analytical and strategic. And so there's different personalities that are involved in community to, you know, yeah, so interesting.

Tiffany Acardi 46:17
I do have to, I do have to give a shout out to Denise Duffield Thomas. So she's money bootcamp. She's got an incredible community, there's about 1000 Women in boot camp, I want to say, and I was in there, like when she was I always joke, I'm like an OG of the course I was a top 10. Now I think like I bought it when she like, recorded it on a on an iPad. It's all very fancy now, but but I think a big part of that is like people love the community, have the program to where everybody's always talking about money and celebrating each other and all of that. So it's very much like it's not even just the course it's more the culture of the group. And I know that she hired a community manager, like a year or two ago now, who obviously does a lot of work in there. And so I think that that's the other thing too, you know, if it is a paid community, and I think this depends on you know, your business model, too. But if it is a paid community, then as you grow that community, then as you said before, it's not only just, you know, you doing it, but it's maybe you hiring somebody to do it, or getting the people who are highly engaged to be part of it, and maybe they get some perks on the side. And so I think that that's a really interesting way of thinking about it too, as far as being scared of growing, because it's your time and your energy. But like, how else could that look?

Yeah, and that's I mean, I spend my daytime working with eight 910 figure entrepreneurs, working with their community managers, and basically, strategically helping them be extensions of whoever's running the community, but as a community manager, and sometimes there's multiple community managers. But I mean, oftentimes, especially this last year, I spent a great deal of time just educating people on what even a community manager that is not your social media manager, it's not your social seller. It's not your, you know, appointment setter, and I get small businesses, you know, multiple hats.

Think but there is

Suzanne Chadwick 48:25
at a high level tip, what does a community manager do?

Tiffany Acardi 48:29
So your community, so if you think about your social media manager, they're responsible for your external brand, your community manager is responsible for your internal brand. So just really simply in thinking through that, but it's not a client services person or things like that, because a community manager has to be very high level strategy. And working with, you know, however many people that you have involved in your community or your program, and they're helping nurture the relationships, build upon the relationships, deepening the relationships, they're, they're spotlighting people and they're finding, you know, different people to to be bigger stakeholders in the community. One of the clients I work with, like, their community manager, puts together like an E magazine every month, you know, like that represent it and they, they are basically like, oh my gosh, Suze, you just shared an amazing story in the community. Like, we'd love to feature you at our next mastermind, or, you know, just like they're the person that's like making sure that everybody feels, you know, felt safe.

Suzanne Chadwick 49:34
Yeah, absolutely. That's so good. And just one last question like with a community manager, what are some of the key attributes that you think that kind of person needs? Like, if you were kind of if you are hiring a community manager, what would you be looking for?

Tiffany Acardi 49:50
Yeah. Hi, strategy is is very important. I would say that there is some relationship building and personnel level but I would say More than anything, the person needs to be highly responsible analytical, which a lot of people would assume. Yeah,

Suzanne Chadwick 50:10
that's really interesting. I might cause you not to be personable, because it's got to be very relationship driven, but then analytical as well, what analytics are they looking at?

Tiffany Acardi 50:21
So they're tracking sticky rate, engagement rate, retention rates, where where are people falling off, and then there's somebody that's spotting trends of like, Hey, this is a point where lots of people are getting stuck, we actually probably need to create some content around that to help compensate that. And so you have to be somebody that's so dialed in, intuitively, to be able to spot some of those things, but also, in a way that they're able to report on it, and share that information. Let's see. Yeah, it's, it's a blend, it's kind of, you know, it's a little bit of a unicorn role in some ways. And the bigger the organization gets, there's, I mean, there's probably 12 to 15 different roles in a community department from like, community operations, Community Manager, community coordinators, you know, like, all the different aspects of it. So, even for myself, because, because it's such a new niche, it's like, there's new developments that are coming up about it every single week. So I find myself, although I've been in it for 15 years, not knowing we, um, it's also like, every single week, new things are developing about it and new KPIs to track or new, you know, stickiness, you know, all the different things with it. So, but a community manager most of time is helping even drive the content on the forefront, you know, and working with your social media manager to be like, hey, like, these are the things that we need to share that are happening in the community. And they're the, like, I have a diagram and one of the PowerPoints that I do have basically like, here's the community manager, here's your sales department, your marketing department, your customer service department like, and how a community manager literally works with every single organization like department in an organization. Yeah.

Suzanne Chadwick 52:19
So interesting. I will be so interesting to see where this goes as well, too. But I feel like you have dropped some gold on the podcast today. So I so value and appreciate you, and your passion. And I know you're so passionate about this, and I'm so passionate about it. I love it. I think it's like community is the heart of a business. I think I think that that's, you know, I think that you like you said people want to be seen and they want to be heard and they want to be acknowledged. And you know, as a business owner, or for me personally, as a coach, I want them to feel like every time they come to an event or within the community. It's like a big warm hug. It's like they're here. They're home. This is their place. And they're and this is their place to to elevate themselves and elevate others. And I yeah, I love it. I'm here for it. Here, friend, girl. We

Tiffany Acardi 53:12
need it now more than ever. Yeah, absolutely. I think everyone's realized that the digital world is so amazing in so many different ways. And also, it lacks the level of intimacy that our world is craving. And so that's what your community gets to provide. So

Suzanne Chadwick 53:33
yeah, so good. So good. Awesome. So tiff for my listeners, where can they find you? Where's the best place?

Tiffany Acardi 53:40
Yeah, so we're, you know, millennials, we're still on Instagram, Tiffany. Tiffany, Elissa al y, SA, or gals that brunch. And then my website is Tiffany accardi.com, where you can find out some more information as well. And I'm on all the platforms Tiffany, Alyssa, so

Suzanne Chadwick 54:04
amazing. We'll have all of the links as well. But you've also got a community course. Yeah, people can access. And so where's the best place? So tell us a little bit about it. And then where's the best place to find it?

Tiffany Acardi 54:16
Yeah, ultimately, as discussed in this episode, there's a huge need for community education, and making sure that people have the tools to build a community scale a community and nurture community along the way. And there's a lot of steps for that to happen. And so I want to empower this next generation of community builders. So the course is called community navigators. And it's basically how to build a community from the ground up. It's a 12 week course that I'll be walking everybody through modules that I recorded in my home and I walk you guys through how a a community is like, like a home and different rooms and so y'all Have lots of fun if you do it, and yeah, so I'm doing that. And then I just started kind of from there. Like if people have an existing community that they're wanting to kind of capitalize on or feel like it's kind of hit like, a dead ground, if you will. I've started to work with some companies like doing like a three months, you know, community deep dive where I'll come in with your community team and hang out there. And so I have the community course for those that are the beginners and then I have a community strategy, you know, for those that are looking to, you know, expand upon their community and maximize it,

Suzanne Chadwick 55:40
but yeah, sorry, go ahead. And all that'll be on your website.

Tiffany Acardi 55:44
Yes. All that will be on my Lipset. Fantastic. Well, Tim, thanks

Suzanne Chadwick 55:48
so much for hanging out.

Tiffany Acardi 55:49
Yes. Thank you. We're like two peas in a pod. clubhouse.

Suzanne Chadwick 55:55
Love it. So amazing. Thanks, Dave. Yes, thank you. Well, I hope that you enjoyed that. I love my chat with Jeff. And I just think she's got so much value to add. When it comes to talking about communities. I think she thinks about it and looks at it in such a different way. So I absolutely love this conversation. And I hope you did too. Well. That's it for another week. It has been amazing to have you here as always, and remember to follow me on all socials at Sue's Chadwick. But thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, then I would love you to leave a review so that others can find the podcast and come and hang out with us every week. The music to these podcasts was created by axon on SoundCloud. Until next time, have an awesome week and make sure you keep playing big and branding bold.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai