#61 IRL Community Events
Hello & Happy Weekend!
This week I want to share something with you that is on my mind lately ... and that is the importance of balancing in-real-life (IRL) experiences with our virtual communities that have become so core to our existence.
Especially if you read this newsletter 🫣
This week I had two IRL coffee dates.
Thanks to those coffee dates I am going to a somatic sound healing event this weekend, I have a new personal brand photographer, and I am reading a new book.
When was the last time you scheduled a real-life coffee or lunch date?
None of us "have time" for these sorts of things, right?
But the hard truth is that we prioritize what we value. Like Esther Perel, I believe the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives.
That's why building community-driven business is so powerful. At the end of the day it comes down to serving people, transforming lives, and creating a catalyst (aka your product) for building relationships.
As someone who spends a lot of time in a home-office virtually connecting with people all over the world ... that isn't enough.
Balance is so crucial.
Too much IRL & local community breeds ignorance. Your world-view is suddenly the tiniest spec in a much larger Universe.
Too much online community breeds loneliness. You find that you don't have people to share the simple joys of life with.
You need a balance of both to be whole.
Esther Perel was recently on Brené Brown's podcast speaking about "Artificial Intimacy" – the episode was recorded live at SXSW and I highly recommend adding it to your listen-list!
My friend Cat started a great discussion on LinkedIn about the episode pulling out this quote:
“Modern loneliness masks as hyper-connectivity. I can have 1,000 virtual friends, but nobody to feed my cat, nobody to ask to go and pick up a prescription at the pharmacy, but 1,000 people who are giving me likes and dislikes, and all kinds of things that are now becoming the foundation of my self-esteem. And that’s a different kind of loneliness.”
I've thought about this a lot having moved during the pandemic to a new city and having to make local friends as an adult... while simultaneously having what feels like 100s of internet friends (and family) I talk to very regularly.
At some point I had this similar realization ... I need people to watch my dog and go to dinner with!
I found that local community was the answer. I started volunteering with Creative Mornings and meeting up with people for coffee that I met there or were connected to. I've even had coffee and lunch with people that read this very newsletter that live in the Baltimore-Washington area.
That's where internet communities meet in-person experiences.
IRL options for your business
The most successful programs, memberships, and online businesses today are offering or planning to offer in-person experiences.
Nearly all of my clients are thinking about this and discussing it.
There are many ways this can manifest:
Retreats – I recently posted about how Anna Nassery kicked off her 10-month mastermind with an in-person retreat. It will make the next 9 months so much more potent. Retreats are highly curated community-activation events. They can be super transformational in a short period of time.
Conferences (large-scale) – self-explanatory but please don't go all Tony Robbins on us without a planner like Melissa Park. Large scale events are really hard to curate a positive customer experience, and be profitable, without an expert.
Add-on event – If there is a conference or large scale event that many of your members are going to, you can do a separate "unaffiliated" event during the same time (before, after, or evening). My friend Jay Clouse is the king of this! He hosts a dinner at creator conferences like Craft + Commerce. This is also super common at SXSW.
Satellite city meetups – Provide your members with an easy way to meet up in person. Most of my client communities have a space for this, ie "meet-up" channel or the ability to add events to a community calendar. You can even provide a host-an-event guideline.
What should you charge?
The idea of putting together an event can sound exciting and expensive. You have to make sure that it's worth it as a business owner.
The question to be asking: What's the value to the business?
Of course it is hard to put a price tag on relationship building, but I am a firm believer in balancing business needs and customer needs when making product (or event) decisions.
Free – Emily Hirsh, who I love because she is a marketer that talks about providing exceptional service and follow-through, announced this week that she is hosting a free 1-day event in Austin, TX. There is a 100% chance she's selling into services + programs during it (that's why it's free) but it's still going to be a super valuable community building event.
At Cost – If you don't have room in the budget to spend on the event but want as many people as possible from your community to be able to attend without being cost prohibitive, then you can run the event at-cost for you.
Inclusionary – You can include the cost of an in-person experience like a retreat in a larger coaching package, mastermind, or membership! This is becoming more commonplace, especially for high-ticket experiences.
Profit – You can always host events with the purpose of a profit but margins are tricky. I often see people that take the inclusionary route also offering tickets for sale to those same events to increase profit margins.
Reflect on your business:
How might you add an in-person community activation to your products and services? Get creative!
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