In my community post, I shared the building blocks of community creation.  The gist was recruit a small group of 5-12 people, then recruit a group of 10-50 people as your ‘tribe/community/whatever.’  It got even the great Tamar saying nice things about it.  But the ‘how to’ portion for each step was a little lacking.  So I’m going to go through and detail in detail what I’ll be doing or have done in each section.

Build a great core community: Find 5-12 Likeminded People

The first thing that you have to do is build a group of 5-12 likeminded people.  These folks are the most important people that you’ll be working with.  These are the folks that are fans, friends, and hopefully a lifelong relationship of people that have your back and vice versa.  Bottom line is that you have to recruit them, you have to give to them, and you have to do most of the work to keep your group connected to you.

Think about that: you have to do most of the work.  This “group” isn’t necessarily a group that meets formally, knows about its own existence, or is anything more than a set of promises about what you’re offering. You’ll probably give to others as much or more than they give to you.  Getting hostile or entitled about your commitment to the group will kill the value you get.  In fact, learning to be of service is the most important part of the equation.

Now, with that out of the way, who makes up the group?

I have 11 people that I’ve identified as part of my “mastermind.”  They all answer my emails, and I think that they all “like” me.

3 are older than me by 10+ years.

6 are about my age (within 6 years).

2 are 5+ years younger.

All but 2 have their own businesses as their primary source of income.  Of my group, I don’t know exact numbers, but 4 present themselves as making substantially more income than me.  Only 2 make less.  5 are in the same category income wise, within 25%.  I admire–at my core–100% of the people in my “advisory board.”  I am 100% committed to adding real value and real help to them.

Finally, of the 11 people I’m in touch with: 3 are vendors/suppliers.  2 are former and occasional customers, one is a direct competitor.  6 are unrelated business owners.

Ideally, then the makeup of the group should consist roughly of 20%+ people above your level financially/professionally.  Roughly 60% of folks AT your level, and then 20% of folks that are just starting out or getting to your level.     You can’t be a snob about your level, and realize that people present themselves as being more financially successful than they are.

Second: Add Value Without (immediate) Expectation of Financial Return

Real value, real insight, real things that they really want.  Not just excess work-product you have lying around, but spend real time in investing in this group, an hour or two per member, per month.  This is a commitment: if you have 20 members, you spend up to 20 hours looking at their stuff, thinking about how you can hep and helping.  You can make referrals, you can think of their business in a different way, and just give of yourself.

Make referrals, without strings or a rake.  Make introductions based on adding value to their business.

Look at their sites, and move them towards best practices.

Do favors, offer the use of your assitant without any strings.

Believe me.  You’ll get paid back.  Not always directly.  Your attitude will change and you won’t come off as someone that always has to maximize their return.  You’ll become a Trust Agent of sorts.  Anyone you can refer, refer.  Make sure it doesn’t waste their time.  Figure out what you’re doing right that they should be doing.  If you have a helpful service, recommend it (without attachment to the outcome).   Try to help, ask what is helpful, useful, and offer yourself as a resource.

When you think hard enough, you’ll find a way to deliver real value.  It might not come in the glorious way that you want.  I helped a mortgage broker friend of mine organize 80 files.    That was service, and there was no glory involved, just simple friendship.  I got nothing out of it except this: getting over myself and my notion of what I should be doing for a few hours.  And that was a good gift for me.

When you intend to add real value, you’ll eventually do so and you’ll have the right to ask things of people.

Third Step: Keep In Touch On Purpose

Relationships are like teeth: when you ignore them, they will go away.  Some people are naturally in sync and connected with you.  Other people just aren’t in sync and you have to work at it.  That’s OK, different people take different efforts, we as humans are all individuals with individual needs.  You have to do the work to stay in touch with people.  If you’re really a “people person” this will not burden you.

It is your job to keep in touch with people.  It’s not theirs to keep in touch with you, get over yourself.  You have to do all the work to keep your community together for a long time–and this includes staying in touch on purpose.

I have an excel spreadsheet with my core 11 and my “nifty fifty” and I know when the last time I spoke with each is.  I’m not really strict about this, but I know that I’ve been in touch.  If I decide to remove/promote someone into another group, I can do this there as well.  I know that when I talk to people on a regular basis, I have more sales. Jesse Petersen and I were talking about it earlier.  When we are engaged, good things happen.  When we try to be in touch, we tune in to opportunities that can help other people, and in turn they tune into opportunities that can help us.

For those people that I know I’m going to get that yell about this not being “authentic” or “organic.”  Go crunch yourself.  Seriously.  If you like someone you’ll find a way to get in touch with them.  If you plan in advance it shows that you give a crap about your community.   I need to make sure that I honor the people that I’ve picked in my group and help them.  Leaving it to the vagaries of my memory is showing people I don’t care.

Fourth Step:  Managing Expectations

What I’m outlining has made me money.  This practice I’ve done for years unbeknownst to my “nifty fifty” and “11 disciples.”   It didn’t make me money fast and it didn’t make me money in the ways you think it might.  I got to look at good examples for myself.

The people that you pick are not necessarily going to do or refer business to you.  (Doesn’t mean you can’t do loads of business with them, but you have to continue to earn that right).  You’re here to help them. Any bits of knowledge or fun you get out of that is gravy.  You’ll see other people’s businesses up close, and you will pick up phrases and habits that go into yours.

You’ll learn a new way of thinking.  And you’ll change into someone that’s consistently helpful.

And, you’ll build trust from strangers  because when you have the “always generous, always giving,” vibe that’s attractive and magnetic.  You’re proving that your business is solid enough to give away time, and is strong enough to be generous.

When you have your core group built, start getting in the habit of adding value, presenting opportunities and making introductions.  Rotate people out occasionally.  This is your board of directors, your brain trust and the folks that you are syncing up with.

Chris and I are constantly talking about personality traits and habits that point us toward or away from success. One of the biggest impediments, we both agree, is making yourself wait for perfection, 3 years under the belt, a large portfolio—or whatever your imagined starting point is—before diving in and getting something done. Put something off too long because we’re waiting for X and Y, and it rarely happens. That’s why we like Adam Queen.

Adam is already marking a name for himself and doing well in the Ohio wedding and commercial photography scene. Lately he’s been doing some destination weddings, being flown to dream locations, getting paid well, and having a blast—something he’d be crazy not to try for more of! That’s why he came to us.

To develop the destination wedding segment of his business, Adam realized he needed to develop a separate web presence to get more attention on the national level.

So we designed The Weddings Destination for him.

It matches his cool, young aesthetic and was built to his taste. Having spoken with him at length and seeing a lot of his work, I know it’s going to compliment his web presence nicely. Adam made the right choice in letting us put his phone number and email address right in the header image for maximum accessibility.

Adam Queen is blogging about it while others are waiting by the phone (or Mac, as it were) for business. He’s going to be putting down his thoughts, writing about the niche industry, and getting it all out there for people to see. Soon, he’ll be highly visible for terms like “destination wedding photography” and the whole gambit of niche keywords. The Thesis backbone that we always build our WordPress sites upon will make sure that search engines recognize his online authority and guide prospects directly to him.

Adam prefers doing over waiting, and we couldn’t be happier to have him as a client!

Eco-friendly apparel printers Printbrands™ have a clearly-defined and innovative brand concept, one that caught our attention long before they approached us about building a blog on their existing website. Simply put, their site was just begging for a blog that could effectively communicate their extremely marketable vision and help build an organic fan base.

From their Company Philosophy:

Printbrands™  was founded in 2009 with the goal to provide screen printing, embroidery and custom apparel services from suppliers that produce socially and ecologically conscious fashion. At Printbrands™  we take ethical trade very seriously. We believe that high quality and reasonably priced custom apparel products can be procured from suppliers that fully embrace ethical trade.

Co-Owner J Noel Kvale contacted me via Twitter (as happens more and more these days) after we had casually spoken a bit about his social media efforts, and soon Flat Rate had ourselves a new client and Printbrands™ had themselves a shiny new blog.

Being a print shop, Printbrands™ has highly exacting brand standards surrounding things like fonts and colors used, and we were happy to do our best to rise to the occasion. The Printbrands™ blog matches the overall aesthetic of their existing website, while adding to their online presence in a powerful way. J has assured me that he’s just brimming with content ideas and eager to consistently broadcast his brand message, and I believe him! It takes a special kind of business owner to be able to articulate their vision in new and meaningful ways, and we see the new Printbrands™ blog as the perfect means of doing so.

We’re proud to present the first post on the Printbrands™ blog! Stop by and leave a comment!

Year One

Nanette Labastida had seen our work on fellow Austin real estate pro’s JBC Media blog, but was looking for something a bit different. Already active on Facebook, we got to talking about the huge boost in visibility a custom Facebook Page could lend her business.

Nanette already had the bare bones structure up, but it wasn’t doing much for her. So, Flat Rate came along and created her a clickable landing page linking to other areas in her profile and some external sites of her choice. We then created a custom retro-style mashup image from some beautiful photos she had taken of her favorite places in Austin—this went on her About Austin tab.

Finally, we were able to select with her one of the best custom Facebook URLs we’ve seen, facebook.com/EastAustinHomes. This is an absolute monster for SEO purposes, and Google will soon associate this page with her specialty of East Austin real estate and feature it prominently when people search for it (and they certainly are searching for homes in this area).

Here it is, folks: East Austin Homes.

Facebook Pages are a new phenomenon, but they’re no passing fad. Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world and all small businesses should have a compelling presence on this social media behemoth.

We’re excited to see the ROI start to flow for Nanette, and we’re honored she chose us to help make it happen.

Click here to find out more about getting your own custom Facebook Page!

Your list is your life. Every single small business owner needs to maintain a list of everybody that they’re in contact with. More importantly, you need to always be acquiring new people.

In today’s webinar, you will learn exactly how to manage, acquire, and get clients from your e-mail list. You will learn how to set up a landing page, how to set up an opt in box,  and so much more.

The call is  at noon Eastern, 9 AM Pacific. As always, our daily training is free. So join us to learn the basics of list building for “real” businesses.

Remember: without a list, how will your customers know to call you? How much money are you losing by not staying in touch with all of your customers?

Mortgage planner Dale Curtis understands that mortgages, markets, and related topics can be overwhelming and confusing to the ordinary consumer.  That’s why he consulted with Flat Rate Web Jobs when he was ready to reach out via blogging, understanding that a polished  presentation helps add the credibility required to connect with new customers finding him online.

A no-nonsense font on the header image helps emphasize the serious nature of Dale’s message, while design details like reflective graphics and the gray, parchment-textured page  background convey attention to detail and quality that carries over in visitors’ impressions of Dale’s work. Dale also included contact information so prospective clients can reach him quickly and easily.

Now Dale has the perfect venue to present his knowledge in a way that leaves no doubt as to his professionalism. We look forward to seeing how Dale leverages his wisdom to help clarify Boise mortgage matters–and grow his business!

If you’d like help reaching new customers, Flat Rate Web Jobs can help you get the business blog you want, right now!

We’re getting caught up here at Flat Rate and I wanted to let people know that yes, indeed we’re delivering blogs as we remodel our site.

With that said, the above header is from a blog we recently did for Andre S. Barnes.  Andre is a mortgage loan officer in Maryland.  He has been originating a while, and he wanted a place where he could educate his customers on the ins and outs of the mortgage world.

We did this site in green and red at Andre’s request, and used simple serif typography to help call attention to his authority as a mortgage expert.

We look forward to seeing what Andre does with the site, and will check back here in 6 months to see what’s happening!

Of course, if you want to get a blog, you know to get a blog from us by clicking here.

While most of our clients here at Flat Rate Web Jobs want (and need) a customized look to visually communicate their message, sometimes we meet a client who requires an entirely different service. David Knapp at Artisan Lighting is a great example.

David, unlike most of our customers, came to us knowing exactly what he wanted, design-wise. That’s because he already had it in a website he was happy with for his business at ArtisanOutdoorLighting.com.

What David didn’t have was a blog that shared the look and feel of his business site– that is, until Flat Rate Web Jobs delivered the Artisan Lighting Blog, designed to his specifications. Like his main business site, the new blog is framed with multiple photos of his outdoor lighting artistry, keeping David’s work center stage, just the way he wants it.

Whether you already know exactly what you want or you’d rather put the experience of our professional designers to work for you, Flat Rate Web Jobs is ready to help you get the blog you want, too.

When Jayne Overbrook, Grand Rapids Residential, Shortsale and Foreclosure Specialist, was ready to expand her web influence, she entrusted Flat Rate Web Jobs with the vital task of helping her stand out from the crowd. Jayne choose to get herself noticed by selecting a bold red for her site, with black, gray and white accents.

A prominent script font used for Jayne’s name first catches the eye, which then leads inward, toward a focal photo featuring Jane’s welcoming smile; the visual flow was designed to help emphasize Jayne’s approachability and friendliness– just in time. Because after you see Jayne’s photo, the eye comes to rest on Jayne’s prominent contact info, smartly included in an easy-to-locate spot atop every page.

We’re looking forward to seeing how Jayne grows her site (and her influence) in the future!

Of course, if you’re ready to get noticed, you know we’d be happy to help you get your own blog now!

We’ve been quiet lately because we’re getting ready for our grand opening.  We’ve been doing what Johnny calls “machine building.” over the past two weeks.

Still, we’ve had a chance to deliver a couple of nifty looking small business blogs:

So Cal Real Estate Voice:

A cool little site that has big ambition to be “all things to all people.”

We’ll be watching Grace very closely as time goes on.

Horse Dollars–A blog about the business of horses.  For times when “sense” isn’t enough.

Both sites are are done by ambitious professionals, were delivered quickly, and are highly exciting.

IF you’re ready to get a blog, go ahead and go to http://flatratewebjobs.com/getablog

And away you’ll go!