Shana Lynn [00:00:00]:

You reach that next level of success, there's gonna be new challenges that you face and have to figure out. So I think holding on to that is some end goal that's gonna lead to some secret of happiness and success, you often end up disappointed.

Bryan McAnulty [00:00:13]:

Shana Lynn is an expert at building thriving online communities. She has over a decade of experience in helping top tier subscription companies start and grow online communities and keep engaging up. She's worked with top brands and entrepreneurs including Amy Porterfield who said that working with Shanna was, and I quote, one of the best decisions I've made. Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Shanna and we'll find out her secret to building thriving online communities around a brand. Welcome to the creator's adventure where we interview creators from around the world hearing their stories about growing a business. Hey everyone, I'm Brian McAnulty the founder of Heights Platform, lets get into it. Many have asked me what software I use to record such high quality video for this podcast. I use Riverside, and what's great about Riverside is it records the local camera feed from you and your guests around the world, which means crisp 4 k video without having to worry about blurriness due to Internet hiccups.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:12]:

Riverside is also a great editor, fitting with my philosophy of making it easy for yourself to create because there is nothing that your guests or you have to download. We also use Riverside's AI Magic Clips to find interesting moments for our episode intros. And I'm happy to announce that Riverside is sponsoring this episode. And if you sign up at creators.riverside.fm/ creators adventure and use code creators adventure, you'll get 15% off. You can find the link in the episode description as well. Now back to the show. Hey, everyone. We're here today with Shana Lynn.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:45]:

She is the trusted advisor for top tier subscription companies looking to create thriving communities and increase retention. With over a decade of experience, she offers a unique blend of proven principles and data driven strategies. Shanna, welcome to the show. Hey.

Shana Lynn [00:02:02]:

Thanks for having me, Brian.

Bryan McAnulty [00:02:04]:

Yeah. I'm glad to talk with you today. My first question for you is what would you say is the biggest thing either that you did or you are doing that has helped you to achieve the freedom to do what you enjoy?

Shana Lynn [00:02:16]:

Wow. I love this question. I think for me, it's just continuing to take the next best step. I think oftentimes people get really caught up on the big long term plan when that long term plan almost never comes to fruition for anybody. So I entered into full time entrepreneurship over a decade ago, and it was one decision that led to another decision. And I just continued to follow the things that I was passionate about and that people were asking for from me. And that led to a very successful career and community and retention strategy that I could have never designed because it really didn't even exist 10 years ago.

Bryan McAnulty [00:02:52]:

Yeah. That's good advice. Yeah. We're not gonna we're not about to turn this podcast into, like, all about a mindset or or Buddhism or something, but but I wanna add to that that it's very easily, very easy as an entrepreneur to think about only that that end destination Yeah. And not enjoy where you're at. And if you can manage to just focus on every day you're doing something that you enjoy, then, like, that's the end goal anyway. And, because you don't know where you're going to end up. You don't know how things are going to change.

Bryan McAnulty [00:03:26]:

But I I think you have some, great advice there.

Shana Lynn [00:03:29]:

Yeah. And if you reach that next level of success, there's gonna be new challenges that you face and have to figure out. So I think holding on to that is some end goal that's gonna lead to some secret of happiness and success. You often end up disappointed. So if you just learn how to enjoy the journey and find joy in those little things and the people that you're serving today, whether it be 5 or 5,000, then that's really the secret.

Bryan McAnulty [00:03:52]:

Yeah. Yeah. I completely agree. So today you help creators and coaches scale their businesses by building online communities. Why are communities important for creators or business owners in today's online landscape?

Shana Lynn [00:04:06]:

It's even more important today because even a lot of the large corporations that we're seeing are really focusing on community. And that's because, especially, the generation that's coming under the millennial generation are people who want to get recommendations for friends. They want to build trust. They want a face that they can invest in and not a logo that they can invest in. So having that community driven brand not only creates more loyalty and increases conversions, but it actually leads to better retention and, ultimately, more lifetime value for the people that you serve. But the thing that I love the most is that it leads to much better products. So if you're somebody right now who you're just dreaming about creating a course, you have a passion or an interest, the best thing that you can do is to create a community around that passion or interest and just listen. Ultimately, if ultimately, if you listen long enough, you're gonna know exactly what course or membership they want you to create.

Shana Lynn [00:05:10]:

And then that's gonna lead you to create a better product that actually sells versus sitting in your little dark hole of a home office and trying to, you know, create a master plan for what this course is gonna be and then selling it and it's crickets because you didn't actually create the community first. So if we can create that community first business, we create better products that typically sell easier. And then, ultimately, when we have communities tied to our products, it always increases retention because relationships is a key aspect of retention as well as recognition and results, which all can happen within a community.

Bryan McAnulty [00:05:45]:

Yeah. Totally agree. And with that that point about being able to get feedback from people, it's like it feels like almost cheating because you could sit there and think really long about, oh, well, I should do it like this. And and you've heard one little piece of something from someone. So you're like, okay. I've heard that. So I'm gonna think of all how I'm gonna announce this or release this. But if you just ask people first and find out from them, like, it makes the whole thing clear right away.

Bryan McAnulty [00:06:14]:

And you'll you'll hear things that you never would have thought of if you just tried to spend all that time planning.

Shana Lynn [00:06:20]:

Exactly. My favorite example of this is a creator named Casey Ho who runs a a company called Popflex Active. So she was like a Pilates influencer, and then ultimately, she listened to her community. So she had Pilates training videos and all of that. But she listened to her community and all they did was complain about activewear for women. And so she decided to create her own activewear line. It sells out pretty much every time she's a does a drop. But it's so fun because she involves her community.

Shana Lynn [00:06:47]:

You can watch her do this on Instagram. She involves them in her design decisions. She just released something that she called, like, a hiking overall jumpsuit. And immediately, the hikers were like, there's wide legs at the bottom. Hello, ticks, bugs, tree limbs. Like, this isn't gonna work for us. So she, like, 2 days later, did a post saying sorry to the hikers, talking about all the gardeners and painters and photographers that were excited about it. And then she had 3 different design sketches already done for the hikers that were cuffed around the ankles and asked them to vote on which one they want.

Shana Lynn [00:07:21]:

Now I better you know, I you know this, but when she drops that new design with the cuff that they chose, it's gonna sell better than 1 if she hadn't asked. So she's a great example of, you know, even with physical products, how we can get that kind of feedback and get answers that lead to higher selling products.

Bryan McAnulty [00:07:40]:

Yeah. So can you walk us through kind of the initial steps when you want to kind of build a thriving community for a new client? What would you say are, like, the foundational elements to prioritize?

Shana Lynn [00:07:55]:

Yeah. So for us, we really have, like, a framework that we work from, and there's 4 different foundational pieces. So the first piece is cause, which is having that really clearly defined purpose. We always tell people that if you can't clearly communicate why people should be a part of your community, then your community is going to suffer. And, ultimately, you aren't gonna know how to help them make progress because you don't know why they're there in the first place. So that one tends to be pretty simple, but people will skip over it. And then the second one is culture, which is all about those beliefs, behaviors, and boundaries, shaping that common identity and making sure that we're creating a place where people can feel like they belong. If we don't have a culture, there's there's nothing for people to belong to, and there's nothing that makes our community distinct among all of the other communities out there on the Internet.

Shana Lynn [00:08:47]:

And then the third one is communication. And we've been talking about this already, but it's that outgoing communication to our community members because we're essentially cruise directors, like, making sure that they know where everything is and know when to show up and how to get there and what time. But also that communication that's coming to us from our community members as well as their communication to each other, that engagement. It's not a community if we're just talking at people, which a lot of people translate audience and community the same, but it's very different. We need our community members to be talking to each other. And then finally, it is connection. And the biggest mistake people make with connection is just throwing more engagement ideas at the wall, but it starts with safety. It starts with that need for authenticity, for transparency.

Shana Lynn [00:09:35]:

If we don't have safety, if people don't trust you, then they aren't gonna show up in an authentic way in your community, and you're gonna struggle to get engagement. So we come up with a plan for those 4 areas, cause, culture, communication, and connection to make sure that once that community gets going, we we know how to keep it sustaining. Whether it's a community of 5 to start or a community of 500, it doesn't matter. We need those 4 elements in place.

Bryan McAnulty [00:10:01]:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think everybody wants to be a part of something, but often people make the mistake of trying to be too general with the community. And it it ends up not really being for anyone. But you wanna be specific because that's what that's what the value and desire is of everyone. They're looking for, where can I find people just like me who are doing the same thing? And if it's too general, then there's, at at best, maybe uncertainty that that even what they're looking for is there. And at worst, they just never even have the thought that what they're looking for is there.

Shana Lynn [00:10:36]:

Exactly. I have a lot of friends who have, memberships in the art space and the painting space, but they can all actually support each other because each of them teaches in a unique way and attracts a unique audience. And so one of them, she didn't even intend to do this, but most of her people in her community, although she's young and in her, you know, mid thirties, Most people in her community are retired. They're over the age of 65. She never marketed specifically to that audience, but that just tends to be who was attracted to the type of painting and art that she teaches. And so she's really leaned into that, and that's ended up creating a really unique place in her community. So all of these artists doing the same thing can support each other because they're each teaching something in a unique way. They have a unique community and a unique culture that makes it a great experience for people who are a right fit.

Bryan McAnulty [00:11:27]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's great advice. And and actually, I I did a podcast yesterday with artists, who are collaborating to, together. And I I think that is a missed missed opportunity of many creators that if someone's in a similar space, like, they don't have to be competition. You can actually find ways to bring that audience together and benefits everybody.

Shana Lynn [00:11:50]:

Yeah. It definitely does. And I think, you know, when we have this competitive mentality, we get too focused on what everybody else is doing and we stop just listening to our community and listening for what they want.

Bryan McAnulty [00:12:04]:

Yeah. Yeah. True. So we saw on your website, like, you've worked with many high profile clients such as Amy Porterfield, who is really renowned in the course creation space. Can you share what you would think maybe as a standout example of a community that you worked with and kind of detail how you transformed it from struggling to thriving?

Shana Lynn [00:12:25]:

Yeah. Okay. So one great example is and I won't say exactly who this client is because I don't have permission, but they had a coaching community, a multimillion dollar membership community that they had launched. And when they we first started working together, they had 88% retention, which seems like, to a lot of people, are really great retention. But when you get into thousands of members and you're losing 12% of those every single month, you have to be acquiring or selling a whole lot of people in every single month just to sustain that membership number. So we were able to get them up to a 94% retention rate, which has completely revolutionized their business from a profitability perspective or revenue And how we did that was helping them do a lot of the things we've been talking about, get more focused. So they had a pretty broad coaching perspective. They felt like the topic was niche, but it was so broad that when people came in, they didn't know what results they should expect or what they should be doing to make progress.

Shana Lynn [00:13:31]:

They lacked that kind of clarity. And once they got in, they had a ton of courses on a lot of different topics to help you achieve a lot of different goals inside of your life and business, and that ultimately leads to overwhelm. When there's no clear path and no clear direction, people get really overwhelmed. And then they also were doing the same thing on the marketing side, which marketing and, course and membership success go hand in hand. Because if we're marketing with 6 different webinar topics, for example, then people are coming in with 6 different expectations that we now need to try to meet effectively, which is really hard to do. Now, a lot of platforms out there, I know you all have really done a good job at this, giving people the ability to create more customized and personalized experiences depending on their needs. So we are getting better at serving different people's needs within the community. But, ultimately, if we're not really clear on that one purpose while people are here why people are here so that we can help them make progress, then it makes everything else, the communication strategy, the connection strategy, makes everything else really hard.

Shana Lynn [00:14:36]:

So we just really narrowed in. We rebranded. We redid the website design and everything else so that we could focus in that onboarding, which is the most important part of every course in membership after the sale is onboarding. We could focus that onboarding in to help them get quick wins and have a clear path to success inside of the program.

Bryan McAnulty [00:14:56]:

Yeah. Yeah. The onboarding is super important. And, like, that was such a a huge kind of fundamental reason of why I wanted to build the software that I ended up building in the 1st place. Because years ago, back in, like, 2012, 2013, we have these incredible digital marketers that they they sell you on this result they're gonna teach you, and you buy it. And then it's basically like a couple of videos behind the paywall. And it's not really their fault, but the the technology wasn't really allowing them to create a better experience. But in the end, you wanna get a result for your customers because that's how, like, first of all, you'll feel better about that.

Bryan McAnulty [00:15:35]:

You're you're trying to actually help them, but that's how you get great reviews. That's how you get them going and telling other people. And so much of that comes from that initial experience of, like, kicking it off right so they get onboarded and then they get this habit of engaging. Because otherwise, I think it's a lot harder to, like, bring them back in later and say, hey. Like, you signed up for it. I noticed, like, a couple weeks have gone by. You didn't do anything. They kinda, like, lost some of the hype that they had right when they bought it.

Bryan McAnulty [00:16:04]:

You gotta, like, go back to

Shana Lynn [00:16:06]:

it. Yeah. Exactly. And we're in the attention game. And it's really hard to get people's attention nowadays. I mean, it's always been hard, but it's even harder now. And so when we have their attention, we get them to make that sale, and then we lose their attention. It's that much harder to get it back.

Shana Lynn [00:16:23]:

And so what happens is we have a lot of programs who have members who never log in. They're completely inactive. They don't make progress. They're asking for refunds or they're canceling right away. And that was our fault because we did a terrible job at keeping their attention and guiding them from one step to the next through our onboarding experience.

Bryan McAnulty [00:16:40]:

Yeah. Yeah. And I also wanna go back to the point that you mentioned about that retention. So for those watching or listening who you have a community, but it's not like a membership subscription, when you have a subscription model, it's really important to keep attention to your member retention, not only for, like, engagement of everyone in the community, but for your revenue and your growth. Because if you have, like, 10% or more of your customers that you're losing every month, it's really, really hard to grow because it's not it's almost not a recurring business model at that point. You have to just keep getting new customers even to stay where you're at. And it's a lot easier if you can have everybody enjoy it and keep paying you every month. And then getting a couple new clients is enough to actually grow versus just trying to replace everybody that you're losing.

Shana Lynn [00:17:32]:

Exactly. A lot of people totally don't understand the value of retention, and I think a lot of it is you've kinda mentioned this before, but in the past, there were so much and there still is so much emphasis on the making the sale. There's so much emphasis on marketing and sales and that, you know, creation of that initial product that people don't realize that the actual profit margin is in a business is made in keeping your customers longer, whether that's keeping them in your recurring revenue model, so that subscription based model, or whether that's selling them a course and then sending them to other courses or other programs that you have, it's way easier to get an existing customer to continue to buy from you or buy from you again than it is to convince a stranger to buy from you for the first time.

Bryan McAnulty [00:18:19]:

Yeah. Definitely. And I think that many newer creators overlook that. They think, I got these customers. How do I get more? Well, if you have another product already, the people who are most likely to buy that other product are your existing customers.

Shana Lynn [00:18:32]:

Exactly. And then what happens is is they put all their attention back on marketing and sales and they don't really focus on helping their people get results, and then they lose those existing customers.

Bryan McAnulty [00:18:43]:

Yeah. So we we talked about you just mentioned the importance of onboarding. What do we do? Let's say that we've got a community and we messed up. And the the engagement, we're just really struggling with it. How can we go to try to get some of that back if we already have a community and we're just not happy with where it is currently?

Shana Lynn [00:19:06]:

Yeah. So go back to those four principles we talked about, cause, culture, communication, and connection, and outline the strategy that you want. Reimagine this community that is thriving around the solid cause, a really clear culture, great communication strategy, and a safe place where people feel like they connect. Imagine what that looks like and build that out. And then you're the visionary. You are the leader of this community. You're the torch bearer. So that means that when you make a mistake, it's part of building trust and creating safety to actually own up to that.

Shana Lynn [00:19:38]:

And then to recast the vision for where this community is going to head. So we often have with clients what we call realignment moments, where we sit down, we come up with a new strategy, we come up with this new compelling vision for a community, and then we go into the community. And any way we can communicate with them, whether we are sharing a video or doing a post or doing email. We do it all, and we apologize to them for not caring and culture cultivating the kind of community that we wanted. And there's all sorts of reasons creator just do it, so we're honest about what that reason is, and then we go forth and we cast that new vision for community and we'd get their buy in. We ask for them to start showing up in these new ways, to have these new behaviors with us, to look forward to these new changes that are coming. Now you will always get pushed back anytime that you put a stake in this hand. You will definitely get pushed back, but you're standing for something, which means that you can't be ignored.

Shana Lynn [00:20:41]:

And this is what we're looking for, is to have this kind of community that is going to attract, and it's going to repel. The worst thing you can do is create this kind of, you know, just bland community that's easily ignored. I would rather have a very strong community that is either repelling people or attracting people. So you recast this new vision and then you move forward with carrying that through knowing it's gonna be challenging, but you make sure that you have that onboarding, that new onboarding in place. So as new members come in, they're getting the new experience. They're getting the cause. They're understanding the culture from the beginning. You're taking them from one step to the next.

Shana Lynn [00:21:21]:

You're helping make sure that they're active. We have to get those existing members on board first, and that's that realignment moment, that realignment strategy.

Bryan McAnulty [00:21:31]:

Yeah. And it's definitely it's it's a good thing to be opinionated and and very clear on what the vision is of that community because, like, like, that's the reason people are joining the community in the 1st place. Because if they're on social media, they feel like, well, where where are my people? Where are the people that are have these same interest, feelings, like, things that I do? Where can I find them? And if your community is, like, for everyone, then it's not the place that they're looking for.

Shana Lynn [00:21:58]:

It's really hard because I think our culture tells us that we have to be accepting and kind to everyone. And I whenever I speak on stages, I kinda tell them, like, that's actually not what we're doing in community, which I I think is countercultural and it's challenging. But the reality is is that if we're accepting to everybody, then we're exclusive to nobody, and there is no very clear culture. So if we think of communities of old, which is where I've developed my framework and studied, and when you look at gang sororities, you know, movements that have changed history. When we look at political parties, these are all really strong communities that have lasted for 100 and 100 of years. Well, what do they have in common? Well, they exclude certain people. They exclude people based on their behaviors in a lot of ways. It's these behaviors are accepted, and then we have boundaries in order to protect the community and keep people focused on the goals.

Shana Lynn [00:22:54]:

So I when I was in a sorority in in college, which I never thought I would be in, but their cultures swept me up. When I was in that sorority, I got in trouble. I got called to standards because I was breaking rules that impacted that sorority's culture. So they had boundaries. And, I had to either function within those boundaries and uphold them, or I was gonna be kicked out of that sorority. And the same thing is true for our communities. If you wanna create a safe place, then you have to have those boundaries as well.

Bryan McAnulty [00:23:26]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's great advice. So I think we covered it a little bit already with everything you just mentioned, but I'm curious. What are some other common challenges that you've encountered when working with helping somebody on the online community?

Shana Lynn [00:23:41]:

I think one of the other common challenges is that people feel like they have an engagement problem and they're, you know, posting in the group and nobody's responding and they're like, what do I do? Nobody's I think, oftentimes, we forget, especially when our communities are smaller, that those mass post strategies that people are using in groups of a thousand are maybe not the most effective strategy for us right now. And the beautiful thing is is that when you have a small community, now is the time to be private messaging people, to be reaching out to people with handwritten notes, to be, you know, writing personal emails to them, to be hopping on calls with them, to connect, to engage, to learn from them, to help them make progress. If we go too quickly to a polished communication strategy that has us doing these canned posts every single week, we miss that opportunity to do the unscalable activities that we get to do as a new creator. And so that's one of the biggest mistakes I I see is when people who are new creators, who have young communities with fewer members, are looking at the communities that they're a part of that have thousands of members, and they're trying to mimic those same strategies. When really, you have a huge advantage to do more 1 on 1 interaction.

Bryan McAnulty [00:24:58]:

Yeah. I really like that. I think that is really excellent advice. And those people that you do that 1 on 1 interaction with, if it's a call, if it's a private message, a handwritten note, whatever it is, those are the people that then ideally become, like, these flagship members of your community. And as it grows, those are the people who are going to be spreading, like, that culture and and showing the culture that you've built up in the community. Whereas, otherwise, it's hard to even get to that point in the first place.

Shana Lynn [00:25:27]:

Yeah. And they're often the people that get the most results. They make the most progress. And when you sell your first group of people on your course or your community or membership, whatever it is, you gotta go all in on helping people get results because you gotta use that in your marketing when you go to sell again. You want some stories about some case studies of people who are just saying this is such a great place, but they're actually talking about the change that you've helped helped facilitate through your program. And so we wanna go all in on getting people results knowing that we may not be able to scale that for the long term. Maybe we will, maybe we won't, But at least we've learned through the process. We've learned what it takes to help actually get people to the result that we've sold them on.

Bryan McAnulty [00:26:08]:

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And and those people as they are more successful, if if they stay in that community and they're they're they're and they're engaged, they're the ones also more likely to give back and and help some of your new newer members actually achieve those results themselves.

Shana Lynn [00:26:23]:

Yeah. Exactly.

Bryan McAnulty [00:26:26]:

So you also host a podcast called Community Creators. And we noticed that one of your latest episodes is about the role of AI in growing a community. Can you elaborate on a little bit of what you talked about in that episode and how creators might leverage AI for a community?

Shana Lynn [00:26:43]:

Yeah. A lot of community people are terrified of AI, and I actually am a huge fan of it. I I definitely see the negative in it. I get it. But if people think it's gonna replace human to human connection, they don't understand what human to human connection is. But what I think is really great about it is that it can help us, facilitate connection in a better way. So I imagine that one day AI is gonna give us the ability when you come into a new community, if you complete your profile information, it's going to say, hey. Based on your profile information, we actually think Joe, Sally, and Tanya would be really great connections for you.

Shana Lynn [00:27:22]:

Would you like us to send them a message and make an introduction? Yes. Holy cow. That's incredible. So for us to be able to get a community member connected to 3 other community members within their 1st week is huge for the success in the community. I also think that it's gonna help us be able to get people better results. So one of the roles that I teach inside of my community training course of a community creator is to be that librarian and to be that tour guide, if you will, where somebody's coming to you and they're like, I'm stuck here or I'm trying to do this. Well, you have to know your content well enough or have somebody on your team who knows your content well enough to point them to the right resource at the right time. That's something that AI is really good at, which is holding a library of resources, having somebody ask a question or share a problem, and then pulling out from that library of resources to point them to the right piece at the right time.

Shana Lynn [00:28:20]:

So that's a huge help when it comes to helping people make progress in community. And then even applying our strategies. So many of us inside of our courses, inside of our memberships, we're teaching different frameworks that we want our community members to be able to apply to their very unique and specific situation. That can be really hard to do 1 on 1, which is why a lot of people, honestly, don't get results in courses because they're not getting that 1 on 1 accountability or that 1 on 1 customization and support. But AI, if it understands our frameworks, if it understands our teaching, it can help people input their personal information and then spit out for them a customized strategy that, you know, maybe not as good as the one that I would give them if we were doing 1 on 1 consulting, but it's gonna be 80% better than what they would have tried to do on their own. So those are just a few of the ways that I think AI can support. I think there's gonna be so many more, and that's what I really love about, creators and developers like you who understand community, but also are going, okay. I think we can actually leverage AI to help create a better experience and help people get more results and be more more connected.

Bryan McAnulty [00:29:26]:

Yeah. Yeah. I think you are spot on with all those things. So as a as a developer and founder of an an AI software product, that is exactly where I see it going as well. And I am so excited for like, communities are going to only get bigger with, like, as AI advances. Like, not only will we want to have the human connection still of finding people that are like minded, but as you said, it's going to help everybody connect to the right people and have the AI actually match you. And then about the the processes and frameworks, I think this is something that most people don't realize that they can apply right now. And when you want to, like, write a a prompt or something for chat GPT or something like that, it's not that you just tell it, hey.

Bryan McAnulty [00:30:14]:

Do this thing for me. You have to tell it your framework. But when you tell it your framework, what AI is really great at is, like, synthesizing that and transforming that in a way that works. And so, like, one example, like, in our product, we have a course review feature. You describe the result of your course, and then goes and reviews that, and it's just using our framework of what we would say to somebody and the criteria that we're looking for. And so, yeah, maybe it's not gonna be a 100% as good as if a a real person told you. But, yeah, like you said, like, you're 80 or 90% there. And then what is so powerful is your members and your customers, they can get that result instantly and they can get that feedback instantly.

Bryan McAnulty [00:30:55]:

And I think this is gonna be really powerful in how creators can help their own customers grow.

Shana Lynn [00:31:01]:

Exactly. Yep. I I am excited to see how it continues to integrate into our space, especially when people leading the way really understand that we're not trying to replace community managers. We're not trying to place communities. We're not trying to it I I think a lot of people imagine that there won't be community forums anymore that you're just going to talk to a bot, which is an article that stirred me to do that, interview because it was it was literally somebody basically fearmongering around this whole concept of we won't need online forums anymore because people won't look to other people, to answer questions, problem solve, get feedback, and that to me was just the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I think more than anything, because information is so prevalent and because, you know, it's gonna be so easy to get quick generic answers from AI. More important is gonna be that human to human connection because I want somebody who understands me and who understands this person's way of teaching and mentorship to answer that question for me because they understand my goals. They know a little bit about me.

Shana Lynn [00:32:10]:

They're headed in the same direction that I am under the same mentorship that I am. So I know that their answer is gonna be a lot better than whatever chat g p t analyze from Google and then decided to spit out.

Bryan McAnulty [00:32:21]:

Yeah. Definitely. And I I think it's something that I I feel there there was probably a a good amount of fear and uncertainty, last year when, like, GPT 4 released and and all this AI stuff's happening. But I I would hope that more creators are more comfortable with it now. And I think that creators overall, like, we're in a great space where AI is only gonna help us achieve even more and provide even more than we have before. And it's, yeah, it's just really going to be, an incredible thing, I think. So, definitely, I I would encourage people to to not be afraid of it. It's definitely not gonna be something like you have AI go and respond to, members and write some generic post.

Bryan McAnulty [00:33:02]:

We're not, doing that kind of thing, but it's letting you create more and faster than you would have been able to before. Like, oh, yeah. What what I was gonna say, I'm thinking what I was trying to get at. The thing that has, disappointed me to see from some creators who are not getting it is in our software, we've got this AI, like, course generator feature and things like that. And it's meant to help you brainstorm and give you, like, here's an outline of topics you might cover related to this, but it's not meant to write the course for you. And you exactly mentioned it there that the value is your unique message and experience. And Chat gpt can't have that. No other course creator can have that.

Bryan McAnulty [00:33:42]:

Only you have that and that's where your value comes from your audience. And if AI is going to create the content for you, then that's the same as anybody else has AI create the content for them, and it's essentially worth nothing. So the unique value that you have as a creator, that's really what people wanna buy. That's what the unique experience is, what they value. And so, yeah, you're you're in a great position now as a creator if you're watching or listening to this.

Shana Lynn [00:34:12]:

Yeah. Exactly. And only going to be more so that way because there's gonna be more and more communities and that strategy we talked about earlier just becomes more and more important because that's what makes your community distinct.

Bryan McAnulty [00:34:23]:

Definitely. Alright. A couple more quick questions. One, we could probably get into this a a good amount, but I'm curious if you could give maybe, like, a a couple top tips of the best ways to promote an online community.

Shana Lynn [00:34:39]:

I think the best way to promote it is in everything that you do, invite people to join the conversation that's happening in your community. Especially if it's a free community when you're posting on social media, when you're writing emails. You should always be featuring conversations and questions that are coming up inside of your communities that it feels really natural. Somebody in my community asked this question the other day. Here was my response. I thought you all might find it valuable as well. By the way, if you're not part of this community, come hang out with us. Here's the link to join.

Shana Lynn [00:35:08]:

Right? Same thing in your emails. It's that same kind of communication where, hey, if you want a place where you can discuss topics like this or if you wanna continue this conversation that we're having on the podcast, we're gonna be continuing it inside of this community. So hop on in and join. So we always think about what's gonna be that central hub. And if that community is your central hub of the way that you nurture people or of the way that you serve people, then everything else should be a spoke that's leading back into that.

Bryan McAnulty [00:35:36]:

Yeah. I like that. And I think for most people, it usually should be that central hub because you have social media, you have people could be commenting there, but some of those people might be haters. Some of those people may not be people that you really like. Your community is for all of your true fans, the people that you do really like, and then you get to spend time with them there and they get to spend time with each other. Exactly. Alright. Awesome.

Bryan McAnulty [00:35:59]:

So I've got one more question, and that is I like to have every guest ask a question for the audience. So if you could ask any question to our audience, something you're curious about, something you kinda wanna get people thinking about, what would that be?

Shana Lynn [00:36:13]:

The thing I really want people thinking about is probably the reason that most clients who have had lots of success in the community space end up coming to me, which is they don't love their community anymore. And so if you ask yourself this question of do I love the community that I've created? Is it a place that I wanna be and that I wanna spend time? And if so, what makes it that? How can I do more of that? And if not, what would it take to make it a space that if I had to choose between Netflix and checking in on this community and hanging out, I'm gonna choose checking in on this community and hanging out. Because I think oftentimes when we don't love our community, we stop showing up, and that's when everybody else stops showing up too.

Bryan McAnulty [00:36:57]:

Yeah. That's that's a great question. Alright, Shauna. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. Before we get going, where else can people find you online?

Shana Lynn [00:37:06]:

Yeah. So my podcast, community creators, you can just go to shana lynn.com, and you can go to connection ideas.com. We have 77 different connection ideas for you to create more engagement in your community.

Bryan McAnulty [00:37:20]:

Alright. Awesome. Shana, thanks so much.

Shana Lynn [00:37:22]:

Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Bryan McAnulty [00:37:24]:

I'd like to take a moment to invite you to join our free community of over 5,000 creators at creatorclimb.com. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, check out the Heights Platform YouTube channel every Tuesday at 9 AM US Central. To get notified when new episodes release, join our newsletter at thecreatorsadventure.com. Until then, keep learning, and I'll see you in the next episode.