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Last week I stumbled across a great podcast episode on the Creative Elements podcast where Jay Clouse, the host, interviewed Pat Flynn, the founder of Smart Passive Income on why community is the next evolution of online courses (among other things).

And then came my “aha!” moment…

As a one-person biz, you know that creating valuable, high-quality content is a crucial aspect of building a successful business. Yet, in today's crowded digital landscape, it's not enough to simply produce great content. To stand out and build a loyal following, you must also focus on building deeper connections with your target audience.

Let’s agree that people go to the Internet for two things:

1. to Gather Information (but also…)

2. to Build and Foster Connections with Others

At this point, we’re all pretty practiced up on finding information online.

Today we have…
~ 600,000,000+ active blog sites(with each site containing many articles)
~ 11,000+ courses on LinkedIn Learning
~ 30,000 courses on Skillshare
~ 157,000 courses on Udemy

And according to a 2021 report, 220M students have taken at least one online course. 🤯


Back in the early days of the internet, there were little to no ‘remote jobs’, ‘online shopping’, or ‘internet businesses’. People were leveraging this new tech to quickly share and gather information.

Let a couple of decades go by and the utility that the internet provided made it unstoppable - there’s no going back. Yet, between the rise in at-home remote workers, internet businesses like amazon .com, plus the years of forced isolation thanks to the COVID pandemic…

People were missing out on a fundamental piece of what makes us human - connection, community, and camaraderie.

Armed with high-speed internet, remote-video calls, and live streaming capabilities, we are more equipped than ever to be able to provide a more connected experience to our audience and customers. I’ll be the first to admit, that I’ve got plenty of improvements to make in this arena.

Few one-person businesses are noticing this shift and evolving with it.

This screams MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY to me.
Anyone else?

Adding valuable connection elements to your brand will depend on the type of business you run, but for most of us here, it’s more remote-based businesses either selling a product, a service, or monetizing content like how YouTubers do for example.

To get your wheels turning on how to implement this in your business, here are a few examples of how you could foster more connection with your audience to ultimately give people the best experience with your brand.

Ideas to Foster Connection & Build Community

• Relating to Others via Storytelling

  • Email Lists

  • Sharing personal stories as additional context to your content

• Inviting People into the Discussion

  • Public or Private Groups

  • Recurring Virtual Events like a monthly hangout

• Joining the Discussion

  • Engaging more in forums, comment sections, or wherever your tribe hangs out online

• Including others in the Content

  • Sharing Success Stories UGC - User-Generated Content

  • Livestreams involving Q&A’s, Poll's, Trivia, etc… (like the show the price is right)

These ideas will spark the opportunity to go a few layers deeper with your audience and invite them to connect with one another. Which of the above sparks you?

As an added bonus, it’s very easy to structure your offers around this to increase your prices or leverage as an extra incentive to something you already sell.

Building stronger connections with your target audience is a vital aspect of growing a successful business as a solopreneur or digital creator.

By focusing on engagement and interaction, personal storytelling, listening to your audience, and authenticity, you can create a deeper, more meaningful connection with your audience and ultimately drive more success for your business.

Until Next Time ✌️🙂
- Ev