Time & Value Math for New Communities
The worst thing you could do in the beginning is put a price on what you are building. Payment is friction between you and the people you serve.
Having a paid community is a privilege. It's a right you earn after building trust with your audience.
That trust is not formed by choosing the perfect platform or by designing the best domain name.
The key to starting any project is starting with the people—engaging them, learning from them, giving them value, and absorbing everything.
Fail to do this and you'll constantly be stuck on a treadmill.
In order to do that, the price has to be free.
99 Problems and Money is Number One
The worst thing you could do in the beginning is put a price on what you are building.
Payment is friction between you and the people you serve.
It's tempting to make that money to get paid upfront, but think about it.
How do people you don't know get you to give them money?
- They create a false sense of scarcity.
- They put you into a funnel with only one way out.
- They make lavish promises which they know they can't deliver on but you will never know until it's too late.
- They spend all their time talking about what they're doing and very little time doing it.
By opting for money first, you are putting yourself on the pathway to generate sales, not generating value.
Frictionless Time to Value
We remove friction early so that you can be as close as possible to the people.
Without the knowledge you have from working with people, understanding what they want, and knowing where they're headed, all that money is just short-term. It won't translate.
That's all it will ever be: temporary.
People will churn out, and you'll constantly be stuck on a treadmill, trying to make ends meet.
The Time Value Matrix
In the beginning, you'll be getting as much value from those early members as you're giving them. And so I believe it should be free.
Over time you will create more value and connect more people. Eventually, more and more people will want to be a part of what you are building.
This is the moment to decide – when people are pushing their way in. This is when you can consider adding price to the equation.
How Success Plays Out
Call it for a month or three months. You're just building, getting people inside, getting energy.
The message on the outside? Free for now, but not for long.
Once you get critical mass and resources, momentum and internal leadership, you can then switch to paid.
You can decide what it looks like at that time. It can be for a course, or a cohort, or a community. Maybe something even more creative.
Why Wait?
Time is the great sorter. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
First, you'll have a much better sense of what people actually want.
Second, based on your interactions with people and the value they're getting, you'll know what to charge.
If you don't know what to charge for your work, you haven't done enough work.
The Final Word
There is no one right way to build community. And there are a ton of really bad ways to do it.
This is why it really pays to be intentional. Trust your instincts.
Go where your interests are stoked, and where the people are gathering.
Build, ship, learn, and iterate.
Most of all – keep showing up.
Your time will come!