Jon McCoy, CFRE

Sharing stories of times you failed, or were scared or were wrong (gulp!) are the moments that cut through the noise of our feeds of perceived perfection. It allows others to see themselves in our own stories and breaks down the walls to create connection + empathy.

Share your journey of growth/learning. You can start by sharing about a recent book you read, or podcast you listened to, or an event you attended. But don't just share about it... Tag the creator, share why it resonated with you and what it stirred up in you. Then tag a few friends who you think it might resonate with it too. All these steps create a bigger conversation - and as you consistently do that over time - you'll turn your personal growth into your community growth too.

Don't just create content... create conversations. Invite people to jump in by asking a pointed question in your content... and/or tagging people in the comments that you know might have something to add to the convo. But most importantly... if/when someone takes time to reply - thank them + keep the convo going + growing. Social media is mean to be social :) Also - behold the power of the DMs. If someone shared something that resonated with you - take a minute to shoot them a DM and tell them so. I promise it will help you grow your network in a meaningful way.

Feeling stuck with what content to create? Scroll through your DMs or emails... and start a list of all the questions you've been asked. Turn those questions into bite-sized content that shares your answer - by threading your stories, frameworks, best tips, etc. Keep in mind, if one person had a question and asked it out loud - you can be assured so many others did too (but were likely to scared to ask!)

Find that overlap in what you love to talk about + what you're good at. Doing so allows you to bring natural enthusiasm and you'll already have stories and experiences that will allow you to begin sharing from an authentic, engaging place.

Metrics matter... but community + the impact of your podcast matters way more. How is your podcast growing your value-aligned community? This is how you future-proof your work by connecting with the humans (not data points!) who are listening + sharing + being impacted by your content. Knowing people engage in different ways, this can be through social media (LinkedIn is huge for this!) + dedicated community sites (we use Mighty Networks) and of course growing + nurturing your own email list. Pro tip: Give a call-to-action on every episode for how to connect with you. It will grow your community episode-by-episode, one person at a time. And over time it does compound.