Announcing The ‘People Powered’ Book Club
Back in November I released ‘People Powered: How Communities Can Supercharge Your Business, Brand, and Teams’. The book delves into why there is a demand for communities and provides a comprehensive blueprint for how to create a community and integrate it into a business.
Importantly, the book also covers “what not to do” so you can swerve around many of the common mistakes and problems I have seen in my twenty-two year career and working with hundreds of companies and communities.
The book has been doing well, netting five star reviews on Amazon and four-and-a-half stars on Goodreads, winning a Business Book Awards 2020 award, and getting very positive reviews from press and readers alike.
This is when an idea was conjured up by my friends Monica and Bill.
Wouldn’t it be cool to read ‘People Powered’ together…as a community… and then meet each week where you can ask questions directly to me (Jono) and we can explore the material together?
Group learning is always more fun than sitting alone with a book and no-one to ask questions to.
It provides a place where you can explore ideas, ask questions, better understand the concepts, test ideas, challenge your assumptions, and overall grow and learn faster.
I freaking loved the idea, and the ‘People Powered’ Book Club was born.
What’s more, it is entirely FREE to join.
The idea is devilishly simple.
When you sign up to join the book club (which is entirely FREE) you will be invited to join a Slack channel for our community. Here you can settle in, get to know everyone, ask questions, and have fun.
Each week we will all read the same chapter from ‘People Powered’. This will keep everyone on a schedule, and as you are reading the book you are welcome to discuss it in the Slack channel with the rest of the community.
Then, each week on a Tuesday, we will all meet together and we will dig into the chapter. You can ask me (Jono) questions, we explore ideas further, discuss implementation, and more.
The entire book club will take place over 11 weeks (one week for each chapter).
Interesting in joining?
Click here here to register.
Act quick though: registration closes on the 2nd October 2020.
How to Reward Community Members, Even Without a Huge Budget
Today, I want to briefly discuss one of my favorite community-building tactics: amazing reward systems. How do you use rewards to celebrate amazing work from your members? How do you reward community members, even without a huge budget?
I get a lot of questions about this topic. Many times, people want to know how they can use rewards to keep their community members interested, even with a measly or nonexistent budget for doing so. After all, it can get pricey sending out free t-shirts internationally.
The reason rewards work so well is that, much like Pavlov’s famous dog, we as humans love to be rewarded for our good behavior, and when we can repeat this good behavior for a couple of months, it gets sealed into our brains as a habit.
Digging Into Rewards
Rewards are a powerful way to nurture your community as it flourishes, however, not all rewards are equal for people building communities. To understand why, let’s first look at my Community Participation Framework from my latest book, “People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams.”
This framework shows you how to take a new community member from a Casual member to a Regular member, and then on to a Core member. With each bump in community level, there is also a bump in your member’s level of participation. But how do you move them from Casual through to Core?
You can see under these three community levels, there are little black bumps. Those are the rewards for your members!
In other words: when someone does something, they get something cool.
Do you know why rewards are so powerful for communities? It is because rewards encourage the kinds of behaviors you want to see in your community members – the more they participate and get rewarded, the more their behavior changes.
For example:
- Do you want casual members to read more content? Reward them for it.
- Do you want regular members to generate material and get more active? Reward them for it.
- Do you want better peer reviewed code contributions? Reward them for it.
Habitual behaviors are enormously influenced by rewards!
Two types of rewards: Intrinsic and Extrinsic
So, this all sounds great, but kinds of rewards should I send people?
Well, there two types. Let’s dig into each.
Extrinsic rewards
This is what most people think of when they think of physical perks from a community. Here, you are sending your community members physical goods such as swag and other merchandise.
For example:
- T-Shirts
- Challenge Coins
- Gadgets
- Stickers
- Water Bottles
- Treats
- Travel Gear
- Trophies
The key to making extrinsic rewards work is buying high quality materials in bulk (cheaply) and shipping it to members (also very cheaply.)
However, if either of those things goes awry, you can end up costing your community a lot of money and time.
So, some tips:
- Avoid t-shirts: there are different cuts, sizes, and more that massively overcomplicates the process. You usually end up with a load of stock you can’t get rid of. Also, many t-shirts people make suck, so only make t-shirts that look cool.
- Focus on interesting, personalized swag that you can ideally put in an envelope to reduce shipping (e.g. Stickers, Challenge Coins etc.)
- Make sure your shipping is cheap and trackable. If it’s not, it is probably best to focus on intrinsic rewards.
- ALWAYS include a handwritten note. (But don’t use your normal signature, otherwise, people could forge it if you do!)
Tips aside, extrinsic rewards leave you more exposed to things going wrong. This is why I always prefer starting with the second sort of reward.. Intrinsic rewards.
Intrinsic rewards
In this reward system, you validate your members’ efforts without sending a physical product at all. Instead, you simply actively recognize the work they’ve done!
For example:
- Thank you emails
- Public forum recognition by saying something like “Congrats to ___, they have made some amazing contributions including X, Y, Z…”
- Inviting members to insider planning/team meetings
- Sending free “VIP” digital content such as e-books, courses, and more
- Giving them access to the “Batphone”; a direct contact email address that they can reach you and your team when needed
There are 2 main ways intrinsic rewards work for your community:
- Social recognition (such as public praise) is a form of validation, and validation is yet another form of reward!
- Creates social proof, making not only the rewarded member more inspired, but also his or her peers.
In Conclusion
I know this is all a lot to think about, so here’s a quick recap of my actionable suggestions for making rewards work for your community better.
- Start by deciding what behaviors you want members to take
- Break those behaviors into Casual, Regular, and Core categories, choosing 2 behaviors per category that you can recognize and reward
- Choose your rewards, both Extrinsic and Intrinsic
- Think about the most efficient way to implement your rewards once chosen (especially for extrinsic rewards that require logistics.)
Now go enjoy the uptick in community morale these tips will give you.
Want to find our more? Check out my video:
Catherine Gray on Enneagrams, Personality Tests, and Leadership Development
Many of us are striving for growth and success, but we don’t know which levers to yank to get the right results.
This is where Catherine Gray from The Trium Group comes in. She is an expert in a range of tools, such as Enneagrams, to evaluate what kind of personality you have, and then how to apply the right skills development to get the results you want.
Catherine offered to do an Enneagram for me, and it was a fascinating experience and very telling. I honestly thought the notion of a personality test was nonsense, and I was wrong.
As such, I was thrilled to bring Catherine on Conversations With Bacon. We dig into a raft of different areas including:
- What an Enneagram is, how it works, and how to read it.
- We explore my own Enneagram as an example, and what it told us.
- The role of other personality tests, how they work, and if they are effective.
- How to take the results from a test and map out your next set of goals and targets.
- Common challenges leaders face and how they are resolved.
- The role of vulnerability and ego in leadership.
- Guidelines and recommendations from a proven leadership coach.
- And much more…
This is a really informative, illuminating, and insightful discussion. Be sure to give it a listen.
Communities are changing the way we do business. Discover a concrete framework for building powerful, productive communities and integrating them into your business. My new book, ‘People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams’, is out now, available in Audible, Hardcover, and Kindle formats.
Thank you to always rocking Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for mixing the show!
David Hornik on the People and Culture of Venture Capital and Startups
For those playing along with Silicon Valley bingo, there is an enormous amount of change going on in startups, venture capital, and beyond. This has been heightened by the impact of COVID-19 on founders, startups, and investors.
David Hornik has been around the investment world for a long time as a general partner at August Capital, creator of The Lobby conference, and a lecturer at Stanford.
I first met David at The Lobby and was taken aback by how different he was from the stereotypical power player VC who is only ever fixated on hyperactive growth. He is a fun, vivacious, creative powerhouse who is able to balance a keen knowledge of business with the reality of how people think, work, and collaborate. While he is focused on getting results he always pulls his work back to the human condition, which unsurprisingly resonates with my perspectives on the world. He is also a hoot to hang out with.
As such, I was thrilled to bring David on Conversations With Bacon. We dig into a raft of different areas including:
- The impact of COVID-19 on hiring, spending, how much runway businesses need.
- The personal impact of COVID-19 on families, hobbies, and commuting.
- The design of The Lobby and how he managed to get professionals from a broad range of backgrounds to truly come out of their shells
- How Silicon Valley has shifted and adjusted over the years and the role of ego.
- How much money do you really need, how do you spend it, and how can you annoy financial advisers.
- His love of Broadway and how he supports up and coming shows.
- The role of diversity in business and how to impact systematic racism.
- And much more…
This is a really fun, engaging, and insightful discussion. Be sure to give it a listen.
Communities are changing the way we do business. Discover a concrete framework for building powerful, productive communities and integrating them into your business. My new book, ‘People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams’, is out now, available in Audible, Hardcover, and Kindle formats. Be sure to check it out, and grab the People Powered Plus pack with free templates, bonus content, and over $2000 of special offers.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for mixing the show!
Bitesize: Emily Musil Church from XPRIZE on using Field Trials
Emily Musil Church explains the logistics of how XPRIZE ran field trials with thousands of Google Pixel tablets across hundreds of remote villages.
Listen to the full episode here.
Communities are changing the way we do business. Discover a concrete framework for building powerful, productive communities and integrating them into your business. My new book, ‘People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams’, is out now, available in Audible, Hardcover, and Kindle formats. Be sure to check it out!
Bitesize: Liz McCabe from Stinson Advising reviews the common difficulties many executives have
Liz McCabe from Stinson Advising discusses the tactical and internal patterns that she sees working with CEOs across many different industries.
Listen to the full episode here.
Communities are changing the way we do business. Discover a concrete framework for building powerful, productive communities and integrating them into your business. My new book, ‘People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams’, is out now, available in Audible, Hardcover, and Kindle formats. Be sure to check it out!
Marik Hazan on Psychedelics and Venture Capital
When I say the word “psychedelics”, you probably think of hazy people tripping on suspicious substances at a Grateful Dead concert. Well, the story is much deeper than this, and it is a very interesting story indeed.
It turns out there has been an enormous amount of research into psychedelics and their role in a variety of illnesses and conditions. So much so, a new revolution is forming to build businesses around a future in which psychedelics could be available on the market.
One person spearheading this revolution is Marik Hazan, founder of Tabula Rasa Ventures. I was thrilled to have Marik come on Conversations With Bacon to dig into the story, the science, the business and more.
In this show we dig into a broad swathe of topics including:
- The impact of psychedelics on mental health, trauma, PTSD, and more
- The culture of psychedelics and how it is changing
- The difference between medical and recreational use of psychedelics
- The role of scientific trials and the data about psychedelics efficacy
- How addictive different psychedelics compounds are
- How the venture and startup market is exploring psychedelics
- The impact of stigma in building credibility around new industries
Communities are changing the way we do business. Discover a concrete framework for building powerful, productive communities and integrating them into your business. My new book, ‘People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams’, is out now, available in Audible, Hardcover, and Kindle formats. Be sure to check it out, and grab the People Powered Plus pack with free templates, bonus content, and over $2000 of special offers.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for mixing the show!
Mike Dillard on Effective Marketing, Gurus, and Growth
In recent years, there has been an explosion in digital marketing. Bold claims of making thousands of dollars a day have been perpetuated by self-proclaimed marketing gurus. It all seems a bit much to my cynical British eye.
This is why I was thrilled to have Mike Dillard come on Conversations With Bacon. Mike has spent years in the trenches running a number of businesses, and when I went on his podcast a little while back, he was a refreshing change from the usual marketing gurus.
In this show we dig into a broad swathe of topics including:
- The importance of data and how to track it to get better results
- The role of copy and how to be a better copywriter
- Email marketing: is it still relevant in a world with too much email?
- Tai Lopez, his approach, and if it works
- The role of logic and emotion in purchasing products and services
- Brand marketing, familiarity, and trust
If you are interesting in marketing, or work in marketing today, you should definitely check out this conversation.
Communities are changing the way we do business. Discover a concrete framework for building powerful, productive communities and integrating them into your business. My new book, ‘People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams’, is out now, available in Audible, Hardcover, and Kindle formats. Be sure to check it out, and grab the People Powered Plus pack with free templates, bonus content, and over $2000 of special offers.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for mixing the show!
Redemption: My Community Management Career Mistakes (and How To Avoid Them)
Over the course of my career I have indulged in a rich collection of corkers of mistakes. Like the rest of you ‘orrible lot, I am human, and indeed, to err is to be human.
Mistakes are one thing, but what I think is especially important in the interests of blind-faced redemption is to be able to look back on these mistakes, understand what lessons can be learned, and to learn about the overall journey through your life and career.
So, in the interests of said redemption and sharing, I decided to put together a collection of seven notable mistakes I have experienced in my life. They include:
- The Danger of Ego – how ego can sometimes spiral out of control, especially when you are thrust into the limelight for the first time.
- The Risks of Shipping Merch – we all love merch, right? Of course we do. The challenge though comes with shipping, and more importantly, making sure it gets there. I discovered this the hard way at XPRIZE, as you will find out.
- Not Focusing on Metrics – earlier in my career I was not focused enough on measuring my work and that of my team. Why? Fear. This was a huge mistake: if we don’t measure it, we don’t improve it.
- Novel vs. Short Story Authors – ooh, this is a juicy one. I completely screwed up a huge keynote opportunity in front of all my peers. The mistake? Misunderstand the role of being able to craft content for different formats and lengths. This is critical, especially in today’s enormously content-rich environment.
- The Feature Suggestion Snafu – many communities have been tempted by the idea of letting your community members suggest product features. Be careful though: it can result in a mishmash of unmet expectations and problems the size of a small city that are difficult to ever fix. Ooof, this one sucked.
- The Danger Of Leaderboards – huh? Leaderboards? They seem simple enough surely, Bacon? Well, under the covers there are significant challenges with meritocracy, equality, and the visibility of your broader tent of users. Be sure to tread carefully here.
- Knowledge vs. Anxiety – possibly the most critical of these lessons was the role of balancing a thirst for growth with the fear of failure due to anxiety. This came bounding into view shortly before I hung my shingle and started my own business.
So, for each of these, I decided to look back on what happened, why it happened, and share some key lessons that I think will be useful to you lovely people.
This is a very personal story, and at times a little embarrassing to share, so go easy on me. 🙂
Check out the video here (and be sure to share your thoughts, feedback, and your own mistakes in the video comments):
Linux Foundation Public Health Launched to Help Fight COVID-19
The Linux Foundation are well known in the open source community.
Aside from the enormous growth of Linux, the Linux Foundation has fostered innovation across a broad of different industries including the cloud (Cloud Native Computing Foundation), motion picture arts (Academy Software Foundation), energy (LF Energy), blockchain (Hyperledger), automative (Automotive Grade Linux), community analytics (CHAOSS), and many others.
Given this history, I am both thrilled and not terribly surprised that the Linux Foundation has wanted to wade into the global fight against COVID-19. Back in April they helped support displaced developer interns with a mentorship program, but today’s announcement goes a step further.
Today they launched a new initiative to use open source to help public health authorities (PHAs) around the world with the fight with COVID-19 and future epidemics.
Rather snappily named Linux Foundation Public Health, the project is currently focused on two hosted exposure projects:
- COVID Shield was developed by an engineering and design team at Shopify as a volunteer effort to combat COVID-19. It provides a notification system built on top of the exposure notification APIs that Google and Apple have developed to support COVID contact tracing. Canada is deploying COVID Shield nationwide with an implementation by the Canadian Digital Service and several US States are exploring the technology too.
- COVID Green is the code that has been driving Ireland’s contact tracing, and was developed by a team at NearForm. Since being deployed in Ireland two weeks ago has achieved a rather impressive adoption of over 1/3rd of the country’s adults.
Given the continuing rise of cases in the US and elsewhere, these and other technologies are going to be critical to understanding and managing the epidemic.
I am thrilled to see organizations coming together to collaborate on this, and just like any other Linux Foundation project, there are a series of commercial premier sponsors. This currently includes Cisco, doc.ai, Geometer, IBM, NearForm, Tencent, and VMware, and I suspect others will sign on too.
My Take
I am really excited about Linux Foundation Public Health for a number of reasons.
Firstly, open source is an incredible model for pull together large groups of engineers and contributors from different companies, countries, and areas of expertise to work on a common problem. The Internet is littered with examples of this, and especially with the global pandemic. Just take a look the John Hopkins University work and New York Times case tracking, the Folding@Home processing work, and Nextstrain’s real-time pathogen tracking, as just a few examples.
Building open source is complex though. It requires a careful mixture of open workflow, infrastructure, governance, and more. This can often overwhelm individual companies, and I credit the Linux Foundation for much of the reason why so many large companies in very different industries have been able to understand and invest in collaborative open source projects.
Of course, our broader open source community has been successful due to the many contributions of many people and organizations, but the Linux Foundation helped to frame the somewhat wild west of open source into a model that the commercial world could understand. This was and continues to be a hard nut to crack, especially with large, entrenched, and very traditional companies flirting with the idea of “this open source thing.”
Secondly, and on a related note, building these projects to help conquer COVID-19 isn’t just about building code. It will require fostering relationships with government agencies and universities, coordinating testing programs, working with scientists and organizations to understand and share the results, and more.
Often the hardest element of building open source is getting it deployed into the hands of your audience, and this is especially complex for these kinds of specialized yet broad-market projects. I think the LFPH will provide a place to consolidate key resources, expertise, and other ingredients needed for success.
Thirdly, Dan Kohn is the General Manager at LFPH. Now, for those of you who don’t know Dan, he ran the Cloud Native Computing Foundation until Priyanka Sharma recently stepped into the General Manager role.
Now, the success of the CNCF is well documented in the open source cloud industry. I credit a significant portion of this success to Dan: the guy is an absolute machine. He is able to build incredibly comprehensive workflow and processes to pull different members, developers, and contributors together and he can balance an astonishing level of data and detail in how he does this work. This new healthcare project will really benefit from Dan’s involvement.
So, overall, I am pretty excited for this new initiative. We need all hands on deck with COVID-19 and I am thrilled to see the Linux Foundation doing what they do to help with the effort.
So, get out there, write some code, wear a mask, and keep washing your hands. As we have seen countless times elsewhere in open source, we are more powerful together.
Oh, and just you skipped over it, wear a mask. Please, folks, wear a bloody mask. It isn’t rocket science. 🙂