Read time: 4 minutes

Hey there - it's Brian 👋

Last week. I’m sitting in Starbucks with my friend, George.

Debating what it means to have raving customers.

He smirks. Pulls out his phone. And tweets, “Sneeze.”

And just that word get him 43 comments. One asks to buy his product.

So today we’ll cover how George built such a community of raving fans that his sneeze could sell product (& tips you can use today).

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

First - I’d love your expert opinion

I spent 6 years advising executives on high-stakes business decisions.

Ex-Deloitte consultant.

I’ve helped execs decide things like:
• Should I sell in a new country?
• What new business ideas should I launch?
• How do I sell so competitors don’t steal my customers?

So do you want to learn techniques to make critical decisions for your business? Vote below: 👇

His sneeze sold a course

This week I flew to Valencia, Spain to meet George Ten (“The Grammar Hippy”).

We’re in Starbucks. Grabbing smoothies because it’s too late for me to have caffeine. I’d stay up for weeks.

I’m look over and say, “George. Your community is so loyal, you could sneeze on the internet and people would be there to buy it.”

He gets this smirk on his face… and in a classic “hold my beer” moment, he posts “sneeze.”

His sneeze gets 43 comments… people craving to find out how this new writing principle will help their business.

One guy even jumped in between “bless you”s to ask if he could buy his course.

We now call this the “Sneeze test.”

So how many communities do you know that can pass the sneeze test?

Since you’re building a business, you need a community. Followers don’t buy. They’re shallow.

Communities ask where they can buy your product after you sneeze.

George understands his customers better than anyone I know

That’s why I flew to Valencia to get it from him.

So what’s going on?!

Why don’t businesses build community?

So you go to build a community on socials for your business and you see the classic tips:

• Should I use hashtags?

• What’s the best time to post?

• What’s hook gets the most people?

But why?

Because it’s FAST.

Fast growth. Massive follower count. No customer loyalty.

Why?

Generic idea = generic loyalty
A lot of people hit the “follow” button, but they don’t know:
• How your business is different
• What your business stands for
• Why you solve their problem better than anyone

Here’s 2 examples:
• This person had 3.8 MILLION followers and couldn’t sell 36 T-shirts.
• Or this one with 1.3 million couldn’t get ANYONE to show up for a free meet & greet.

Whenever I meet someone on the street who uses Twitter I name people using the fast growth model and ask “why did you follow?”

4 / 5 times the answer has been “Oh. I’m not sure. I don’t know who they are.”

That doesn’t get sales.

Instead, build community

This is George’s model.

He didn’t do any growth gimmicks. He intentionally created a small community of superfans.

These fans share his work. Rave about him. And then he takes off.

The snowball model is not about the platform. It’s about customers

• Algo change? Doesn’t matter. Superfans find him.
• Platform change? They follow him.
• Product sale? They buy from him.

So how do you build a community?

Here’s 4 beginner tips to build your community.

1) Share ideas that show you deeply understand the customer

• What are they actually worried about?
• What context do they have?
• What words do they use?

Content is just sharing your ideas. Share ideas that your customers care about, and make them more passionate about you.

2) DMs
When you receive a comment from a potential customer, shoot them a message.

It doesn’t scale (at first). But it feels personal and they develop a passion for you.

Ask: “what are you focused on?” “What challenges do you have?”

You’re building relationships with them while understanding them better than anyone.

3) Have a strong opinion
It’s okay if some people disagree with you.

Getting people to disagree with you means the people who support you are more passionate.

4) Write like you speak
It makes you feel approachable. People like to to talk to people. Not stiff companies.

I flew to Valencia to get his lessons from him directly. But you don’t have to. He put together a list of his 35 marketing lessons for free here.

No affiliate from me I’m just a fan of his thinking.

Build a customer-base, not a follower-base.

A customer-base is passionate about you and how you solve their problems.

Follower-bases don’t buy from you when you sneeze.

Boom! That’s it.

If you found this helpful, please forward this email to 1 friend or colleague. They'll appreciate you and you'll help grow the community.

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
Twitter
LinkedIn

If you liked this post, and want more like it, sign up for free:

🛠️ Outlier Links

Yesterday, I hosted an “ask me anything” on my consulting experience.

57 questions!

Including:
• What’s the 1 personality trait that indicates client success?
• Book recommendations for high-stakes business decisions?
• What decision do executives spend too much time worrying about? Too little?

Check out the Q&A from Twitter:

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s Life:

This week I’m in Valencia! Here for another week and then back to Boston.

🙋 Vote: Next Week’s Topic

People like you make this community amazing.

So I want to give you the opportunity to pick the topic that will help you grow your business the most (vote to choose next week’s topic below):