What Makes A Great Community

Welcome to the 2nd edition of my Launch Community behind-the-scenes newsletter. Last week I shared why I decided to create this new community.

Today I want to share with you my thoughts on creating content that transforms people, and tell you a bit about how I decided on the curriculum for The Launch Community.

A great community, just like any other great piece of content, always starts with the end in mind.

For me, that meant creating a community that would reliably equip competent people with the knowhow and systems necessary to build a thriving online business.

These were my constraints.

Every chapter, every lesson, every interaction inside the community had to fit within those constraints. Nothing could go out of bounds.

This gave me the ability to focus on exactly what I knew students would need – and nothing more. Without constraints, it’s easy to get sidetracked by adding useless “fluff” to a course or to pad it with chest thumping anecdotes.

With the end established, I could then come up with the content.

Here’s what I’ve settled on:

The above overview has changed a lot over the last few weeks.

As I’ve been building up this waitlist, you’ll have noticed that I’ve been asking for replies.

Your feedback, especially to questions I’ve been asking around “what have you tried before?” and “what do you need this course to do for you?” have helped me revisit a few of my earlier beliefs about what had to go into The Launch Community, and I’ve decided to redo a lot of what I had originally planned.

This results in a much stronger product. Because while I know what the course needs to accomplish and what constraints need to restrict the curriculum, the details about exactly what needs to be covered in detail was initially an educated guess. Now it’s not. Your feedback has helped tremendously, so thank you for that.

This “behind-the-scenes” private newsletter might initially seem like it’s a way for me to build in public. But it’s more than that. It’s a way for me to learn in public.

What I Hope You Take Away From This…

No matter what you’re creating, always start with the outcome.

If you’re building a software product, spend more time on figuring out how it will make your customers’ lives easier than debating what coding framework to use.

If you’re selling a service, focus on why people actually pay for it rather than technically what you do for your clients.

If you’re selling a course, transformation trumps geeking out over software, obsessing over the courseware platform, and whatever else.

Next week I’m going to share more about what I think a lot of course & community creators do wrong.

In the meantime, take a look at the agenda screenshots I shared above.

What excites you the most? Is there anything you think is missing? Reply and let me know!

Have a great summer out there,

Jamie