Building Triba Business Community
So long story… I’ll try to keep it concise!
It goes back several years to when I was an avid streamer (ah, in a past life when I had TIME to game) and discovered Discord was the perfect platform for my community of supporters. I built up a following of about 400 gamers and sometimes there would be a dozen people hanging out in different channels talking almost all day!
When I started working for a design firm in early 2020, there was a need for team connectivity so I suggested we check out Discord as an alternative to Slack. We created two servers: one for internal team communication and one for marketing purposes as an open community of founders.
The response was incredible! We had a place to talk amongst ourselves and a great way to bring potential clients and partners into the circle. The Vortex (as it was called) grew rapidly and within 9 months we had over 700 members and an average engagement of ~50%.
I would credit our overall success to the group effort of all the community captains who contributed by putting on different speaking events and participating in our daily coworking sessions.
Sometimes 10–20 different founders would show up for our weekly masterminds and share about their business endeavors and issues. At one point, we had 6–7 events PER week! It was a collaborative bustle of business owners connecting and helping each other succeed. The epitome of a business community is a shared value. We were all working together to build better businesses through collaboration. I encouraged new members (and existing ones) to share however they could. Advice. Links. Stories. Whatever they found helpful themselves — I reminded them — someone out there would benefit from knowing!
Over time, I found members who wanted to see our community thrive and brought them into the spotlight. I coordinated over a hundred different live events featuring Amazon best-selling authors, successful business owners, and even other community leaders. I actually started a podcast featuring some of these incredible individuals (https://anchor.fm/in-orbit) to inspire our group! I think the essence of our success was giving voice to those who cared to share.
That being said, THAT server still lacked something. We decided it was the element of shared ownership… So, with the help of Garrett and several other captains in our group, we branched off to start a NEW community! This time, it was specifically FOR the people and BY the people (not unlike a certain country) No ONE business’s interests would be put before the collective. We called it Triba — a place to find belonging and grow with other business owners. The idea was simple: anyone interested in contributing would have a say in the development and growth of the group. We vote on who to kick. We are constantly taking feedback from members and we ONLY create channels based on group NEEDS — like investment, marketing, branding, philosophy, and networking. The goal is to maximize value while minimizing the noise. Condensed information and tools for the hard-working founders.
I believe that the key to our model working lies in our innate desire to belong. To find our Tribe. Individuals need to find a place to share, connect, and contribute to a strong community at their back. My job, as a community coordinator, was to point them in the right direction. “Go share here,” or, “Sure, we’ll make a channel for that!” as I directed traffic to the right place. That way, anyone struggling can find help or ask questions that get responses quickly! We’ve picked up experts on topics who are ready to connect and live to assist.
Although rapid growth LOOKS good on the outside, it’s not beneficial to explode (think Dunbar’s number). Thankfully, I found Discord has a sort of “natural” filtering built-in — it enables us to collectively sift through the traffic, find qualified individuals who will contribute, and empower them to support the overall community growth.
You don’t want just ANYONE in your group — you want the RIGHT people who care about sharing. It sounds cliche, but sharing is caring. Everyone is encouraged to talk about their business. From successes to failures, tools they utilized for growth, and life hacks that paid off. Our overall health is based on the contributions of each member and their individual health (mental, physical, and financial) so we focus on providing support for everyone. If you have a need, ask. If you have an issue, vent. Our captains are responsive and love to help. It’s a great place to meet like-minded individuals dedicated to learning and growing together!
If you’re still reading this, you might be a perfect fit! It is invite-only, but completely free to join. So if you want to collaborate with a living, active group of business owners hop in the Triba Business Community and share: https://www.wr.community/triba I guarantee someone will reach out to you almost immediately. I hope to see you there!
PS — SHARE this post with someone who NEEDS this kind of engagement for their business or personal growth!
