6:1 Building member-led communities

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Lee:
First of all, lovely to meet you in person.

Francisco:
Yeah, after hanging out three or four years.

Lee:
Three or four years in the WordPress circles of all places. Here we are in Event Tech. I had no idea you were coming. Before we jump into the main content, mate, what brought you to this event?

Francisco:
Well, mostly I am founder of an ecosystem for B2B community leaders. It's named Ledby Community. We have been running that project two years and a half. I am the solo founder for now. I have a small team, I call it the The core team, three people helping me to run the operations, to organise the speakers, the stuff. We do lots of events online, like four or five per month. Then also we establish this year our very first in-person conference. It's named the Community-Led World Summit. Again, serving people working in the B2B space, building communities for customers, support communities, and also social impact communities, things like that. The response from people was amazing. We We got the courage to run it again next year. Nice. We booked the Plexal on the East here area, very close to Stradford Station. Now the capacity is like 230. It's exciting, especially for the niche, because honestly, even across Europe, there is no event targeting community people at that level. It's a big challenge. It's not easy, especially trying to get help from sponsors and all that process. But we did it this year, so I feel that that proof will build or is building up towards succeed on that side.

Francisco:
On my professional side, I am 14 years marketer. That's my first. Then always close to the community. I work for BuddyBoss.com in the past as a marketing director, the WordPress plugin to build communities there. I also work for a few SaaS companies like circle. So as the first marketing hire. And recently, I ended my time with bettermode.com. This is another community platform, SaaS as well. So now I'm aiming to build this app fully, as a full-time thing. Nice. And also we run on top of the community, the events, the conference, we also are building a small agency led by community as agency, because we have 600 members in our community. We have built our own small group of associates. Oh, nice. Any request come, we review, and then we can actually deliver the services through our associates. That's the way we are trying to turn all this project into something sustainable.

Lee:
No, that's good. You're here predominantly as an event organiser, coming here to learn.

Francisco:
I think that I'm not a Jedi on events, even though I have done maybe 120 online events already, but I still feel that it's a big gap yet to learn.

Lee:
Well, let's jump into that because you have. You've done some incredible online events, many in the WordPress space, etc. What's the difference between doing something online and your first physical in-person event that you did?

Francisco:
I think that the emotional connexion is real. That was, for me, the first thing that all these people that is nice on Zoom is now real. You can hug them, you can give them a handshake. For me, the feeling was like, Oh, and also you look different in real person.

Lee:
When I kept looking at you a minute ago thinking, I think that's Francisco, but I'm not going to make a scene. He looks busy on his phone. I'll leave him alone.

Francisco:
Yeah, I got it. But from just human side, it's amazing. The connexion, the level of connexion is, wow, amazing. Now, on the other side, all the small pieces of a puzzle required to run a proper conference in person. Because in my case, because this project is 100% bootstrap by me, I did from zero to one. I took the conference from zero to one. So I to look after everything. I don't know, the banners, the badges, the food, then the tables, the sponsor booth, then all the... Without counting the building the website, RSVP, managing the agenda, tickets, check-ins, so many things.So many hats.Exactly. Then I got help in the day because we have volunteers that are also in the UK. Nine people from different places of the UK attended the summit in the day, very early in the morning. They helped me with the welcoming, with the check-up, moving the foot around chairs and running. But I would say it's a Titanic difference between online. Even though online, To make it smooth, you need a bit of ensure that everything is okay, do a few dry runs with the speakers or host to ensure that people understood the tech, and then you can go smooth.

Francisco:
But the level of complexity I would say online 10% against the 100% of the in-person stuff. The in-person. Yeah. Also, our conference was livestream at the same time. We also need to figure out how we can keep the people viewing online engaged. Now that it's not just seeing the TV board.

Lee:
Well, let's go there then. How did you keep people online engaged? Because I think that's a very common problem, especially if you're watching an in-person event that's happening. There is that feeling of disconnect, isn't there? I am here at my screen, you're all over there having a great time.

Francisco:
Yeah, I can share what we did, but even with the efforts we did, I still got a feedback about it could be better for the online viewers, right?

Lee:
Everyone's a critic, mate.

Francisco:
I don't know. Because I'm not feeling as an expert. I'm very humble and open to listening and all that. So what we did, because up to today, we have 24 volunteers from all I have leaders from India, South Africa, UK, a few countries in Europe and the US. So we created a shift, Rota. And then around four, six volunteers were always online in the streaming. So they were popping in, Hey, guys, now we are going for a break. Now it's lunchtime. So what we did, we use a platform named Gradual. Com. And they have, while you do this live streaming, you can create parallel networking rooms or round tables. When the in-person event was going in breaks or for lunchtime, actually everyone online could also go and join a roundtable, have some networking stuff happening. That's brilliant. Plus the chat that was on fire the whole time. People sharing tips, sharing resources. Also, we were sharing bios. Like you say, Hey, like more guys is speaking, this is the bio. To try to keep everyone alive. It was not easy task. On my side, I was just running the show in person and just looking from far how the livestream was going.

Francisco:
Sure. But I could see all the volunteers really working hard to make even the best possible experience for them. But I would say whoever was online was missing out the in-person stuff. There is no comparison. Honestly, there is no comparison. It's so good.

Lee:
Now, two things I'm taking from this. Number one, you're a nutter because you went for both at the same time, which is insanely stressful, so well done. Yeah, it was. A nutter in the loving sense of the word. I've known you for many years, I'm allowed to say that. But the second lesson that I'm pulling from this, mate, and the most important lesson is that you've actually got other people involved and had volunteers. The biggest mistake I made, for example, with Agency Transformation Live two years in a row is that I didn't feel I could ask anyone for help. I didn't want to put on people, so I took everything on myself, running around, putting up banners, doing all the stuff, organising all the food on moving furniture and everything, and also hosting and also speaking, and running around, doing everything, and was just frantically stressed the entire time for both years that I ran the event. I never felt I could ask people for advice. Maybe that's the pride thing in me. I'm encouraged to hear that you have, in all circumstances, built a community where you feel able to ask for help and people feel able to say, Yeah, I'm all in.

Lee:
You've had physical people at your input person event, happy to help, which is incredible, as well as those people joining those booths online for you as well to help create that sense of connection.

Francisco:
To be honest, I'm still not believing that that happened. Even though the whole way I have built Ledby community is member-led. For instance, at the very beginning, it started as a newsletter. I did a whole scan for the industry, the community industry, trying to find all the sources. So Every week, you get up to date the latest articles from 250 sources of content. Every week, we sent that out. After two months, people came to me saying, Hey, I love your newsletter. Do you need help? I said, I would love to start running online events because I can scale this help. I can move faster. Then a few people started to help me host an event, mostly because, honestly, I don't know, imposter syndrome, whatever you want to call it, but I have never felt that I am Good facilitator, good host. Okay. So I said, I do prefer just keep myself behind the scenes running the operations while volunteers can actually be the host and not interviewing panels and stuff. And that gradually started to move. So Every other month, one, two people were coming to me. Hey, I want to help. How can I join?

Francisco:
And now, after two years, we have 24 people in that status. We call them Communiteers.

Lee:
Communiteers?

Francisco:
Yes.

Lee:
A little bit like Disney with the Imagineers.

Francisco:
But they are from all over. We have also local chapters from all over the world, people leading the charge using our brand, led by community. That is even more encouraging.

Lee:
That is crazy. Can we jump in the time machine then and go back to when all of this began. What was the genesis of your idea for building this community? Was it a purposeful? Did it happen by accident?

Francisco:
Yeah, I can try to share. At that time, I was working for circle. So. I was the first marketing hire. My role was very key at the beginning because I was building from zero content marketing, the website, landing pages, comparison pages, also all the partnership stuff. Then when that happened, I was really busy, but I have been always in love with the community staff. In that time, they have Mathilde, that was the head of community. I was working every other day with one of the cofounders and say, Hey, do you think that maybe in a few months I could take some time from my regular schedule to help in the community a bit? And they say, No.

Lee:
Oh, thanks, guys.

Francisco:
They say, No, because honestly, your time generate way more impact in the marketing side than you going into the community and help. For me, it makes sense. It's not what I wanted to hear, but it's the logical reasoning. As founder, you care for the money, it's fine. That got me thinking, what can I do to actually contribute to the community space? That was the reason why I said, I cannot be in the community. I cannot do many stuff yet because I have a full-time job. I'm going to write that newsletter. Then I started. Honestly, the newsletter has been the painful part of the whole project because, well, first, the research every week is a lot of work. That's why I hire someone after two months to help me with the curation. I do then the editorial and then the intro, all the fancy stuff. But I would say that was the trigger to find a way to move faster. It was painful, mostly because even though people were not realising how much work was put in that newsletter, the newsletter was growing really slow. I would say it was growing maybe 25, 30 persons per month.Yeah.And then I was seeing...It.

Lee:
Could be compound eventually.

Francisco:
Yeah, exactly. And then I was seeing the influencers on the community space saying simply, Oh, I'm pump. I just crossed 500 new subscribers this month.

Lee:
Yeah, it's depressing that, isn't it?

Francisco:
Oh my gosh, how this guy can... You And then gradually, I would say only after a year and a half, honestly, it started to move really fast. Our newsletter today is 5,000. It's still not crazy big number for other people.

Lee:
That's amazing. 5,000 people is incredible. There's more people than this in this room right now.

Francisco:
Yeah, but it's because the niche, because the vertical where we are. Because if you create a newsletter for community creators, you get a million. But we don't serve the creator's audience. We don't serve coaches or creators. It's not like that. It's very B2B side of things. Sure. That's why I am now okay not having a huge newsletter as others, but the value for, for instance, brands in our newsletter is huge because one of this person in the newsletter can close a deal. Like any of these companies, 30K a year, 50K contract, 100 or more. The value for partners and sponsors is good. That's why we have received support. We have a few brands already sponsoring our online events. We say, No, this event is brought to you by X brand. That's how it started. Then in 2023, I was desperate to do something bigger than just a monthly online event, and I run my first online summit. Again, I went crazy. I invited all the cool people. I got 40 speakers, 40. Three-day summit, 6 hours every day.

Lee:
You've still got all that hair, which is amazing. Yeah.

Francisco:
Is that a wig?Latin people usually... No, we are good.

Lee:
For anyone watching, this is what happened to me. Anyway, carry on, mate.

Francisco:
Latin people usually keep their hair for longer. That was the first crazy experience. It was 40 speakers. I was managing the whole streaming, and I got someone, Victoria, Cumberbatch, in that time. She was hosting. She was amazing. People love her. But that was the first experience that catapult this idea to, Hey, we got 1,000 registrations for that summit online. It was crazy good. I sold because the idea was to sell after the recording, so I sold 150 tickets for the recording. That was not bad. That's amazing. I could pay all the money for speakers and things like that. And then that was the catapult. It gave me courage to try to run in London in person. And now, next year is happening. The place is booked. Today, actually, I'm meeting with James. That's one of my partners for the conference now. He will be managing all the sponsorship stuff. Brilliant. So today, we have likely he will arrive in an hour or so. Have a look here and then chat.

Lee:
Send him here for an interview.

Francisco:
It's not bad. The guy is amazing. He's the Unconference guy, James. He's wow. We also run in September a small event named Unconference Plus. Okay. In person as well. Right.

Lee:
Fantastic. Yeah.

Francisco:
So Un-conference is... I'm not sure.

Lee:
Are you aware? The links will be in the show notes, folks. Carry on. You don't have to email me the links now.

Francisco:
Okay, that's good. Unconference plus. Unconference is in a style where there are no speakers. Everyone is a speaker. At the beginning of the session, you're just like, Hey, what do you want to learn about? What do you want to talk about? What challenges do you have? You write all that in sticky notes. You put that in columns on the wall, and then you group them by topics, and then you create a round of chairs, and then, let's say, 10, 12 chairs, different groups, and then you put one topic per group, and then 30 minutes to discuss about it. Then everyone can contribute and discuss their thoughts, their views. That's amazing. Then you do first round, and then at any time, you can just start up, change the topic, change chairs. That was an amazing experience. Wow. We got a tonne of pictures and stuff about it. But that is the second more smaller experience also in person. My goal this year, I spend lots of resources and time in to try to establish in-person events. The big one, the community The AdWords Summit, and the small one that this year was 37 attendees, Unconference Plus.

Francisco:
But for instance, because we have volunteers in New York, the Unconference Plus is happening in February in New York now. Amazing. Because I have now invested in full branding website, et cetera. Now it's just like a plug and play playbook. Someone wants to run it anywhere.

Lee:
What's interesting to me as well is you said this earlier that you wanted to be behind the scenes. I think a lot of people will resonate with that where they feel like they can't build a big, vibrant community because they don't feel confident. You mentioned imposter syndrome. They don't feel confident to put themselves out there. Now, nowadays, I know you livestream. I've watched your livestreams. I know that you do put yourself out there, but initially you didn't. Here is evidence that anybody can build community. Speak into that, mate.

Francisco:
Yeah. Honestly, Because now I'm going full-time with this, I put myself out of the comfort zone and say, I need to do it. I need to push myself out, try to figure out how to say things on the fly, sometimes without much preparation. Like now. Like now, improvising and all Because otherwise, I will be left behind. If the founder is not leading the charge, there's no way to grow. That's my learnings during these two years. Now, for instance, even I open a TikTok account This week, I posted already three videos. And now, even for instance, we have our London meetup tomorrow. And what I do now, I record myself inviting people on video to attend a London meetup. I did already two different days of the week. Just, Hey, two days tomorrow, two days more. We have the meet up. The last week, I put, Hey, now you have five days to go RSVP, join me in London, blah, blah, blah. And it's not perfect, but you need to start. You need to start.

Lee:
Good is better than Perfect or done is better than perfect, to be honest. But the fact that you were still able to build that up by... You built the community through the friendships, the relationships that you had initially. You had those, I think you called them something ears? What was it? Communiteers. You got the communiteers involved to do the hosting, et cetera. The stuff that you weren't initially comfortable with, you got other people involved. You've been able to build a community almost from the behind the scenes, like you said. I think that would be a challenge to anybody listening or anyone watching, that if they feel like, I'm not confident, I can't lead this, I can't build a community, then Francisco here is evidence that as As long as you can talk to someone in private and build relationships like you clearly can do, then you can still build community and you can still build something that... Say, 6,000 members was it? How many members?

Francisco:
600.

Lee:
600 member community, 5,000 on your newsletter within just three years. It's phenomenal. I'm only on 2,000 on my newsletter, and I've been going for 10 years, mate. It's absolutely incredible what you're doing. It's super exciting. As we come into land, because I'm sure you got to go and visit everyone whilst we're here as well, what's been your biggest lesson as it was in the last couple of years?

Francisco:
This one might sound cliché, but there is a saying in community, like a philosophy, that you need to build community with your members, not for your members. Yes. Because the only way to run or to do initiatives that actually resonate with them is based on their ideas. We run, for instance, in our community, surveys every four months, asking for feedback. Then what I recently also created is a community advisory board. The Community Advisory Board, they are not communiteers, they are just members with experience, also diversity, for instance, black, white, Indian, it's Latin like me. Then also different verticals where they work, different level of seniority as well. We have a very mixed advice for the community. Then what I do is I run my ideas through them, and they say, Hey, Francisco, this is cool. If you want to do it better, do this, include that. They help me refine and reshape the initiative. Then the community, I take this and take that to the community for the execution. That's incredible. But that is why it's so important to build with your community rather just come up with all by yourself because you sometimes might do or invest efforts on things that are not going to resonate, and then you feel disappointed.

Lee:
But I can speak into that. I eventually deleted. I built the Trailblazer FM group to over 4,000 people. But again, I was always that person who felt like I had to be doing everything. I was constantly putting out new content, out new initiatives, et cetera. Over time, it just became thoroughly exhausting. It was very hard to get that feedback loop because I had feedback loop, really. People were just waiting for me to do the next thing and then would join it. So that just became exhausting. Equally, there are a lot of people who want to build communities who will do what they think is right and start to put stuff out there. And like you said, we'll just get very discouraged. So yeah, massive takeaway, build with the community. That's phenomenal. Well, mate, how can people get in touch with you? And then we shall have a hug and say goodbye.

Francisco:
Yeah. Well, if you want just to learn more, just go to ledby.community.

Lee:
Perfect.

Francisco:
Ledby.Community. Everything is there. You can even already access, probably we have scheduled at least 10 events that are free to join. We have also a membership with a few exclusive events. The membership is 250£20 per year. If you want to attend the conference, there is a membership that includes the conference as well, a bit higher in price, but includes a ticket for the London conference of next year.

Lee:
Yes, nice.

Francisco:
Yeah, that's it. Francisco. Just Francisco Opazo on LinkedIn, that's it.

Lee:
We'll add all of those in the show notes.

Francisco:
Cool.

Lee:
So take care.

Francisco:
Thanks for having me, man. That's great.

Lee:
That's awesome. How cool..