Ron and Ed welcomed to the show Brett Haralson, director of community at our sponsor Melio. Brett has robust experience as a strategic leader focused on community strategy, and has been integral to influencing business growth while focusing on program development and management. Join us as he shares his thoughts on community (and maybe even talk a little BitCoin.)

A bit more about Brett Haralson…

Brett Haralson has robust experience as a strategic leader focused on community strategy, he has been integral to influencing business growth while focusing on program development & management. As a User Success Expert, Brett has consistently led transformational efforts to drive customer retention through global & cross-functional collaboration. He is well versed in relationship building, critical partnership development, & event management, delivering solutions while managing product life cycles efficiently.

Use these show notes to follow along with the audio…

Segment one:

Brett loves people and communities. He’s basically a huge geek and loves gaming. “Communities are probably the strongest force on the planet.” —Brett Haralson
At one point, Brett had 6 or 7 MMOs to play at a time with a large community to support him. He is definitely a huge geek and he’s amongst his kind on the show today :)
What is a user success focused community? If someone comes to your company to use your product, it’s a means to an end for them. But there is a community of customers that can help with a much larger conversation.
How do you translate online community to success? Ask, “What’s the purpose? What’s the intent?” The best ones have clear and concise goals for existing.
What do you love the most about community? “You can create an online environment that suppresses jerks. You can’t do that in physical settings as easily.” —Brett Haralson
A HUGE shout out to our sponsor, Melio (and our guest today, Brett Haralson)! Melio is an accounts payable solution that both you and your clients will love. Use this link to check them out: https://go.melio.com/TSOE

Segment two:

Business owners and entrepreneurs that are using Melio can rely on the community to find success together. That’s kind of the point of any business community, right? And Melio was smart to bring their customers together like this.
What is community really about? “It’s about giving business owners and people tools and access to find all the success they want. Business ownership is a wild adventure!” —Brett Haralson
When it comes to Melio’s power users, THEY are the ones who know the most about the software and the platform. The employees know a ton as well but the customers live in it 24/7. That’s why community is so valuable.
When you use online spaces, we marketers may think people are searching for something about ACH deposits or checks. But in a community, they use their own lingo and that’s what someone of equal status will recognize and respond to.
How do you build community in a way that encourages those that have knowledge with those that don’t? And what’s the reward for it? These are some of the more interesting questions to be asked about community.

Segment three:

In short, you do not need to pay to see value inside of a community. There are gated communities that exist and they work well, especially when focused on an individual’s expertise.
Building a community, maintaining it, and nurturing it is an art. It’s difficult to measure and Ron commented that he likes the ambiguity around it.
What other technology gets Brett excited? Obviously he loves the innovation that Melio is bringing to the marketplace. Gone are the days that small biz owners have to pay via the method demanded. Get your points and always pay by credit card, for example.
What other technology gets Brett excited? Bitcoin and the blockchain. It’s independent. It has its own cycles of innovation. There is no other digital asset that is anywhere to close to this decentralized, unowned tech.
TIL that a part of 1 Bitcoin is called a Satoshi. More here: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/satoshi.asp#:~:text=Investopedia%20%2F%20Mira%20Norian-,What%20Is%20a%20Satoshi%3F,million%20satoshis%20to%20one%20bitcoin.
Bonus episodes, monthly happy hours, and a pre-order community for Ron’s new book. All of this is at Patreon.com/TSOE which is sponsored by 90Minds. Need a mind? Find one at 90Minds.com

Segment four:

“For community, Twitter’s best play is to create a way for people to self-identify and congregate together.” —Brett Haralson
“You’re never going to solve an argument over Twitter but you do not want to isolate yourself from other opinions which is what a lot of social media has done.” —Brett Haralson
“Companies that pay close attention to the communities they can build around themselves — towards a higher goal than themselves — those companies will last longer in the future.” —Brett Haralson
A big THANK YOU to Brett Haralson and Melio for being a part of a great conversation today. We geeked out pretty hard and it was amazing!

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

This past week was bonus episode 407 - Apple Cars and QEII
Here are a few links Ron and Ed discussed on the bonus episode: