To build a successful community, you don't need 1,000 fans. You need 10 true regulars. (Credit to David Spinks for this idea... It's brilliant). This may contradict what most people imagine about communities — spaces with hundreds or thousands of people actively contributing and forming relationships where everyone is engaged and involved. In reality, only a small percentage of your members will actively participate. You don't need a lot of active members to get conversations flowing; you only need the right few. When new members join your community and see dozens of new posts and hundreds of new comments every week, they won't know if all that activity is coming from ten people or 100 people. However, getting to ten true regulars is not easy. My recommendation: Start with three. Get to the point where you have three members who are coming back every day (or most days) and posting and commenting. You probably already know the three people. A lot of successful communities have the same founding story: "It was just me and a few friends in a group, and it slowly grew from there." Who are you already talking to about the topic of the community? What three people would you text first with a question? You've already validated that they're motivated. They could be your founding members. Ask them if they'd be interested in joining a small group of friends who are interested in the same topic. Once you get them together, start conversations, discuss interesting articles, and share learnings. Be yourselves, the same way you would in a private text conversation. Be weird, tell jokes, have fun. It's that kind of organic, quirky core that can spark a thriving community. Slowly invite more people, but don't invite too many at once, or you'll smother the flame. Be selective and keep curating. Once you have 3 true regulars — reward them, make them feel special, hang out with them on Zoom 1on1, meet them in-person — give them what they need so they can continue being a role model in your community.

Most community builders obsess over engagement. Better content. Better events. Better onboarding sequences. And the community still slowly dies. Not because the product is bad. Not because you stopped caring. But because there's one thing nobody talks about — and without it, even the most "engaged" communities collapse. I've seen it happen to a community that was once valued at $5 million. They had everything dialed in. Except this one thing. And it dropped to $100k. The thing? They stopped bringing in new people. And this is the same mistake I have made again and again in all projects I have failed. Sounds obvious when you say it out loud. But most of us are spending 80% of our energy on retention while barely thinking about acquisition. And that imbalance quietly kills communities — sometimes over months, sometimes over years. I wrote about this — what I call the New Blood Principle — and the three specific ways to actually fix it (without cold DMing strangers or running paid ads you can't afford). If you're building a community and wondering why it feels like you're treading water, this one's worth a read: https://withhimanshu.com/the-new-blood-principle-community/ PS: Here are 7 strategies to make money from your community if you are yet to monetize: https://withhimanshu.com/make-money-from-your-community/

Based on a purely educational and niche coaching Instagram account (and not a typical entertainment profile): Results: - 10.2k views - Followers - 20 (doesn't matter since last Meta update. You can have 1000 followers and can still generate a million views) - Interactions: 261 (100% up) ✅ 3 video formats that worked - Activity + face video (200% more views) Doing something while talking and keeping your hands in the frame. Cut after each 3-5 seconds and keep the main subject in the frame. - Activity+text (50% more views) Do something interesting and add text that encourages people to read the caption. - Podcast and collaboration reel (300% more views) Speak about something interesting and directly address the people in your niche in a podcast-style setting. ❌ What didn't work - POV text on a video - Generic advice - Image of celebrity with caption: "I tried with Keanu Reeves' image and a small caption, but people weren't interested." What worked for you in your business? Share in the comments.

Came across this again and thought to share it. How powerful and relatable this is when we have so much AI generated content out there.