In this episode, we’re hearing from Sensitive in Seattle. Today’s letter deals with how to grow a community where joining that community might in and of itself be taboo. To better help Sensitive in Seattle, I’m bringing in the big guns. I invited Murtaza Bambot as my guest expert. He is the Founder & CEO at Heartbeat — the all-in-one platform for community businesses (also the sponsor of this podcast!) that has served has served over 5, 000 communities. So, tune in for an episode packed full of wisdom where Murtaza guides us through the process of finding those initial community members, even in a sensitive community, from a place of empathy and authority. In this episode: (05:51) Having a customer community when everything is going wrong (10:55) The only way out is through (14:40) The communitea: Sensitive in Seattle’s letter (15:41) Why community exists in the first place (18:23) Immediate boots-on-the-ground strategies to find your initial members (22:52) Prime advice on sales calls (24:43) Murtaza’s advice on using paid ads (26:27) The power of a paid waitlist to launch your community (31:16) You deserve to be paid for your work (34:45) Focus your marketing on the transformation (45:17) Be ready to constantly research, test, and implement (46:40) Leveraging ChatGPT as a thought partner (49:25) What makes a great salesperson Resources Mentioned: ❤️ Sign up for Heartbeat. Bri’s recommended all-in-one community platform. 💛 Join Ember. The place for go-getter community creators building community-powered businesses. Noteworthy quotes: “When you have 0 customers, your job is just to get to 1. And when you have 1 customer, your job is to get to 10. You don't have to think about what 100 customers, 1,000, 10,000 customers look like. Don't build these things to scale at the start.“ - Murtaza Bambot Murtaza Bambot 🖥️ Website 📱 Linkedin Bri Leever 🖥️ Website 📩 Newsletter 📹 Youtube 📱 Linkedin And before you go… 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a review on Spotify That helps the podcast more than you know and I deeply appreciate it. 🙏 Want your story to be next? Submit an anonymous letter about your community conundrum, fiasco, drama, or other dilemma here. *Dear Bri is produced by Ideablossoms. Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.