7 Big Lessons I Took Away from Failure
Here’s the unvarnished, direct message from my disorganized desk to you:
✅ People don’t leave friends and family — they leave products. Retention isn’t about stuffing more content down their throats. It’s about a real emotional connection. Be a person, not a product.
✅ Personal authority beats expert authority every time. People don’t follow you just because you know your stuff — they follow you because they know you give a damn about them.
✅ Be a member of your own community. Don’t stand at the front of the room like some “guru.” Get in the trenches. Ask questions. Share your life. Be one of them.
✅ Shared struggles bond deeper than shared wins. Winning together is cool, but struggling side-by-side? That forges unbreakable loyalty.
✅ Drop your status if you want to raise engagement.If you look too perfect, people freeze. Show your cracks. Laugh at yourself. Ask for help. Let others shine — and they will.
✅ User-generated content is pure gold. The comments? That’s where the magic lives. Not in your perfectly crafted posts. Read deeper. Listen harder.
✅ One community, one shared goal . Keep it simple. Focused. Everyone should know the main mission. Hit it. Celebrate it. Then open the next level together.
🔥 Bottom line: If you’re building a community (or planning to), start building with your people, not for them.
Show up real. Stay human. Keep it messy. That’s the real secret.
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Mark Zupo, Founder, KoolSchool “Where Leaders Are Built, Not Born."