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Building Communities – with Tom Ross
On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Tom Ross, CEO of Design Cuts, he's known as a community branding guy and community builder. He also hosts the podcasts The Honest Designer's Show and Biz Buds which explore his passion for community building and mentoring others. The pair talk about his journey from designing websites from the age of 12 to building his own company and personal brand and now helps others do the same.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- There's a lot of confusion about what ‘community' means. People talk about social media following, newsletters, podcast listenership. There's no finite line for me, but typically a community platform is a space where members can chat to each other – many-to-many rather than one-to-many (e.g. Discord server, Slack group, Facebook group, Circle forum).
- Being able to see someone else having the same interests in certain brands as you gives a sense of identity and belonging. This is massively proliferating in the digital world right now with things like NFTs.
- People have become bored, apathetic and to some extent blind towards their social media news feed. There's only so many years that we can sit there like zombies scrolling through for hours on end looking at peoples highlight reels. Particularly with the pandemic and pandemic of loneliness, people are craving human connection and depth and social media doesn't necessarily offer that.
- There are a few key principles to community building: 1) Much like any business you need to have a strong foundation: have a clear value proposition, have a clear structure, understand the expectation of your members or it will die out. 2) It takes more work than anything else online so you've got to love it and invest serious time and effort in it. 3) Don't focus on the quantity of members, it's better to have a smaller community who properly engage and are aligned around your purpose and understand why they're there and what they're getting out of it.
BEST MOMENTS
‘We're seeing a shift where, historically, community building has been seen as ‘fluffy', unmeasurable and doesn't elicit ROI for businesses. There's starting to be investment in brand and community.'
‘The barrier to entry has lowers, there's greater awareness and more data available where you can measure ROI.'
‘NFTs aren't new, it's just starting to hit scale. People were selling digital items for real money in video games 20 years ago. Now we're seeing that concept at a major scale.'
‘If you haven't thoroughly educated yourself on something and really lived it, you shouldn't speak too strongly about it.'
ABOUT THE GUEST
When he was 12 years old, Tom Ross and his best friend right clicked on 'view source' a web-page they were looking at. The screen of code that appeared blew his mind.
They taught themselves HTML and went on to start countless web projects over the next few years, many of which never saw the light of day, some made them a few hundred bucks, but mostly, they were just an incredible learning ground.
Alongside these web projects, Tom embraced his inner creative, learning Paintshop Pro, and later Photoshop. He began creating endless graphics and websites, eventually leading him to enter design contests. These contests taught him early lessons in working with clients. A successful run of contest wins developed into a more steady freelance career, alongside school, building online communities, simply for the fun of it.
After several more successful ventures, Tom discovered his 'hustle'. After binge listening to a bunch of hustle pornstars and internalising their workaholic mantras, he became a working machine. Starting Design Cuts, Tom worked 18 hour days, 7 days per week for the first 18 months, culminating in a hospital visit, major stomach surgery, and years of chronic health issues to follow. Despite the tumultuous journey, Design Cuts flourished into a thriving community of 750,000 creatives.
In his spare time, Tom explores his passion for community building and mentoring others. His podcasts, The Honest Designer's Show and Biz Buds have now attracted millions of downloads, and he gets immense joy in providing value to his community.
Websites: https://tomross.co/ and https://tomross.co/newsletter/
Social media: @tomrossmedia
Circle forum: learn.community
ABOUT THE HOST
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.
Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.
Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke | [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [[email protected]](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com
This show was brought to you by Progressive Media
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
View all episodes
By Danielle ClarkeOn this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Tom Ross, CEO of Design Cuts, he's known as a community branding guy and community builder. He also hosts the podcasts The Honest Designer's Show and Biz Buds which explore his passion for community building and mentoring others. The pair talk about his journey from designing websites from the age of 12 to building his own company and personal brand and now helps others do the same.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- There's a lot of confusion about what ‘community' means. People talk about social media following, newsletters, podcast listenership. There's no finite line for me, but typically a community platform is a space where members can chat to each other – many-to-many rather than one-to-many (e.g. Discord server, Slack group, Facebook group, Circle forum).
- Being able to see someone else having the same interests in certain brands as you gives a sense of identity and belonging. This is massively proliferating in the digital world right now with things like NFTs.
- People have become bored, apathetic and to some extent blind towards their social media news feed. There's only so many years that we can sit there like zombies scrolling through for hours on end looking at peoples highlight reels. Particularly with the pandemic and pandemic of loneliness, people are craving human connection and depth and social media doesn't necessarily offer that.
- There are a few key principles to community building: 1) Much like any business you need to have a strong foundation: have a clear value proposition, have a clear structure, understand the expectation of your members or it will die out. 2) It takes more work than anything else online so you've got to love it and invest serious time and effort in it. 3) Don't focus on the quantity of members, it's better to have a smaller community who properly engage and are aligned around your purpose and understand why they're there and what they're getting out of it.
BEST MOMENTS
‘We're seeing a shift where, historically, community building has been seen as ‘fluffy', unmeasurable and doesn't elicit ROI for businesses. There's starting to be investment in brand and community.'
‘The barrier to entry has lowers, there's greater awareness and more data available where you can measure ROI.'
‘NFTs aren't new, it's just starting to hit scale. People were selling digital items for real money in video games 20 years ago. Now we're seeing that concept at a major scale.'
‘If you haven't thoroughly educated yourself on something and really lived it, you shouldn't speak too strongly about it.'
ABOUT THE GUEST
When he was 12 years old, Tom Ross and his best friend right clicked on 'view source' a web-page they were looking at. The screen of code that appeared blew his mind.
They taught themselves HTML and went on to start countless web projects over the next few years, many of which never saw the light of day, some made them a few hundred bucks, but mostly, they were just an incredible learning ground.
Alongside these web projects, Tom embraced his inner creative, learning Paintshop Pro, and later Photoshop. He began creating endless graphics and websites, eventually leading him to enter design contests. These contests taught him early lessons in working with clients. A successful run of contest wins developed into a more steady freelance career, alongside school, building online communities, simply for the fun of it.
After several more successful ventures, Tom discovered his 'hustle'. After binge listening to a bunch of hustle pornstars and internalising their workaholic mantras, he became a working machine. Starting Design Cuts, Tom worked 18 hour days, 7 days per week for the first 18 months, culminating in a hospital visit, major stomach surgery, and years of chronic health issues to follow. Despite the tumultuous journey, Design Cuts flourished into a thriving community of 750,000 creatives.
In his spare time, Tom explores his passion for community building and mentoring others. His podcasts, The Honest Designer's Show and Biz Buds have now attracted millions of downloads, and he gets immense joy in providing value to his community.
Websites: https://tomross.co/ and https://tomross.co/newsletter/
Social media: @tomrossmedia
Circle forum: learn.community
ABOUT THE HOST
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.
Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.
Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke | [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [[email protected]](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com
This show was brought to you by Progressive Media
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.