- When I look at those moments of my life where things shifted
for me, it was all because of a person.
It was because of a conversation.
You know reading books is great and I learned a lot of stuff and
their strategies but there's nothing like taking that same
content and getting it from somebody else because
that the messenger matters.
(upbeat music)
How to create a private Facebook group for your network?
Now this is a strategy, a very specific strategy to help you
connect with people that you otherwise wouldn't have the
chance to or just not have the time to do I mean I don't know
if you feel like you're running your business without any
guidance or you know there's somebody out there that's
already been through this before and if you had the opportunity
just ask them the question their answer would help you save so
much time or you just feel like you don't have that group of
peers or people to really motivate you and support you in
growing your business.
I think that, you know, the value of people is probably the
number one strategy.
And people say like, "Dan, if you could only pick one thing to
"really grow your business,"
I would say spend time with people
who've been there before and as much as you can.
Because they will literally give you the playbook.
They will give you the strategies.
They will teach you how to overcome any challenge,
many times they'll even give you the contact or
the person to do the work.
It's so simple.
For me it's like I've learned this over the years but recently
the challenge for me was I do it through dinners.
If you've ever watched my video or my micro-documentary on
founder dinners, that's been my strategy.
What I've done and shifted over time now that I have two little
boys, Max and Noah, is I really wanted to make sure that I used
my time more efficiently.
So what I've done is I've migrated a lot of what I used to
do in person over dinners online into a private Facebook group.
Now, this originally started as a joke, okay?
The group is called "The Martel Method."
It was a joke, the banner is a ninja.
I think the ninja's doing like some kind of karate kick and it
was just because I had two buddies,
my buddy Martin and Clay Hebert, and I wanted to share something
with both of them and I was like well,
I could start, I could just send them an email with an attachment
but it would do this whole like email thread.
I just figured you know what there's probably a Facebook
thing but it was private.
You know, that group for me is where I share my toughest
challenges, I'm open with all aspects of my business so that
I can get real contextual feedback from people that
I admire and and know that they understand my situation so that
was the Facebook group, The Martel Method.
And really it just kinda snowballed it was like well you
know what maybe this person could provide some advice.
Maybe I could serve this person if I invited them to this group
and I just kept curating and curating it.
Almost 2 years later, this group,
in my mind, personally and many people that are part of it that
have shared this and just so you know do not email me asking me
to be part of the group.
There's no more members.
It's locked in.
What I want to teach in this video is how to create your own.
'Cause for me the value has been probably out of all the
different programs and coaches that I've work with this group
and having access to those people that I brought in to be
able to get immediate feedback is the most valuable thing I do.
That's why I'm shooting this video so that you can set it up
for yourself in your industry and I'm gonna walk you through
the best practices that I've used that have made this group
so valuable because I don't know if you're part of 1400 other
private Facebook groups like
I am but you don't need another one.
You need the right one.
You need one that's high value.
So the first thing you need to do when creating this is you
need to have a topic or you need a theme.
Who is the person that should be part of this group, right?
So if you're a SaaS entrepreneur,
you have a software business, do you have a group,
a private group, for just software entrepreneurs in a
specific vertical?
Or maybe you have a service business and you can create like
agency group for just people in a certain type of agency.
Or if you have a retail business or an enterprise business you
have a private group just for that specific thing.
My barber the other day, you know Ryan Brown.
I was talking to him I was like yeah,
I've got this strategy.
He goes, "Dude, I'm part of a private Facebook group with all
"these barbers from around North America and we share strategies
"and tips all the time."
And I'm like, "You're a barber and you do this?"
He's like, "Dude, it's the most, it's powerful."
That's what you have the opportunity to do because the
person that puts that together, that creates it,
they're the connector, right?
There'll the person that creates the value for everybody else and
they're the person that people want to help give back go to.
So number one, you need a topic.
You need a theme.
Then, you need to curate and for me it's really about curating on
a few different levels.
One is values.
So, for instance, I don't get along or don't connect with or
don't resonate with guys in the make money get rich
millionaire shit.
Like and you know who I'm talking about.
The guys with the Lamborghinis, the watches,
all that stuff.
It's just not my style.
I don't have any hate.
I don't even care about them but I often get people saying,
"Hey you know you should really connect with this person."
Look, I just got a check out their stuff and be like you know
what's not for me.
It's not a judgment thing.
It's just I know who I resonate with and I resonate with people
that care more about creating value,
care more about building to their community,
care less about their ego and all this other stuff so for me
that is part of the value stack.
So you need to decide what is your Facebook group stand for?
What is a stand against?
Who gets in, who doesn't?
You are the curator.
You need to play that role.
Second thing is what's the outcome?
What is the, what is the purpose of the group?
If people join it, what outcome do you want them to get?
Is it to learn about marketing?
Is it to grow their business?
Is it to hire better people?
Is it to understand their financials better?
If you're an accountant, I mean there's just so many
opportunities for you to say look this is the type of person
and then the outcome that people get when they
join my group is this.
The third area which is all part of the first topic and theme is
really about diversity.
You know one thing that I was very deliberate about in the
early days was saying okay we need somebody
that's really good at copywriting.
We need somebody that's really good at Facebook ads.
We need somebody that's really good at videos.
We need somebody that's good at online events or live events or
summits or whatever it is so that that way we could build the
diversity in the group.
I had the values, I had the outcomes
Were all shared and this is the direction we're all going and it
provided information that otherwise wasn't available.
So whatever group you put together,
I highly recommend you curate it.
You actually like go out recruit,
talk to people, say oh you know what I think you'd be a good fit
for this thing I've got.
Here's how it works, here's my expectations if you want to join
let me know and I'll send you an invite and
that has been incredible.
Having people that can really truly answer all aspects of the
business model of the industry you're in is incredible.
So that is the first thing is a topic theme really based around
values, outcomes and diversity.
The second is you gotta curate.
Right, I've said this couple times.
You are the owner.
So some people come in, some people leave, right?
And at the end of the day to me the curation processes
is number one.
You know there's some great quotes about Groucho Marx said,
"I don't want to be part of any group that would
"have me as a member."
And I think that the the way you overcome that is really just set
the expectations and say look here's what this group's about.
Here's what I expect, so for me it's like you need to contribute
and you need to comment and like stuff.
If I've noticed for a while maybe two or three months that
somebody that's part of the group hasn't contributed,
I just take them out.
I took out TED speakers.
I've taken out people that are that are in the top of the
revenue game for their industry.
To me, I don't care who they are.
I want people in that group that a small group that are active,
engaged and that give back, right?
And I'm gonna teach you guys the number one tip at the very and
on how to do that in probably the easiest way possible.
But that to me is your responsibility as
the creator is to curate.
Number three is to make sure that there's contribution.
Right?
I talked about kind of like asking them to participate but
here's the three ways that
I think you can get them to contribute.
One, is ask, right?
And asking is saying here is ask: what is the challenge
they're having and they've got to disclose their situation.
For me to just say hey you know how do I grow my business?
That's an ask, that is the
dumbest question in the world, right?
What you want to say is here's where my business is at,
here's where I want to get to, here's what I'm doing today to
grow my business does anybody have any feedback?
That's a great ask.
The other one is to me a give.
It's you have something of value that you
want to give to the group.
Now here's my filter for gives.
It can't be anything that's
publicly available anywhere else.
So in the early days of the group,
I had people that were crossposting
stuff that were public.
I had people taking blog posts that they were reading and post
it in the group.
That stuff is out there.
I don't need somebody to put that in the group.
What I want as a give is hey here's an internal procedure
that we used to get this kind of result and
maybe you guys find a value.
Here's a video that I shot for a private client that I think
would really add a lot of value for you guys.
To me that is the filter for a good give and you gotta set the
expectation in the community guidelines early on when you
invite somebody into the group, right?
And then the third area is a praise.
You know there's an opportunity, I think,
that no matter who you bring into the group that they are
doing things that other people may not be aware of and that's
your opportunity to praise that person and say hey by the way
recently one of our members got nominated in youngest person be
nominated in the speaker Hall of Fame so you better believe
I posted that in the group and I cheered it on and everybody
commented and that to me is an opportunity to really just share
in the wins.
Right and to create that culture
and that experience within the group.
So, be sure that you have a topic and a theme.
Make sure that your curating the members and if they're not
participating you actually trim.
You cut them out and then three,
make sure that you give them the
guidance to contribute to the group.
And for me it's give, praise and ask and then the number one tip
to creating content 'cause a lot of you guys don't,
they're like well how do I find great stuff to give the group.
Here's what I do, every member in the group I get on a
30 minute to 45 minute Skype video session and I interview
them about their business,
about their best strategies about
things that they've learned.
Their journey and I post that every week and I mean literally
if you did that and you kept having you know couple new
members once a quarter you could have enough content and you can
batch them all together to just keep giving original content
that not only is incredible but gives the opportunity for other
members to know the other people in the group so that is your
opportunity to create a virtual group or...
Just really just people that know how to build and scale your
kind of business.
That's the world we live in.
It's incredible.
It's available to anybody, it's free and as per usual I want to
challenge you to live a bigger life and a bigger business by
using private Facebook groups and I'll see you next Monday.
If you liked this video be sure to subscribe to my channel and
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I'll see you next week.