The $30,000 Day That Taught Me This: Growing a Community Is the Most Important Thing You Can Do
A true story, and a blueprint for building your own tribe.
It was December 31st, the last day of the year.
Suddenly, my Facebook Messenger started popping like crazy.
“Hey Geoff, tell me about your program.”
“I want to join. What’s happening? This sounds amazing.”
I was getting ready for the fireworks that evening. Where were all these people coming from?
When I looked deeper, I saw that Laura, one of my most incredible clients, a realtor in Sonoma County who had tripled her business using our methods, had replied to a Facebook post.
Someone had asked:
“If I had $3,000 to spend on my business and didn’t want to buy ads, where should I invest it?”
Hundreds of people had replied with recommendations, trying to sell their programs. But Laura simply told her story of working with me.
Throughout that day, I kept sending people a simple document that outlined how we could work together, and people kept saying yes.
By the end of the day, I had collected $30,000 in cash in about four hours, from one single post.
I’m telling you this story because: community matters.
If you want to work from a place of flow and freedom, where things grow organically because they’re good, then you need a community that supports not only each other, but also supports you, the founder.
Which brings me to what I am building now.
A 200-strong community full of incredible coaches, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, realtors, athletes, and artists.
A community so rich in relational equity that everyone consistently helps each other grow in every dimension of life, including me.
If you want to build something that matters in 2025, you must look at building your community.
10-Point Checklist: How to Grow Your Own Community That Helps You Thrive
This is a new launch for me, and I am super excited about how powerful it is going to be for everyone.
Create a clear value set for who belongs and who does not.
The community I’m building is for people who love others and want to leave a lasting footprint with their lives. It’s for people who place relationships above transactions. If you don’t demonstrate those values, you don’t get invited.Make it stand for something bigger than just business.
Money matters; it is very important. However, a community is really about the coming together of collective stories and journeys. People are woven together as they pursue their goals. For ours, you’ve got to be ambitious. You need to be building something, going somewhere, and really driven to make things happen in today’s chaotic economy. We don’t want armchair critics, we want brave couch surfers.Be the bravest and show up first.
You’re the first member of your community. Primarily, use your methods to grow. Celebrate wins, model care, and lead with vulnerability. Make people feel welcome at the table. Normalize their experiences by sharing yours. I am starting every Sphere Builder 3.0 session by sharing what’s happening for me, then by asking them to share their story.Make it super easy for people to get wins fast.
New members should feel instantly welcomed, engaged, and supported. They need simple actions that create momentum. Early immersion into the community leads to fast growth for everyone. Front-load your training with tasks that make it easy for people to win. Example: the first thing we do now is give people proven social media posts that will generate hundreds of comments.Make it easy for people to help each other.
Step out of the way. If you make the community all about you, you’ll burn out fast. Provide Zoom rooms, offline chats, and simple strategies where people can share and support each other. For us in Sphere 3.0, our models and teachings are groundbreaking, but they are nothing compared to the exponential growth that happens when great people co-create and take actions that support each other.In the beginning, allow guests.
The hardest part of building a community is that on day one, you don’t have enough people to create a solid sense of buzz. To draw a crowd, you need a crowd. One of the ways I’m doing this is to allow people to bring guests (if and only if they feel the guest is right for the group). Before, during, and after the gathering, these guests receive information about joining the community.Celebrate everything — yes, absolutely everything.
Wins, lessons, first steps, all of it needs to be celebrated. Nothing and no one should be missed. This is your primary goal as the leader of the movement. A first client, a first video, a first $1,000 day, a big failure after taking brave action, it all needs to be acknowledged. When people take action, they grow, and they need to be rewarded within the community for being brave, for being themselves, for taking action.Create shared rituals.
I definitely need to be better at this. People love a sense of predictability. If they know their wins will be celebrated, they’ll be excited to come share what they did. Rituals can include Monday check-ins, Friday shout-outs, monthly goal calls, rhythms that bind people together. I’ve started using AI to help create and hold to these rituals. Very powerful.Keep it surprising.
Don’t let your gatherings become predictable. Mix it up. Surprise your community. Bring in incredible guests to share their next-level expertise. As our community grows, I’m looking forward to getting experts in my personal trainer, my elite-level sports friends, my public speaking coach, and friends who have had huge success in entertainment. Tap your network and let your community access your wealth.Give so generously that you are impossible to leave.
Give more than you ask. Build so much relational equity that it’s almost impossible for someone to imagine life without your community. It needs to be an incredible hub of community, support, wisdom, and growth where every interaction is life-giving. Make it both exciting and imperative.
If this speaks to you, I’d love to connect. Comment or reply “COMMUNITY” below — I’m happy to share what we’re building.
Community