Just Add People The Community Builder’s Cookbook by Patrick McCrann

Open 0.1 Author's Note

Author's Note

I learned about community building the hard way. By getting it wrong.

As a young athlete, I was obsessed with being the best. The fastest, the strongest, the smartest. I pushed myself relentlessly, thinking success was measured by external validation and victory.

As varsity captain in both high school and college, I discovered that what actually mattered most wasn't being the best individual at any skill, position, or test.

The critical signal was dedication to the sport, and to the team. Not domination.

My teammates cared about who showed up consistently. Who put their heart into every practice. Who made others want to play. Those people created teams that would win.

Little did I know this would be my first lesson in community building.

My time in the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan and later working with the International Rescue Committee in Azerbaijan was a real test of this understanding.

Success in these environments was about creating trust and fostering collaborat

Open 0.2 Foreword: Everyone's a Community Builder

Everyone's a Community Builder

The world of community building is always changing.

Creating a thriving community used to require massive resources, technical know-how, and more than a little luck.

Today, anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection can start a community.

Sounds great, right?

Not. So. Fast.

When everyone has access to the same tools, the tools become meaningless.

The real secret to building a great community in this new reality? Starting and ending with your people.

Not your tech stack. Not your engagement metrics. Definitely not how many likes your last post got, although that's a good signal.

Here's what you'll learn.

How to create meaningful connections without burning out your members or yourself. Why your community strategy should look more like planning a dinner party than launching a startup. Why the best communities often have an expiration date.

If you're new to community building, this book will help you start on the right foot. Focusing on

Open 0.3 A Note to Community Builders

Welcome

Whether you're officially building community for work, launching your next venture, or have simply realized that community is the path forward for your career, project, or cause, you should know this.

You've chosen a path that matters more than ever.

Being a community builder is, by definition, a journey of ups and downs.

And whatever ups and downs you're imagining right now, multiply them. Make the ups higher and the downs lower.

Building something that depends on other people has always been challenging. Arguably, it's never been more complex than in today's distracted and divisive digital landscape.

As I write this in December 2024, the internet has never felt more fractured. Yet there's never been a greater opportunity for meaningful connection.

This paradox is at the heart of our challenge as community builders.

Every success and every failure carries a lesson. Every triumph and every setback offers a chance to adapt, to learn, to grow.

By choosing to build commu

Open 0.4 Ifs Buts and, well, Ands

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. ~ African Proverb

Community is personal.

My version of community might not match yours, and that's perfectly fine. In fact, it's fantastic.

Creativity and freedom is what makes community both fascinating and powerful.

The ideas in this book are built on more than two decades of experience connecting people to create better outcomes.

Teaching. International development. Public service. Coaching. Family. I've community-built it all.

Some readers will say these ideas are wrong. That's okay.

This isn't a book of rules. It's a guidebook to help you quickly build and scale communities for whatever lights your fire. Your project, your personal life, your passion, or even fundraising.

We all have community DNA hardwired into us.

Given the right conditions, we can explore what that means for the things we're passionate about.

Community isn't just an option. It's an obligation.

Bringing people together in meaningf

Open 0.5 The first and last definition of community

Community happens when people get together.

Community is the energy that emerges when people connect. Depending on the context it can be motivating, encouraging, empathetic, galvanizing. Or it could be much more.

You can create spaces for community to happen. A community center. An online forum. A group text chain. But it's not community if people aren't together.

When people do come together, the frequency and proximity of those gatherings define the health of that community.

Forget about vanity metrics like visits, posts, likes, or DMs. Those are just attempts to quantify connection.

What really matters is how often people meet and how much time they spend together.

Consider typical social institutions like church on Sunday. Or teachers and students in school who meet Monday through Friday. Or people at their jobs.

Sometimes these communities form by choice, sometimes by circumstance. But they're all defined by regular, significant time spent together.

As a community builder, you w

Open 0.6 How this book works

Let me start by telling you what this book isn't.

This isn't a how-to book. It's not filled with data analysis or corporate strategies. You won't find instructions for launching political movements or five-year plans for community domination.

I wrote this book to help you break free from all the "shoulds" about community building and just get started.

It's about challenging you to do something real. To connect people, see how it works, figure out if it works for you, and then help you move forward from there.

Here's the thing about community: it all comes down to the smallest unit. One person. The connector.

And let's be honest, that's not how most "community building experts" talk about it. They want to sell you on grand visions and elaborate strategies.

But that's not how we actually work as people.

When you sign up for your local rec soccer league, you're not thinking "In five years, we're going to be regional champions." You just want to play soccer and meet other people who l

Open 0.7 If you buy it, they will come (and other myths)

If You Buy It, They Will Come (and other myths)

Something's gone terribly wrong with how we build communities.

We've been sold a "Field of Dreams" fantasy about community building. Just buy the right platform, set up the perfect infrastructure, and members will magically appear.

It's so normalized that you might not even see it anymore, but let me paint you a picture.

Your best friend's birthday is next month. Inspired, you tell your friend group that you're thinking about throwing a party. So far, so good.

But their response is to pitch you on a premium venue. Upfront, non-refundable deposit for 50 people. The best artisanal cake-maker in the state. Have to book now, you're already late. A digital invitation platform that requires a one-year subscription.

All before you've even checked with your best friend if they even want to have a party.

Wild.

That's exactly what's happening in the online community space.

We're being told to build elaborate digital houses before we've even m

Open 0.8 The power of Pop Communities

You already love communities more than you realize.

Maybe not the kind with a Slack channel or a $199/month price tag. The real kind.

The kind that sneaks into your life through a weekend softball league, a standing gym session, or a holiday tradition that gets your neighbor to wave at you for the first time in months.

That’s community. Instant gatherings. High energy. I call them pop up communities, pop for short.

Pop communities are what convinced me that community doesn’t have to be complicated, lifelong, or professionally managed to matter. It just has to be lived.

That’s the shift I want for you. Not more reading about community — but doing it. Testing it. Trying it. Watching it light up in real time. Once you experience the power of a small group of people coming together with purpose, even temporarily, you start to see it everywhere.

A concert where strangers scream the lyrics aloud. A gym full of regulars who never speak but always nod. A weekend retreat that somehow gives you mor

Open 1.1 Set a Timer

Set a defined end date

Before you build anything, decide when your community ends. Most communities fail because they try to last forever. You can't sustain that.

Set a timer. A weekend. A month. Whatever makes sense. The constraint matters more than the length.

Here's why: an end date creates urgency. People show up because missing it means missing it permanently. There's no archive to catch later. That pressure actually works in your favor—it forces people to engage now instead of deferring.

An end date also gives you permission to experiment. You're not locked into supporting this forever. You can try something, see what works, gather feedback, and do it differently next time. Each iteration teaches you something. Run ten of these, and you'll know far more than if you tried to build one perfect permanent community.

The limitation also makes the experience itself be

Open 1.2 All Natural

Build on authenticity, not gimmicks

Strip out the tricks. Real names, real identities, real value. No paid ads inside the community. No hidden fees or upgrade tiers. No gimmicks designed to keep people coming back.

People are here because they actually care about what's happening, not because you've engineered some retention mechanism.

This is harder than faking it. You can't buy growth with ad spend. You can't coast on hype. But it works. In the right niche, people naturally invite others because the experience is genuine. That network effect is real.

Authenticity creates its own flywheel. Real members invite real people. Those people have real conversations, which attract more serious members. The low barrier to entry—no manipulation, no paywall tricks—means the people who do show up are genuinely interested. That filters out the noise.

Over time, your community bec

Open 1.3 Bite-Sized

Keep it small

Real communities are small. Intimate. Manageable. Not Facebook groups with 10,000 members—that's a crowd of strangers, not a community.

Small communities are actually easier to run. You don't need massive infrastructure. You can support what you build. People know each other. They show up as themselves, not as usernames in a sea of thousands.

Small is also easier to explain. If you need a manifesto to describe what your community is, it's too complicated. You should be able to say it in a sentence. That clarity matters—people join things they understand immediately.

The constraints help you focus. Don't try to offer everything. If you load your community with options, members end up sampling a bit of everything and getting nothing substantive. Pick one thing and do it well. Let members build from there. Their feedback and requests shape what comes next—they'

Open 1.4 Free Samples

Start with a free sample

The entry point to your community is something free. A resource list. A how-to video. A challenge. A short event. Something that shows what you do without requiring commitment.

Samples work because they filter for the right people. Someone interested in your thing will take the sample. Someone who isn't won't bother. That self-selection saves you time. You're not convincing skeptics—you're attracting people already primed to care.

When someone takes your sample, you get their email or phone number or a follow. That's the trade. They get something useful. You get a way to reach them next. It's the first real connection.

Pay attention to who takes the sample and what they do with it. If 50 people download your resource list and 10 actually use it, you've learned something about your audience. That feedback—whether explicit or just behavioral—shapes

Open 1.5 Food Truckit

Don't serve take out food, serve get out food.

Think about how food trucks work. They're mobile. They show up where people already are. A conference. A park. A parking lot. They don't ask people to come to them—they go to the people.

Food trucks have managed expectations. No one orders a seven-course meal from a truck. They know what they're getting: good food, fast, done well. That clarity works. Food trucks are simple to operate. One or two people running everything. Lean. Focused. They can't do everything, so they do one or two things exceptionally well. Their menu changes based on what's working. If one item sells out every day, that becomes the menu.

Food trucks build loyalty. People follow them. They check social media to find where they're parked next. Some people plan their day around a food truck's location.

The best part: food trucks add value to existing space

Open 1.6 Did You Knows

Build something worth talking about

The key to a pop community isn't hype. It's solving a real problem for a specific group of people so well that they can't help but talk about it.

Start by identifying what your niche actually needs. Not what you think is cool—what solves their concrete problem. An eco-friendly lawn care company won't get recommendations for being sustainable. But if you offer free lawn demos, or actually cut someone's grass for free, people talk about that. It's specific and useful.

Once you have something worth recommending, wrap it in a story or experience people want to share. Make it easy for them to tell someone else about it. Your goal is to become the automatic answer when someone in that group asks for a recommendation.

This works because niche communities have strong shared beliefs. The more specific your solution, the more naturally it sprea

Open 1.7 Shout Outs

Make the community the star

Community happens when people get together. Your job is to recognize the people making it happen. Shine the light on them. Make them the main attraction.

You're working behind the scenes. The people who show up are the stars. They're what makes this real.

Give people a chance to experience what it feels like to be valued inside your community. They'll come back. They'll invite others. It's not feel-good fluff—it's functional. You're building a culture where being yourself is rewarded.

Look for someone who knows something useful and ask them to teach it. Today's attendee becomes tomorrow's presenter. Incorporate people into what you're doing, but leave room for them to grow into new roles.

Follow up with a personal note. A DM. An email. For in-person communities, consider handwritten mail. Make people feel seen. It's not expensive, but it's r

Open 2.1 Cellular Growth

Get the early days right.

Community isn't a formula. Stop obsessing about scale. Forget the spreadsheet math of a hundred people paying a hundred dollars a month. That's not how community works or starts.

You don't build to planet Earth without something happening at the cellular level first. Community is the same. The first person who connects with your idea is validating your entire concept. They're proof that it works. The second person shows it wasn't a fluke. The third creates momentum. That's when your future members and referrals start paying attention.

Community growth is almost never exponential. It doubles. 1 plus 1 equals 2. 2 plus 2 equals 4. 4 plus 4 equals 8. And that's if you're lucky. Even on that conservative path, you're only 7 steps away from over 100 people.

The early days are the most important. Real feedback. Real responses. Real relationships. Some

Open 2.2 See the Finish

Always being on is a community doom loop.

Think about the most powerful shared experiences in your life. A playoff game. An unforgettable concert. A family reunion weekend. A work sabbatical. These memories stick because they have clear beginnings, middles, and ends. The time limit makes them special.

Platforms want you building ten-year communities. Of course they do. They're selling subscriptions, not community.

Real community happens in defined moments. Shared experiences. Specific spaces in time. When people can see the finish line, everything shifts. Time becomes precious. Connections intensify. Every moment matters. The ordinary becomes extraordinary.

A weekend retreat creates more impact than a year of casual check-ins. A 48-hour challenge builds more momentum than months of "whenever" meetings. The limit creates urgency. Urgency creates energy.

Your community m

Open 2.3 Campus vs Corridor

You're creating a campus, not a corridor.

Everyone obsesses over straight lines. Get people from A to B as fast as possible. Remove all friction. Optimize the journey. That's not community. That's a conveyor belt. If you want to process people like packages, work for a shipping company. Real community needs space to breathe. Room to explore. Permission to wander.

Think about your favorite music festival. Yes, there's a line: Gate to Seat to Show to Home. But the real magic happens in the margins. Finding a vintage tour shirt at the merch stand. Catching a surprise acoustic set at a side stage. Making new friends who love the same song.

You're creating a campus, not a corridor. Corridor builders add guardrails and optimize pathways. To them, members are dollar signs. Your community needs unplanned left turns. Serendipitous moments. Discoveries. The chance encounters that wou

Open 2.4 One Thing One Place

Community energy concentrates first, then expands.

Instagram. Facebook. LinkedIn. Oh my.

Your community doesn't need an omnichannel strategy. It needs a home. Think about a crowded subway car or packed flea market. Community energy doesn't spread across spaces. It concentrates in one.

Every time you add another platform, another channel, another space, you're not building community. You're bleeding energy.

Look at a successful group chat. One trip planned. One WhatsApp group. One place for everything. Split that same group across Discord for live talk, WhatsApp for updates, Instagram for photos, and Facebook for events. Suddenly it's not a community. It's chaos. Every additional platform is another reason for people, including you, to get lost.

The best communities do one thing, in one place, exceptionally well. Your job isn't to be everywhere. Your job is to pick one

Open 2.5 Sand Castles

*Time limits are your secret weapon, not your your enemy. *

First-time community builders are like kids making sand castles. Kids with credit cards and big ambitions, but you get the idea. They pour their heart into every detail. Walls, turrets, shell decorations. They fight the tide. They try to make it permanent. Then the waves come.

Here's what's important about sand castles: being temporary is exactly what makes them magical. Community works the same way. You can't force it to last forever. You can't control the tide. You can't change the weather. Instead of fighting the inevitable, use it to your advantage. Become a master sand castle builder. Learn which tools work best. Which sand holds better. How to build faster and smarter. When to add decoration.

The time limit on your creation isn't your enemy. It's your secret weapon. It creates urgency. Everyone commits. No time

Open 2.6 The Test Kitchen

Your pop community is your test kitchen.

A test kitchen is where the magic happens. Multiple stations. Multiple cooks. Multiple attempts at perfection. Each recipe gets tested and refined until it's ready.

Your pop community is your test kitchen. Most community builders get this wrong. They see early success and immediately try to make it permanent. "People loved personalized name tags, so every event will have them." Turning temporary into permanent is a mistake. It wastes your most precious ingredients: time, money, and spontaneity.

Your test kitchen is where community recipes come to life. It's where your most passionate people gather. Where ideas get tested, refined, and tested again. Where experiments happen in real time. Reward your early taste testers. Engage them in something special. Let them be part of the development process.

Work in public. Share your recipes.

Open 3.1 Unique vs Utility

Pick a lane.

When telling people about your pop community, you stand at a crossroads. Unique or Utility. Most builders try to do both. They end up being neither.

The Unique side is experience-driven. One-of-a-kind. Hard-to-find. Curiosity-focused. Socially oriented. The pitch is "You won't believe what happened."

The Utility side is problem-solving. Goal-achieving. Process-improving. Work-focused. Result-oriented. The pitch is "Here's how to fix that."

Each appeals to different parts of the brain. Each attracts different types of people. Each requires different language.

The first time you build a pop community, keep it simple. Know the change you want to create and focus on delivering it. Choose a lane, build, execute, and learn.

If this is your second or third time around, you can add flair to make it both unique and utilitarian. A utilitarian community can stand

Open 3.2 Hard to Find

When marketing your pop community, "hard to find" isn't a bug. It's a feature.

The best communities aren't for everyone. They're for the right ones.

Mass appeal is the enemy of deep connection. Broadcasting to everyone means connecting with no one.

Your community should be discoverable. But clickable only by people who truly belong there.

Think about the intersections that matter. Crossfitters who work desk jobs. Photographers who shoot only at night. Single parents building side hustles. Engineers who write poetry. These aren't reached through billboards at busy intersections.

They're found through niche newsletters. Specialized Slack channels. Insider networks. Word of mouth between the right people.

The harder your community is to find, the more valuable it feels when discovered. "I discovered this" hits differently than "Everyone's talking about this."

Start

Open 3.3 Hours of Operation

Your community deserves your best self, not your constant self.

Always-on isn't a superpower. It's a fast track to burnout.

When you reply to a message at 11pm, you think you're being helpful. But instead, you're setting impossible expectations. For yourself. For your members. For everyone.

The scarcity principle applies to your community availability too. A RunClub available 24/7 wouldn't be special. RunClub at 6am Tuesday and Thursday becomes an institution.

Your absence creates value for your presence.

Always-on communities create shallow engagement. They overwhelm leaders. They create entitled members and burned-out staff. Your hours of operation aren't a limitation. They're a strategy.

Defined hours create anticipation for when you're back. They deepen engagement during active times. They create space for other members to step up. They sustain long-term communi

Open 3.4 Campfires

Campfires are signals. Beacons. Visible proof of community life.

Campfires tell a story. From miles away, people see a signal. People are gathering here. Something's happening. This place matters. Your pop community should do the same.

While you're building for your members, don't forget the people watching from a distance. The curious ones. The almost-ready ones. The ones trying to decide if they belong. They need to see your campfire.

Too many communities make the same mistake. They spend months creating materials about what they'll do. Then they do it behind closed doors where no one can see. Let outsiders glimpse the warmth.

Share schedules openly. Post participant lists with permission. Release photos that capture the energy. Document genuine moments. The best campfires aren't just signals. They spread your community energy.

As new interested people approach, make

Open 3.5 Crumbs for All

Your community cleanup isn't meant to be thrown away. It's a trail of breadcrumbs.

When the pop community ends, the real marketing begins.

For attendees, these breadcrumbs are reminders. That happened. I was there. It mattered.

For the curious, they're clues. Something special happened here. Will it happen again?

For newcomers, they're invitations. This could be you next time.

Most builders pack up and vanish when the event ends. The smart ones leave a deliberate trail.

This isn't about bombarding people with follow-ups. It's about crafting artifacts worth following. The perfectly edited highlight reel. The quote collection that captures the essence. The shared resource that keeps providing value. The inside joke that only makes sense if you were there.

Each piece must be valuable enough to follow. Good enough to save. Interesting enough to share.

These breadc

Open 4.1 4 by 6

4x6

The best invitations create clarity through constraints.

Your entire community should fit on a wedding invitation. Not the guest list. Not the menu. Not the five-year strategic plan. A 4x6 card hanging on a wall. That's your canvas. That's your challenge. That's your opportunity.

Long landing pages and complex flowcharts are red flags. They signal you haven't found your message yet. Your true north is still hiding beneath layers of explanation.

Take a piece of paper. Fold it in half. Now you're looking at people's first impression. What will make them pause? Enter? Lean in? Your community might be built for endless exploration. Your members might love diving deep into rabbit holes. All of that comes later. First, people need to know this is the door they want to open.

You have to be able to answer four questions.

What is it? Who is it for? When will it ha

Open 4.2 RSVP

Your RSVP is where relationships begin.

Your RSVP isn't just a guest list. It's the first taste of your community. A preview of the experience to come. Your RSVP is the appetizer that sets expectations for the main course.

Most builders get this wrong. They treat RSVPs like flyers on the street corner. Handed out freely, hoping someone bites. Just give me your email and you're in.

Don't fall into that trap. Free entry isn't just lazy. It's a signal that what you're building has no value. That you don't care who shows up. That this is just another digital experience.

The RSVP is where interest transforms into investment. Where casual browsers become committed participants.

Think of it as a recipe with two essential ingredients.

Part one is the light capture. Name, email, a dash of interest. Simple, mobile-friendly, and impossible to mess up.

Part two is the follow

Open 4.3 WWW

The riches are in the niches.

Who, What, and Why. Not just another landing page checklist. This is your community's DNA.

Most builders cast too wide a net. They're fishing in an ocean when they should be fishing in a pond.

"We help small businesses with bookkeeping." Too broad. "We help small businesses in New England save money on taxes." Now we're talking.

Your community needs crystal clarity. Laser focus. Perfect alignment. People should know instantly if they belong or not. No maybes. No grey areas.

When you make something exclusive enough, focused enough, specific enough, people want in. They'll work to fit. They'll strive to qualify. That locked door isn't keeping people out. It's making them want to find the key.

Who is your perfect match. The people who see your solution and think "Finally, someone gets it."

What is your promise. Your delivery. The exact

Open 4.4 Attire

Your dress code is your community's vibe in disguise.

After someone joins your community, their anxiety shifts. From yes or no to "How do I fit in?" Where do I park? What should I bring? Who else will be there?

Your dress code isn't just about clothes. It's about giving people permission to stand out in the right way.

Business casual says "We mean business, but we're not stuffy." Shorts and sandals say "Come as you are, we're keeping it real." This isn't about conformity. It's about clarity.

The right people don't just know what to wear. They know how they'll add their own flair to it.

Think roller skating parties. Same rink, different vibes. Couples skate is romance. Skills and drills is competition. Total mayhem is pure fun.

This is bigger than one event. This is your brand speaking. Every detail signals something. Every instruction tells a story. Every "what to b

Open 4.5 BYO

Your community needs skin in the game.

The magic of community isn't just in showing up. It's in bringing something to share. Think potluck dinners. Backyard BBQs. Team gatherings. The best ones happen when everyone adds their piece to the puzzle.

Start simple. Bring a friend. Bring a snack. Bring a question. It's not about the stuff. It's about the investment. The preparation. The anticipation.

Look at dedicated fan communities. They're not just buying tickets. They're making friendship bracelets. Creating outfits. Trading treasures. They're not just attending. They're contributing to the magic.

When someone prepares ahead of time, whether crafting the perfect question or mixing their signature dish, they're already invested. Already committed. Already part of the story.

This isn't about making your event easier to run. It's about making it impossible to forget.

Uns

Open 5.1 At the Door

Be a dictator at the door.

The door to your community isn't just an entrance. It's your filter. Your first impression. Your promise.

Make it clear who gets in. Make it even clearer who doesn't.

Your door tells a story. Every detail matters. The branding. The message. The vibe. Just like your favorite coffee shop, your door previews the experience inside.

Stop trying to build entire worlds of community. Build better doors instead.

The right door attracts the right people. The right people bring the right energy. The right energy creates something magical.

Think about a storefront. The hours posted. The name displayed. The glass chosen. The mat laid out. Every detail signals something.

Welcome everyone warmly. Show them around. Point out what's possible. Make them feel at home.

Good doors bring good people. Good people bring great energy. Great energy makes your

Open 5.2 Name Tags

It's not about the information. It's about the invitation.

A name tag isn't just a sticker. It's a permission slip to connect.

When someone puts on a name tag, they're saying "I'm here to meet people." "I'm open to conversation." "I want to be part of this."

Your pop community needs these signals. Color-coded bracelets showing interests. Designated spaces for different vibes. Common conversation starters built in.

Without these signals, people get lost. They freeze up. They watch others who seem to know what they're doing.

Ever been to an event with no name tags? You weren't just missing labels. You were missing the permission to connect.

Your name tags, physical or digital, are more than identification. They're tools for connection. Keys to conversation. Bridges between strangers.

Give your people what they need to take the next step. Make it obvious. Make it ea

Open 5.3 TBDs

Some things can't be sorted until the party starts.

Stop trying to figure everything out before you start. Put down that 20-page plan.

Your best ideas won't come from your planning sessions. They will come from your people.

Every builder faces this tension. You want everything perfect. You want everything planned. You want everything promised. Without those things locked in, you're panicking. Sweating every detail. Convinced it will all fall apart if you haven't planned for every possibility.

You couldn't be more wrong.

TBDs aren't gaps in your plan. They're opportunities for co-creation. Turn "This is missing" into "What should we build together?"

Be strategic about your TBDs. Don't TBD your core promise. "We'll figure out what to talk about when you show up" is not acceptable. Do TBD the details. Food options. Music choice. Follow-up formats.

Your community wil

Open 5.4 Believe Sign

Community is the act of manifesting belief in the energy of coming together.

Community is a shared belief. Ted Lasso knew the secret. Before strategy. Before tactics. Before wins and losses. Before all of it, Ted put up a sign: BELIEVE.

Make it audacious. Make it ambitious. The bigger the belief, the stronger the pull.

You're not asking people to master new skills. You're not demanding they change everything. You're just asking them to believe. Believe in the power of the group. Believe in what's possible. Believe in each other.

Believing is investing. Believing is trusting. Believing is energy.

When you bring people together around a shared belief, you're not just getting numbers. You're tapping into a hive mind. A collective intelligence. A thousand ways to solve one problem. Your odds of success go up exponentially.

Not because you've mapped every step. Not becau

Open 6.1 How We Roll

Vibe is your community's brand personality.

Vibe isn't just a feeling. It's your community's DNA. Every word you write. Every image you share. Every color you choose. They are all small signals about how you roll.

Harley-Davidson doesn't just make motorcycles. They make loud, rebellious statements on wheels. Seventh Generation doesn't just make cleaning products. They make simple, clean solutions for mindful homes.

While everyone else obsesses over what they offer, the magic lives in how you offer it.

Vibe does double duty. First, it filters who shows up. Second, it helps guide the behavior of people once they have joined.

Is your community vibe chill and zen? Is it loud and proud? Is it meticulous and precise? Is it messy and creative? Is your community vibe exclusive? Invite-only? Or can anyone be there?

The answer shapes everything. Your landing page language. Yo

Open 6.2 Handcrafted Hellos

The first few days aren't just days. They're your foundation.

There is one skill you can master that will significantly increase your odds of success: making people feel welcome.

Every new member is taking a risk. Spending time. Spending money. Spending attention. Your job is to make that leap of faith turn into a great decision in hindsight.

This is a great chance to do something unscalable. Get super personal. A personalized message. A custom onboarding call. A thoughtful introduction to others. A connection based on shared interests.

These are signals that your place is different.

Your content doesn't need to be bespoke. Your welcome absolutely must be.

Remember those small details they mentioned at sign up. Use them. Notice something they care about. Reference it. See a connection with another member. Make it.

These are high-visibility signals that your commu

Open 6.3 Straight, No Chaser

Great communities aren't for everyone. That's the point.

Be crystal clear about three things. What you're up to. Who you're looking for. Why you're doing it.

The how will evolve. The when will shift. The where will expand. But your core message needs to cut through the noise.

Being direct isn't being rude. It's clarity. It's a beacon for your people. A filter for everyone else.

"If you love rabbits..." "If you're converting your car to run on cooking oil..." "If you're a hard core runner in NYC..." Each declaration is both an invitation and a boundary.

The clarity of your message tells someone "This is home for people like us." "You belong here." "These are your people."

A community that tries to welcome everyone ultimately serves no one well.

A good message disqualifies 80 percent of people who read it. Sure, the overall market needs to be big. The bigger the ma

Open 6.4 Pass It On

Messages so good people can't help but pass them on is a great place to start.

Remember that CD Baby shipping confirmation?

"Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow...We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have planted a tree in your name in the Peruvian Amazon...We all sincerely hope that you enjoy your music."

That wasn't just an email. It was a story people couldn't wait to share.

Community messages exist on three levels.

Level 1 is a good message. Clear, helpful, on-brand.

Level 2 is a unique message. Stands out, memorable, different.

Level 3 is a shareable message. Transcends its purpose. Takes on a life of its own.

Most builders never get past level 1. The best live at level 3.

Consider Brian Johnson's "Don't Die" brand. Simpl

Open 6.5 The One Thing

Find your North Star and make sure all roads point towards it.

Every community has a magic moment. That initial "aha." That crucial unlock. It's not just your first impression. It's your entire foundation.

What's your One Thing?

For barbecue sellers, it's the first perfectly grilled meal. For Apple, it's the unboxing experience. For fitness communities, it's proof of that first workout.

Your entire onboarding process should drive toward this single moment. Relentlessly. Don't dilute your focus. Don't scatter your attention. Pour everything into delivering your One Thing.

Make it visible. Make it celebratory. Make it meaningful. Your veterans should proudly display it like a badge. Your newcomers should hunger for it like a prize.

This creates a beautiful community dynamic. For new members, it's aspirational. For existing members, it's reputational. For you as the bu

Open 6.6 Love Lead Litigate

Love first. Lead second. Litigate last.

Every community will face conflict. Someone will feel wronged. Someone will break the rules. Someone will test your boundaries.

How you handle it determines everything.

Love is your default move. Assume good intent. Give people grace. Most conflicts dissolve with a genuine conversation and willingness to understand.

Lead when love isn't enough. Be clear about your standards. Show why those standards matter. Help people see how their actions affected others. Give them a path back to belonging.

Litigate only when nothing else works. When someone is repeatedly harming the community. When their presence is incompatible with your culture. When all other options are exhausted.

But most conflicts never get there. Because you led with love.

Your job as the builder is to hold the culture. To protect the space. To make it safe for th

Open 7.1 Coffee, Gym or Library

7.1 Coffee, Gym, or Library

Find the beat. Honor it. And watch your community thrive.

Every community has a natural rhythm. A kind of hidden heartbeat. Some check in every day. Others drop by once a week. Some vanish for months, then reappear like clockwork.

You can't force this cadence. But you can discover it. That rhythm shapes everything. How often you post. When you launch. What kind of content sticks.

So before you build, ask: Is your community a Coffee Shop, a Gym, or a Library?

Coffee is daily. Essential. Ritual. These members need their fix every single day. They notice when you change the blend. They feel it when you're closed for renovation. Coffee communities thrive on consistency and daily engagement. They want updates, check-ins, questions, polls. Something to sip on. If you disappear, they'll find their caffeine somewhere else.

Gym is a few times a

Open 7.2 Hometown Zero

7.2 Hometown Zero

Distance creates mystique. Outside validation creates credibility.

Nobody's a prophet in their own hometown. It's one of the strangest paradoxes in community building. The closer you are to your audience, the less they value your expertise.

I call it Hometown Zero. When proximity destroys authority.

You could run a community meetup in your own city and ten people show up. Give the exact same talk three states away, and it's standing room only. Same content. Same energy. Different zip code. Different result.

When someone else introduces you as an expert, it's pure gold. When you introduce yourself as an expert, it's pure awkward.

Because when you're local, people can place you. "Oh, she trains at that gym on Main Street." "They shop at the same grocery store I do." Familiarity breeds indifference.

But when you're from elsewhere, there's distan

Open 7.3 Coming Soon

7.3 Coming Soon

The community you build before you launch might be your most valuable asset of all.

The three most powerful words in community building: Coming Soon.

Most builders make the same mistake. They hide away like perfectionists and emerge only when everything's polished and ready. They miss the most powerful phase of community. Anticipation.

If you want to see this in action, think about movie trailers. They're not the movie. They're better. They're pure potential. Pure excitement. Pure anticipation.

The moment you actually launch, reality sets in. People have to log in. Sign up. Follow through. The magic turns into mechanics.

But during that magical Coming Soon phase, people don't have to commit. They just get to dream. To imagine. To anticipate.

Marketing what's coming isn't just promotion. It's community building. It creates shared excitement. Co

Open 7.4 Home Cooking

Serve it up home-cooked.

Perfect is the enemy of community. When planning your pop-up, there's always that temptation. Hire the caterer. Bring in the tech team. Get professionals to handle everything.

But what people truly crave isn't perfection. It's authenticity.

There's a reason those spontaneous dance scenes in movies feel magical. They're messy, joyful, and full of life.

That's the energy your pop-up community needs.

Home cooking isn't just about food. It's about the imperfect magic that happens when you create something with your own hands. It's the playlist you made yourself. It's the space you decorated yourself. It's the welcome you personally crafted.

These little imperfections aren't flaws. They're features.

When people join your pop-up, they're not expecting a polished product. They're looking for the beta version. Maybe even the alpha.

That's the

Open 7.5 No Red Lights

Pop-up communities are green-light zones.

You're live. It's happening. Right now. No editors standing by. No review committees. No red pen hovering over your work.

In your normal work, red lights are everywhere. "Not ready to ship." "Needs another edit." "Let's circle back next quarter." "The legal team hasn't approved."

But your pop-up community is your creative playground. It's your open mic night. Your freestyle session. Your jam space.

This isn't just freedom. It's power.

When you remove the red lights, you'll find your flow. Your authentic voice. It might take a day or two. It will definitely feel uncomfortable at first.

But that raw, unfiltered energy? That's exactly what people come for.

They don't want another perfectly packaged presentation. They want the vibe. The energy. The thrill of the unknown.

They want to say "I was there when..."

That's the

Open 7.6 Intro Culture

7.6 Intro Culture

Make it intentional or watch your community's energy drain away, one missed intro at a time.

"Let's go around the room and introduce ourselves." Those nine words can kill a gathering before it even starts.

In pop-up communities, everyone's new. But that's not a problem to solve. It's an opportunity to design.

The standard intro process is broken. "Hi, I'm Mark from Marketing. I've been in the industry for 12 years. I live in Chicago with my dog and..." Twenty minutes later, no one remembers the first person's name, let alone why they're here.

Your temporary community deserves better.

Intro culture isn't just about efficiency. It's about setting the tone for everything that follows.

As the creator, you lead by example. Brief, effective, memorable. You show what's possible in 30 seconds or less.

Replace geography and job titles with question

Open 7.7 Hand Stamps

7.7 Hand Stamps

The best communities don't need to advertise. Their members do it for them.

Remember the thrill of getting a hand stamp? That smudged ink meant something. You have access. You are in.

People don't just want to belong. They want proof that they belong.

From concert t-shirts to athlete wristbands, from team jerseys to conference lanyards, humans crave visible markers of membership. It's not vanity. It's identity.

Your pop-up community needs its own version of the hand stamp. Something members proudly display. Something that sparks curiosity. Something that starts conversations.

It could be a profile picture frame that signals "I was there from the start." A tagline in their bio that feels earned, not assigned. A members-only hashtag that unlocks shared language. A physical token, even a sticker, they're proud to show off.

This isn't just external

Open 8.1 911

8.1 911

Confusion and frustration are part of building. Feeling ignored shouldn't be.

When something breaks in your community, the real issue isn't what went wrong. It's the silence.

Don't scatter help across multiple channels. A forum for technical issues. Email for billing questions. Chat for quick help. Office hours for deeper problems.

This isn't customer service. It's customer confusion.

Think about 911. One number. All emergencies. No need to decide who you need or where to go. Just call. Get help. Problem solved.

Your community deserves that same clarity.

Create a single, obvious place for help. Make it impossible to miss. Make it available to everyone.

No one expects your pop-up community to be perfect. They do expect you to care when things break.

And that single help channel isn't just for your members. It's for you.

Monitoring five differen

Open 8.2 Hold Please

8.2 Hold Please

Every second of silence costs you trust.

When someone reaches out for help, they've already taken a risk. They've admitted something isn't working. They're vulnerable.

The worst thing you can do is disappear.

Hold Please is the opposite of silence. It's acknowledgment. It's "I see you. I'm on it. You're not forgotten."

Even if you can't fix the problem immediately, you can fix the feeling.

A response within one hour beats a perfect response after three days. Every single time.

Here's what a Hold Please looks like:

"Got your message. Thanks for flagging this. I'm looking into it now and will have an update for you by end of day."

That's it. Fifteen seconds. Changed everything.

Your members don't need you to be perfect. They need you to be present.

Set expectations clearly. "I check messages every morning at 9am" or "I respond within

Open 8.3 Solve The System

8.3 Solve The System

Great community builders don't just solve problems. They solve the systems that create them.

When problems arise in your community, remember the 80/20 rule. 80 percent are system problems. 20 percent are user errors or one-offs.

Most builders get this backwards. They treat system failures like individual issues.

You get three angry messages about login instructions. Small thinking: "I need to help these three people." Big thinking: "My login system needs a redesign."

Step back. Way back. Get to 30,000 feet.

Ask the golden question: What one change would fix everything?

The ticket system that generates tickets about itself. The onboarding flow that creates more questions than answers. The event registration that loses half your signups.

These aren't customer service issues. They're design failures.

When you solve at the system level,

Open 8.4 Time Machine

8.4 Time Machine

You can hit the reset button anytime.

Most communities grow in straight lines. Yours doesn't have to.

The secret superpower of pop-up communities? You can blow it up and start over. You're not trapped by permanence. You're liberated by temporality.

The time machine gives you three freedoms.

First, reset for yourself. Don't like how things are going? Change it. Started on WhatsApp but Telegram feels right? Switch. Thought courses were the answer but events are better? Pivot. You're not locked in.

Second, reset for individual members. Someone having a rough experience? "This version isn't for you. Cool. Next week will be different." "Need a break? No pressure. We'll be here when you're ready." "Didn't click with the format? There's another one starting Tuesday."

You're not stuck in the sunk-cost mindset. You're creating space for members to rejo

Open 8.5 Not Your Money

8.5 Not Your Money

It's not your money until they're happy they spent it.

They want a refund? Give it. Immediately.

Pop-up communities live or die on reputation, not revenue.

When someone asks for their money back, you stand at a crossroads. Keep the cash and create an enemy. Return it promptly and maybe create an advocate.

The math isn't complicated.

Even if someone doesn't like your product, they can still like you.

Good person, bad product? You can recover. Bad person, good product? You're in trouble. Bad person, bad product? Game over.

And here's the twist. A well-handled refund can create more goodwill than a mildly positive experience.

"I didn't like the experience, but wow, they made it easy to leave." "Wasn't for me, but they were so generous and kind." "Didn't click with the community, but they treated me like a human."

These aren't failures.

Open 9.1 Just Do It

9.1 Just Do It

Perfect plans crumble on first contact with reality.

Communities aren't born with org charts. They grow into them.

Most of your assumptions about what running your community requires will evaporate the moment you launch. New challenges you never imagined will show up fast.

Staffing up before launch is a fool's errand. Unless you're hiring human Swiss Army knives, those carefully crafted job descriptions will be obsolete by week two.

But once you're running, clarity emerges.

Some activities move mountains. Some maintain the status quo. Some do absolutely nothing.

Your job is to ruthlessly identify which is which.

The mountain-movers? Perfect them. Protect them. Eventually, pass them on.

The status quo tasks? Streamline them. Automate them. Make them mindless.

The do-nothings? Kill them. Immediately.

Don't fall into the "we've always d

Open 9.2 Demo Track

Perfect isn't the point. Potential is.

Your first community isn't your masterpiece. It's your demo track.

Think about a musician's demo. It's not polished. Not pristine. If it were too perfect, it wouldn't be a demo. It would be the finished album.

The beauty of a demo is the raw potential. The rough edges. The space it leaves for others to imagine their contribution.

Think of your community like a garage band uploading their first SoundCloud link. Raw. A little messy. But magnetic for the right people.

Your pop-up community is the same. A demonstration of what's possible. It shows there's room to grow. Space to evolve. Opportunity to contribute.

Doing the thing is the best time to promote the thing.

While 99 percent of people are still talking about what they'll never actually do, you're building. Creating. Making something real.

And people can feel the diffe

Open 9.3 Hand, Tech, Hire

9.3 Hand, Tech, Hire

Hand → Tech → Hire. It's not just a suggestion. It's your roadmap to sustainable growth.

There's a natural progression to community staffing. Skip a step, and you'll regret it.

First, do everything by hand. Send every email yourself. Write every DM. Create every graphic. Run every meeting.

This isn't just about learning how. It's about learning why. Nothing eliminates unnecessary activities faster than doing them yourself until you're sick of them.

If you outsource too soon, those pointless tasks become someone else's job security. And they'll never go away.

Next, leverage technology. Once you know what moves the needle, automate ruthlessly.

Let tech handle your welcome sequences. Recap emails. Content scheduling. Basic member support. Data collection.

This is the lowest-hanging ROI fruit in your operation. Yes, there are costs. But fre

Open 9.4 Substitutes

9.4 Substitutes

The most passionate staff members aren't hired. They emerge.

Hire slow. Very slow.

Your community's pace of change will outrun your hiring process every time. While you're posting job listings and conducting interviews, your community has already evolved.

By the time your new hire is onboarded, the role may no longer be relevant.

That's why staffing up early is often a mistake.

Instead, watch for the substitutes. These are the members who step into gaps without being asked.

The ones who welcome newcomers before you get to them. The ones who answer questions before you see them. The ones who create resources the community needs. The ones who organize unofficial events or start side conversations.

They're not doing it for a paycheck. They're doing it because they care.

Sometimes, being deliberately understaffed is the best strategy. It crea

Open 9.5 The People People

9.5 The People People

Find the ones who naturally pull people into their orbit.

Some people have resumes. Others have gravity.

Every thriving community has them. The magnetic humans who remember everyone's name. Who make newcomers feel instantly welcome. Who connect strangers like it's second nature. Who bring laughter and energy to every space. Who sense when someone feels left out.

They're empathetic connectors. Natural hosts. Human glue.

Some teams obsess over credentials. But the best communities are built by people people.

You can have perfect systems and still feel cold. You can have broken systems and still thrive if you have the right people.

Look for the introducers. The explainers. The event hosts. The warm presences who write in your community's voice.

These aren't nice-to-have qualities. They're the difference between a community that exists and

Open 10.1 Outpost

10.1 Outpost

Before anyone joins your community, they need to find your outpost.

Your community doesn't exist until people know it's possible. That's the job of your outpost.

Think of it like a speakeasy. The real experience is inside. But the sign out front is what gets people to knock.

Your outpost is the public-facing signal that something real is happening. It lives outside your platform. It works before and after your pop-up. It outlasts your launch.

This isn't just a technicality. It's strategy.

Your outpost could be a simple landing page. A recorded preview event. A manifesto that explains your why. A teaser that builds anticipation. A resource that showcases your expertise.

The key is separation. Your outpost must exist outside your community platform.

When Facebook changes its algorithm, your outpost survives. When Discord changes its pricing, your outpost remains. When your platform disappears, your outpost stands.

Place your outpost where your people already gather

Open 10.2 Landing

10.2 Landing

The difference between a one-time event and a community catalyst is a landing page.

Once someone sees the outpost, they need a place to land.

Without a proper landing, your community is just a gathering of ghosts.

Your landing page isn't just information. It's transformation. It's not just collecting emails. It's creating relationships.

Think of it as your community's bouncer and concierge. It filters who enters. It captures who they are. It starts the conversation.

Without it, people attend, then disappear. With it, they become traceable, reachable, engageable.

Your pop community deserves more than anonymous attendees. It deserves members with names, stories, and ways to stay in touch.

Your landing page must build trust through clear design and messaging. Communicate value concisely. Capture just enough info without friction. Match the tone of

Open 10.3 Emails

10.3 Emails

Email is your community's most reliable backbone.

Once they've landed, you need to stay connected. And in a world of disappearing DMs, one tool still works every time.

Social platforms come and go. Messaging apps shift. Features disappear overnight.

But email stays. It's asynchronous. It's searchable. It's universal. Everyone checks their inbox.

For your pop community, email isn't just delivery. It's direct connection.

Your email system must deliver on reliability. Get to inboxes, not spam folders. Scalability through templates, scheduling, reuse. Segmentation for newcomers, lurkers, evangelists. Timing with the right message at the right moment.

Your members judge you by your emails. Sloppy copy, broken links, bad timing damage trust faster than silence.

But the right email setup makes everything else work. Pre-event momentum. During-event upda

Open 10.4 Platform

10.4 Platform

Platform decisions are marriage decisions. Easy to start. Painful to end.

Choosing your platform is like choosing a business partner.

Opening a new space means monthly overhead. Setup costs. Lock-in decisions. User behavior you can't easily change.

Even if you can export the data, the member habits stay behind. They've built muscle memory. You've built integrations. Leaving is hard.

Free platforms are tempting. But if you're building on someone else's land, you're subject to their rules and risks.

Before choosing a platform, ask two questions.

First, how do your members naturally communicate? Teenagers with video habits won't thrive in forums. Writers need version control and long-form tools. Creators want visual-first environments. Pros want organized, searchable threads.

Second, how do you deliver value? Events need calendars and live tools.

Open 10.5 Templates

10.5 Templates

Templates separate thriving communities from exhausted ones.

While you're chasing new features, perfect content, and platform hacks, your day-to-day ops are doing most of the work.

Every message matters. Welcome notes. Onboarding sequences. Event reminders. Support replies. Cancellation messages.

Without templates, you're rewriting from scratch. With templates, you're iterating toward excellence.

Templates let you improve over time. You're not just copying. You're compounding.

And they're not just for you. Your VA can send a great welcome. Your members can share a pre-drafted invite. Your team can handle issues with consistency. Your systems can scale with personality.

Start simple. Google Docs. Notion pages. Email drafts. Saved replies.

Every template is an investment. Every edit is compound interest.

Templates aren't about saving time. T

Open 10.6 Using AI

10.6 Using AI

Use AI to buy back your time and reinvest it in connection.

Some tasks steal your time. Others steal your attention.

AI can give both back.

You're already doing the work. Writing onboarding flows. Summarizing events. Recapping discussions. Creating announcements. Answering repeat questions.

But most of this isn't creative work. It's pattern work. And AI is great at patterns.

With the right prompts, AI can turn transcripts into summaries. Turn Slack threads into insights. Turn FAQs into chatbot scripts. Turn old posts into new formats.

What once took hours takes minutes. What once needed a team now needs a prompt.

This isn't about replacing humans. It's about amplifying your creativity by removing the repetitive grind.

Let AI draft the first version. Suggest template opportunities. Flag patterns in member questions. Help you scale consistenc

Open 10.7 Calendar

10.7 Calendar

No calendar, no community.

Automation helps you scale. But only a calendar helps people show up.

Without planned touchpoints, you're betting on coincidence. Sometimes that works. Mostly, it doesn't.

A shared calendar does three things.

For you, it plans content. Schedules resources. Tracks rhythms. Avoids chaos.

For members, it builds anticipation. Encourages habit. Creates structure. Signals value.

For newcomers, it proves something's happening. Offers safe entry points. Removes decision fatigue.

And don't forget OPC. Other People's Calendars. Industry partners want events to promote. Local networks share calendars with reach. Platforms reward event creators with visibility.

Full calendars mean full communities. Empty calendars mean empty rooms.

Give people a time and place. The right ones will come.

Open 10.8 Video

10.8 Video

Video isn't a luxury. It's clarity.

Words work. But sometimes, they fail.

In digital spaces, the biggest risk is being misunderstood. The second biggest is being ignored.

Video solves both.

It adds expression. Tone. Warmth. Trust. Authenticity.

Even a quick Loom recording can build 10x more connection than a polished paragraph.

Your members want to know who's behind this. What energy are you bringing. Can they trust you.

Video answers all of that fast.

Make sure your video setup shows respect. Clear webcam. Decent mic. Good lighting. Stable connection.

You don't need a studio. You just need to say "This matters to me."

Use video for pre-launch teasers. Welcome messages. Live calls. Asynchronous updates. Post-event recaps. Personal invites.

People join communities for people. Video reminds them you're one of them.

Show your face. Sh

Open 10.9 Stack Reflections

10.9 Stack Reflections

Your stack is the scaffolding. Not the structure.

All the tools. All the systems. All the workflows. They only matter if they serve something deeper.

You don't need the best tech. You need the right tools for your people and your rhythm.

You don't need to automate everything. You need to protect the energy that makes your community feel alive.

You don't need to be everywhere. You need to be consistent where it counts.

Remember what each piece does.

Your outpost signals the invitation. Your landing collects intention. Your email builds relationship. Your platform holds connection. Your templates ensure repeatability. Your AI gives back your time. Your calendar creates momentum. Your video earns trust.

Put it all together, not to make your community perfect. But to make it possible.

You've built the place. Now let the people shape it

Open Keep Building

If you're reading this, you’ve made it through the ideas, the examples, the frameworks, and maybe a few uncomfortable truths about what it really takes to build a community that lasts.

Here’s the reality: most communities don’t die from lack of heart. They die from lack of clarity, systems, and momentum.

If this book helped you see what’s possible, then don’t stop here. Keep building.

I’ve written dozens of essays that go deeper into everything covered here — from monetization and onboarding to culture design and leadership transitions.
You can read them on the blog: increateable.io

And if you’re ready to go from learning to doing, I have created a few ways I can help you build or scale faster (see below).

You'd do well to remember that community isn’t a project. *It’s a practice. *

It grows when you commit to showing up,

Open Community Home Cooking Checklist

Before you outsource or over-engineer, ask:

1. Is this something a community member could help create?

• Playlist? Let a member curate it.
• Welcome message? Invite someone to write it.
• Signage, graphics, or setup? Ask for early volunteers.

2. Does it feel too finished to be contributed to?

• If it looks done, people won't feel invited to shape it.
• Leave some rough edges. Let people fill in the blanks.

3. Are you prioritizing perfection over participation?

• A perfect event run by staff does not equal a great experience for members.
• A little chaos invites collaboration.

4. Have you shown your own fingerprints?

• Did you write the note?
• Make the playlist?
• Share the behind-the-scenes struggle?

Reminder: People connect with the messy middle more than the polished ending.

5. Can people point to something and say, "I helped build that"?

• The most powerful form of belonging is ownership.
• Leave space for people to co-create, not just consum