#153 The Local Community Opportunity
I meet with my clients online and so I have clients all over the world, but this week I had the chance to work with Baltimore-based membership founder, Ellen Frost. Psst… if you’re new here (or you forgot), I’m based in Baltimore, too.
Ellen has a flower shop & is the founder of flower design community, FlowerMore. On Friday she brought me a beautiful flower arrangement to CreativeMornings. I’m a CM volunteer & she’s our flower vendor so that’s how we originally met (shoutout community!).
Check out her Instagram – @localcolorflowers
And earlier this week I sold a project to another Maryland-based membership founder. How cool!
I’ve been thinking a lot about local community ever since my podcast with Jay Clouse & our conversations around what’s working in 2026. One of Jay’s predictions is that local community is a solid bet this year.
Marissa Lovell was on the Nathan Barry Show last week talking about her local "From Boise" business. The newsletter started as a local passion project (that Nathan actually started) and now it's a thriving business. This local newsletter she runs in Boise makes 6-figures of revenue.
Marissa tells a story about how a newsletter meetup idea, now Boise Dinner Club, had over 600 people express interest. That's amazing!
I know I'm craving more in-person connection! I want to find my people that are local & bring them together... so I'm starting my own local passion project!
I’m still sorting out the details... maybe it’s a dinner party club, maybe it’s a mastermind-brunch situation (I hosted one last fall which was so fun), but either way I’m segmenting a list of Baltimore area based online business owners.
If you're a Baltimore-area based online business owner & you’re interested in this will you DM or email me so I can add you to my list?
True story: Tina Beliveau became my friend a couple years ago because she replied to my newsletter and asked to grab lunch when she realized we were in the same city.
A lot of people ask me... how do I start building community? This is how you do it, friends. Boots on the ground, one relationship at a time.
When I talk to people that want to build a membership but they haven't created a group text or hosted an in-person event, I encourage them to do so. Before you build your membership-business-model muscle, I want you to build your community-builder muscle.
Your membership will be SO much more successful if you know how to be a great connector, and bring people together.
Here's a few ideas for fun:
Join other communities and participate! Being a great community member is an excellent start to being a great community leader
Plan a local dinner-party or happy hour focused on a shared interest/topic – AI-enabled future, basket weaving, film-obsession, homeschooling, etc.
Start a WhatsApp community to test the waters of your forum ideas
Plan a meet-up in a city you're traveling to – sharing online where you're going and that you're organizing a meet-up is a great way to get people together.
Connect people that you think should know each other – this is what the best community builders do
And if you already have a membership, this is a great way to make your offer stickier. Start encouraging local meet-ups and plan them when you travel. When people meet in person, online connections solidify to real relationships.
How are you building local community? I'm diving deep on this topic right now & I'm sure I'll write more about this! I'd love to hear from you!