Week 41 - Ask, create, improve, repeat ♻

The thing I started testing, as mentioned in the last newsletter, was messaging 30 people from the community world weekly to ask what they would like to learn about connecting the community with business, which will help businesses grow.

Here is a specific question I ask:

Hey there, I’d love to improve the community ROI podcast to ensure we speak there about real community creators' and builders’ needs to get the best results🤓

So please tell me: what is it about connecting community with business that you'd like to learn about? Or even what is something you wish people you work with would have known about community? 😊

I decided to make it because of 3 things:

• get an understanding of what people really want to know, and if what we’re talking about on the podcast fits their needs

• see who is actually checking any of the episodes to know the real human behind a lifeless number of subscribers

• bring awareness to the podcast for those who don’t listen, and encourage them to subscribe to the channel!

And I can tell you it works very good, because out of 30 messages, I’ve got 10 answers already, 6 of them validated that I’m already moving in the right direction, and 4 others gave me some good ideas of topics to talk about, and even in the latest podcast recording, I’ve already asked one of the new questions I’ve received! 🤩🤓

So I'll definitely keep doing that weekly, and let’s see what happens in a few months (will come back to this question on the 20th of Feb 2026).

This week, I started testing a new tool - Scripe - for helping me to make viral LinkedIn posts, so will see how it work, so far it’s rather good, and if you want to have 4 free weeks to test it, too, here is my refferal for you 😉

Also, after making small motivational videos for 16 weeks, I learned that I’m good at keeping the attention of listeners (the content is good, and when people start watching a video, they usually watch it fully), and really suck at driving attention (my thumbnails and titles are not making people want to click on a video).

So it was a good test, but I’m not ready to spend hours to continue testing thumbnails and titles creation, instead I decided to use what I already have:

• small clips from the podcasts I host

• a Freelance Foundation course that I created some time ago.

Small clips from the podcasts are much easier to create because every podcast is a dialogue, and even though it’s focused on my guests’ experience, I still share some thoughts and ideas here and there, and those videos feel much more real and natural than a recording made while talking to a camera. Also, I have 19 of them already, and with every podcast conversation, I get more.

The Freelance Foundation course consists of 84 small videos (up to 4 minutes) and guides new and existing freelancers on how to build a better freelance business, and I always wanted to continue growing it, and never had time (that’s exactly why I spent nearly 16 hours making those small motivational videos, duh 😅).

I also plan to make it paid, add some super-small fee around 10-20 euros (even though a free version will still be available here), and that’s exactly why I’ve made an account on Udemy (and afterwards will make more on other platforms), and already uploaded all the videos there 🤩

“Why make it paid, if it’s available for free?”

Well, first of all, I will constantly update the paid version based on new questions and feedback I’ll receive, and you’re much more invested in something you paid for 😏

Secondly, some people want to support my work, but they don’t know how to do it, and now they will have an opportunity to make it (or even share this extremely huge value almost for free with their friends) 🤗

Also, I really want to make it the most beneficial course on freelancing that has ever been made, and I literally have everything needed for that, so I need to start somewhere and keep on building and improving it day by day 🚀

On another note, I want to make the same thing for those who want to build communities for their businesses, so while improving the course for freelancers and getting to know how those learning platforms work, I’ll also be creating another course on community building 💪

And all of that on top of my full-day schedule of working with clients 😲

Well, good luck to me 😅

On another note, I got tired of growing my Substack subscribers rate organically, and just uploaded the full list of participants of my monthly community meetups there, assuming they won’t mind getting some extra value in the form of blog posts around Community ROI and Humans of Business podcasts, so let’s see how it’ll work out 😅😁😊

Thoughts of the week:

• If you are saying you are popular, people will be suspicious, but if you create an impression of popularity and make people come to their own conclusions, then suspicions are removed. - Nudge podcast

• Try to associate your product with a time, or a place, or a space. It creates a trigger moment. - Nudge podcast

• Anyone can be a barbarian; it requires a terrible effort to remain a civilised man. - Leonard Woolf, The Economist’s newsletter

• Your limits are often less physical than they are psychological. - Sahil Bloom’s newsletter

• Easy times are when you build the moat that protects you during hard times. - Alex Hormozi’s newsletter

• How to create viral social media formats from Matt Epstein, Personal IPO podcast:

  

Song of the week:

Book and quotes of the week:

Thinking in Systems - Donella H. Meadows

“Disorderly, mixed-up borders are sources of diversity and creativity.”

“If we’re to understand anything, we have to simplify, which means we have to make boundaries.”

“It’s a great art to remember that boundaries are of our own making, and that they can and should be reconsidered for each new discussion, problem, or purpose.”

Tools that I use with referrals:

• Descript - for anything around podcasting and video editing

• Manus - for building complex systems and projects

• Beehiiv - for a newsletter (that’s what you receive 😅)

• Text Blaze - to access message templates with shortcuts (like “/ty”)

• Exali - promo “FROMYURII” - indemnity insurance for independent experts in Europe

Daily actions:

• invite 1 person to give feedback about how I helped them

• tell 1 person what I’m thankful to them for

• read a self-development book/listen to a professional podcast for 15 minutes

• make a valuable post/comment on LinkedIn

• tag 30 people in my database

• participate in a secret LI support group

Weekly actions:

• transcribe one new episode of the Creator Spotlight and Personal IPO (bi-weekly) podcasts, learn something from them, and connect with guests on LinkedIn

• transcribe two new DOAC videos, learn one thing from them, and make 1% posts in the DOAC community

• connect 2 people who I believe need to be connected

• ask 30 people about what they want to learn about Community ROI.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or questions, please 👇

And if you’d like to walk The Road To $1M+ Freelance Business with me 👇

See you next week! 👋