My Exact Community Building Template Using a Waitlist

Article #100 🎉

Subscriber count: 10,994+

Quick Intro

Welcome to my 100th newsletter article. Today is going to be a good one.

I’d had a surge of new subscribers recently. For those of you who don’t know me here is a short intro:

My name is Jamie. I’m a PharmD. I love being in control of my own career. I also love creating a strong brand online and using that presence to earn more than I earned as a W-2 pharmacist. I’m on a mission to teach other smarty pants in healthcare to do the same thing in their own way.

Principles of Being a Creator

We will talk logistics of how I’m creating my next private community shortly.

First, I want to emphasize that this is the same plan for anything you create and sell online. Digital products are very similar. When I say being a Digital Creator, I mean creating something online that helps people.

Digital projects are so fun to start because:

• It’s free to start

• Nobody needs to give you permission

• You can earn money without a hefty startup cost

• You can also flesh out your idea pretty quickly

• This isn’t only for entrepreneurs. As a Digital Creator, you stand out as an ideal candidate for top positions. These positions may otherwise be inaccessible to you.

Today, I'm speaking about private communities, but this applies to all digital products. Especially your first ones!

Private Community Playbook

I chose a specific 6-month process to build my private community. 3 months of gathering data. 3 months of building in public with the feedback of my people.

First 3 months: Focus on Discovery Calls

During the first 3 months my job was to talk about a single niche over and over everyday. Doing that draws people interested in that topic to you. It also sets you up as an emerging leader in the field. Then, the most important thing you can do is start talking to people and generously help them out.

• Narrow down ideal audience (for me, it’s PharmDs & MDs)

• Teach them every day on LinkedIn

• Create a few posts volunteering my time for free in a disco call

• On the call ask what they are struggling with that they think you may be able to help

• One the call: help them without any ask! Gather all feedback you get

• Ask if they’d like to be on your waitlist for future communication

• Repeat with 10-20 people

• Have fun! These are really cool calls

Second 3 months: Build a Waitlist

After 10-20 calls, you’ll know the pain points your audience has. Now comes the really fun part—you get to build a solution for them, with them. In the next 3 months, you should validate your idea (for me it is a private community). You should also build excitement for it.

• Create a simple Carrd page to let people onto your wait list

• As soon as they join tell them what you’re building and ask what is most helpful for them

• Email them regularly. I choose weekly

• In those emails ask more questions, show what you’re building, ask for all feedback

• Also in those emails: teach your people something cool each time you email them. Give them value.

• Post about that waitlist regularly so people can stream into it over time

• Include waitlist links on your social media profile too

Want to see what an effective waitlist looks like? Join mine here. Steal it. I’m having so much fun writing these emails each week. I think you’ll really like it.

What NOT to do:

Now, if this feels like it’ll take a long time, you are right. Your first customers online won’t come because of a flashy checkout page. They will come from a close relationship with you. It is worth your time to build relationships. Once you have relationships it’ll be easier to build a digital solution that they really want. This is where you must focus all your time and energy.

I know. I know.

It is easier to do it the way that doesn’t work:

• Create an LLC

• Buy a cool domain name

• Spend $$$ designing a beautiful website

• Create your whole course, download, community

• Then, throw out an email with a link to check out

• Oh no. Nobody bought it! You spent all your time working without feedback, so you don’t have the exact thing your group of people want.

  Don’t Wait Until You Have Exact Clarity. Start With an Idea

Lastly, once you have:

1. A specific audience you want to help

2. A general idea (course, community, download, coaching)

Then start gathering your people onto a waitlist!

They will give you the clarity that you just can’t get by thinking about it.

Check out some of the stellar feedback from my waitlist of 122+ people:

When you take the time to help people and build with them you'll get feedback like this. It is very encouraging and gives you momentum.

Start Now

Anyone can do this.

It's free.

It doesn’t take much time, but you’ve gotta plan to be consistent over time to get the best result.

Start planning now to make your own private community. Write our your timeline (it can be faster or slower than mine) and just start putting it into action.

The best time to start was last year. Second best time: right now.

Just start! You’ll figure it out as you go.

Jamie 👋🏻

PS-Whenever you're ready, there are 3 more ways Jamie can help you:

• If you like this newsletter, then treat yo' self. Get future issues delivered to your inbox so you never miss a thing. Subscribe here 📫

• [NEW] I'm building a waitlist for my private community (it's what this whole article has been about!). It turns your expertise into influence and your silence into success. Join here

• [NEW] Pharmacists interested in creating your own profitable precision medicine practice? Learn more here