🌱 The half-hearted call to action that started a thriving community

MicDrop turned 3 on Friday, so I went back and found the first time I ever mentioned MicDrop as an idea publicly.

Turns out it was in March 2022, hidden at the bottom of a 1374 word, LinkedIn newsletter. 13 likes and 6 comments, call to action item #2…

Now if that’s not the work of a marketing mastermind, I don’t know what is 🤭.

Variations of that same call to action appeared on that newsletter every fortnight for the next 6 months and in that time, our waitlist grew to ~100 people.

When September came around (back to school), we dropped the waitlist a message: ‘Become a founding member of MicDrop.’ The website at the time pitched it as a 10 week experiment.

At the top of the Google form?

56 applied.
27 joined.
10 weeks to see if there is something in it.

The coaching videos mentioned? From a video course I never launched that was designed for corporate professionals, not thought leaders.

The club hub? Earlier that year, we’d tested Circle as a platform for my thought leadership accelerator - it wasn’t being used at all.

Needless to say, we were very scrappy, I had no idea what I was doing, but there was something there.

At the end of the 10 weeks, MicDrop’s fate came down to one simple question:

“Who wants to continue on next year?"

I had a number in my head: 10 members minimum, otherwise we pull the plug.

With 24 hours to go, we had 6 signed up.

First thought: Oh well, at least we tried!
Second thought: Screw it, I’ll drop a reminder email.

By the end of the day, we had 17.
10 of those members are still with us today.

I learned some pretty critical lessons that year that have stood me and my business in good stead ever since:

1. Always validate a business idea before running with it 🧪
   Just because you think it’s a good idea, it doesn’t mean your audience does. Test it in the real world before investing months into building it. The same goes for a keynote, a workshop or a book. Your audience (and the market) will tell you what it values, if you listen; and yes, sometimes their answer hurts.
    

2. There’s nothing wrong with starting scrappy 🪏
   Use what you’ve got, not what you wish you had. I started with an unused Circle space, an old video course and a Google Form. Progress beats perfection everytime.
   

3. Always give your ideas the best possible chance to succeed 📧
   My ego told me not to bother sending that final email. Had I listened, this 160 person strong, thriving community might not exist today.

If the backstory for how we went from those 17 members to the 160 we have today would be useful, reply ‘backstory’ and if there’s enough of an uptake, I’ll share the rest of the warts and all journey up to this point in a future article.

Alex