In this episode of Commerce Journey, Cory and Brian discuss building your tribe and customer community for your eCommerce business.
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Machine Transcription – Building a Tribe
Brian Krogsgard: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Commerce Journey podcast. My name is Brian Krogsgard. I’m here with my partner, Cory Miller. Hey Cory. Hey, we’re talking about, building a tribe today before we do. You might want to build your eCommerce website and you should do it with our partners at GoDaddy Pro. All you have to do is go to commercejourney.com/go.
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With GoDaddy Pro it’s an amazing tool. Go to commerce journey.com/go to check that out. Cory, today, we’re talking about building your tribe or a cult following true fans. We’ve heard, you know, this is a thing that’s been talked about, a lot over the years amongst marketers and, and folks, but why is this important for our, you know, startup eCommerce businesses?
Cory Miller: [00:01:37] Any business that wants to, have longevity and grow and do great and have enduring value, and lasting value, I believe should build a customer cult. People that love what you do so much need what you do so much that if you were to leave and not exist anymore as a business, that they would really miss you.
Like, there’d be a big gap and they have,
Brian Krogsgard: [00:02:06] what do we gain from that? Like, we want people to buy from us, but what do we gain by someone? And I guess it’s really the experience of either looking forward to buying or, after buying. having this feeling. So what do we gain from that? in a business sense.
Cory Miller: [00:02:24] as the business owner, the entrepreneur?
Brian Krogsgard: [00:02:27] Yeah.
Cory Miller: [00:02:27] Or, loyalty. It’s the big thing that we all want, you know, commerce journey here or Post Status or other project together. We want people to love what we’re doing to continue to renew or subscribe, or continue to show up for our webinars, you know, all that kind of stuff.
So loyalty. I mean, if you re, if you ask a bunch of entrepreneurs, Would you want customer loyalty? Everybody’s going to like rock it up real quick.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:02:55] So what we do well, we get numbers wise from that, or we’re going to get more repeat purchases. We’re going to probably get them to spend more per. car experience or whatever, you know, like each checkout, more dollars.
And then, another big one that I think, I think about this consistently with TV shows, cause it’s just a common thing we talk about with friends, but the evangelism for our brand, right. If someone’s truly loves it, if they’re truly satisfied with the product, then if it ever comes up, even remotely.
Like, maybe they’re wearing your product. If it’s some kind of clothing or it’s something they use in their day to day, they want to, they will evangelize the things they love. And when we create that true fan, they will help us do kind of this multiplier marketing, because they’ll tell the people around them and near them.
That they love the product. So that’s essentially saving us a lot on our marketing budget because we’re reaching the appropriate customers, which is the circles around our primary customers.
Cory Miller: [00:03:59] Yeah, you probably see it in Alabama, similar to what I see in Oklahoma, but a lot of trucks or cars with stickers on the back windows and, you know, Alabama, Oklahoma, big rural based type States. You know, you see a lot of hunting logos. So Yeti is big, Browning, which I believe is yeah, it’s a gun company, you know, you see those logos, then you see, Apple, you the little Apple’s logo on the back of cars. I mean, that is high level.
What you’re talking about advanced with that is like, the best marketing you can do is when for free, you will willingly stamp your car with something it’s going to be hard to take off and probably like make a mess if you take it off, because those people identify with what you’re doing. And like that’s what every business owner should want.
And particularly eCommerce because there’s always somebody, you know, the Amazons of the world or out there with eCommerce or some competitors always out there for me, Brian, I mean, you saw me as a built my software company over 10 years. I felt like loyalty. This type of building the tribe was my competitive advantage against really big companies with.
Millions, if not billions of dollars to crush me potentially.
Yeah. All
Brian Krogsgard: [00:05:15] right. So you brought a couple out that it just makes me think of different types of loyalty because people may think, you know, I am just not really creating a product that people like a Yeti, that people are gonna. Say like, man, I just, I first I’m really into keeping stuff cold and hot, you know? But it’s like that lifestyle brand type of vibe or, you know, my, a polo shirt, like kind of the historical one for clothing. they may not think that they’re, that’s the type of loyalty. They. They receive, there are a couple other types of loyalty and they come from, just pure appreciation of the product, whether it’s the affordability, the ease of use the convenience, a company like Walmart is one that comes to mind.
You mentioned Amazon is another, I’m not putting prime stickers or, you know, Publix is a local grocery store that I love. Like I’m not putting a public sticker on my car. But I do have some loyalty to Publix as being our, you know, the great grocery store in our neighborhood. And, you know, I can talk well about them or whatever, but that’s not put a sticker on, but it is recommend to your friends.
Like this is, I get great value from, I mentioned Walmart, Target’s an even better one, like people kind of attach to the stores that they love to the, yeah. Even when they’re not like. They’re not like sexy from that branding put a sticker on your car point of view, but they do have a loyalty. They might drive five minutes further to go to a target than they would, know, some, some other store, Or they may, I may talk about how much I love Amazon prime for the convenience, but I’m not going to put the little smile sticker on my car or anything.
Cory Miller: [00:07:01] yeah, me either.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:07:02] Yeah. So how do you view the, that difference between types of loyalty and how it’s expressed? Because I’m trying to equate, like this can apply to anyone. It doesn’t have to be like some glamour brand.
Cory Miller: [00:07:14] It totally can apply to every business. I mean, not that my friend’s manufacturing business, he does refrigeration units basically for commercial buildings, like a Walmart. No one’s gonna necessarily put their logo on there, but you just said something. They’ll talk well about it to other people. And that’s what, like, at the basis you want,
Brian Krogsgard: [00:07:33] it’s all you need at the end of the day.
Cory Miller: [00:07:35] Totally high level of that is, I mean, we come from the WordPress. We met from WordPress community, an amazing piece of software that we use prolifically, have a community around it.
First time. I thought, man, this has hit high level with WordPress is when I saw somebody with a test.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:07:52] I knew you were going to say that. Yeah. I remember a couple of tattoos that came in the WordPress space and. you know, sometimes people will do that because they have a loyalty because it helped them make money. It became their line of business others because they love something as a user. And it just kinda depends.
Cory Miller: [00:08:09] but now take, take, you said Yeti for a second. Okay. So I’ve got, I love Yeti mugs. Yeah. I’ve never bought an ice chest probably would likely will. Not just cause I’m not like an ice chest kind of person, but I freaking love my Yeti man.
We have bought customized, Logos like for my wife’s business and different things and giving them out as a guest. Cause like we love them now. I would be tented for the ID logo on my back window. If I didn’t put our own brands by the way brands the best. but you think about it, it’s an ice cooler.
It keeps your food cold when it can’t be on a plugged in refrigerator.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:08:48] I think I like mentioning Yeti just because it’s so crazy. Like, so there’s some weird stuff that people will attach to in terms of. enabling that lifestyle brand to be a part of their life. But if you actually think about what it is, it’s like really.
That like that. you know, I can imagine I can picture it. And some things like if there’s a consumable that you love, right? Like you’re just a really big fan of your local brewery or something like that. Or like a cer, like you’re a Coke person over a Pepsi person, you know? I can imagine it like those types of things more, but keeping like something that’s so utilitarian.
That is proof to me that almost any brand can like find a way to create it because they managed to establish that community by creating an excellent product first. And, you know, I went to Auburn, huge tailgate community and the sec, and I think that’s probably where Yeti. It really established themselves as with people that were like, man, this is great.
You know, it keeps the beers cold all day or, or, you know, on a hunting trip, like we pack up the, you know, what we killed and we took it home and it was preserved perfectly, whatever, I don’t know. I’m not a Hunter for being an Alabama.
Cory Miller: [00:10:06] Same here. I was going to say hunting. Really?
Brian Krogsgard: [00:10:08] Yeah. The hunting, the space, the T you know, the tailgating space, the beach goers, like people that they actually derive. Proper value from that utility component of the product that carries into the lifestyle side of things. But they had to work on that. They had to curate that in their business.
It wasn’t just given to them.
Cory Miller: [00:10:29] No, I, people shut up because I think they delighted at my assumption would be they delighted customers and they gave them something to identify with. Like you said, utilitarian, I think hardcore utilitarian. That resonates within me. I don’t hunt or fish. I mean, if I do, I have a guide come with me or my brothers and dad, but, you know, but yet he resonates with me because it’s so utilitarian, like this is a pretty looking mug.
I love it. Yeah. but I could recreate this logo, Brian, you and I could recreate this logo right here. It’s like, it must be some form of either Helvetica or Ariel black or something, but I could do that in like two minutes.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:11:11] There’s not much to it.
Cory Miller: [00:11:13] But they had found something, like you said lifestyle, and that really resonates with me identity and lifestyle.
This is a part of the lifestyle, just like the Browning thing on the sticker. And I think that’s the one with the deer. I can’t even remember now. Yeah, I think so. But they’ve identified with it. Same as what you’re wearing on your head right now. I know that I don’t golf, but I know that’s the master slug.
Oh
yeah. Uh, you know, he will ask me about this hat all the time. I wear this hat. I liked the masters. I do play golf, but like, I, uh, I wear this hat because it’s great fitting hat. It just, I love the, you know, the proper fitted hat it’s high. And it also comes with a high quality brand. Like, you know, when people generally think about the masters, they’re like, Oh, you think of the tradition and the history and the, The experience of the masters.
You think of it as a premium experience. And this gets me into the next segue into creating that loyal following. I think there’s two big round and I want to see if you, where you think it could go beyond that maybe, or just agree, whatever, one quality of the product, quality of the brand quality of the event, whatever that is.
With all the things we’ve talked about so far, they’re the ones that people really go for. The apples, the Yetis, the masters, they love, the quality is forefront secondary, very, but sometimes for some companies all on its own, like kind of stands out in this regard is going to be quality of service. the actual customer service itself and.
We have a lot of potential beasts with Amazon, right. But they put before they put their sellers and a lot of our people are going to be, you know, potential sellers on Amazon. They put before their sellers, they put before their employees, they put before, even the bottom line, they put the customer experience first.
And actually a company that I think of it’s the shoe company is Zappo. Am I imagining that? Yeah. Okay. They acquired Zappo and it was almost like a miniature Amazon, but specifically for shoes with the very same ideas, it’s like send them back like guaranteed. Patagonia’s another one that does this.
And those are, these are service-based it’s like, do you have an issue? You send it back. We take care of it right away. No questions asked. And that is a, it’s like a three click process getting a refund on some of those. And I think that quality of service goes a long way towards creating that loyalty as well.
So what do you think about those two and where would you expand? Quality
is, you know, things I wrote down here when you were talking about quality, either a product or, and, or, service, like your Zappos is quality is tables, table stakes. When you go. Above and beyond on that, like as Zappo she delight people, you know, and that’s so key.
So, you know, it takes me back first eight months of my business, a former software business. I answered support. And all contact inquiries to the company for the first eight months by myself. incredible time by the way of learning about customers and what they want, what they need, how to massage your messaging, how to rough out, you know, sand out the rough edges.
But, what that did for me, what I did, and I kind of meant this from a friend of mine in the business is I responded as. Fast as I could, when I got the email, I clicked reply. That was the first year, by the way, that Apple often was out. So I could do it on my phone where if I was out at lunch or something.
Yeah. But I made it like part of this first eight months, like zing things, things, things in fast FASA best. And that definitely made it stand out. I can’t untold, probably reply saying I didn’t expect for you to get back to me this fast. Think about that in today’s environment. Yeah. Any website you go to, you hit, you do it, email on the contact form and you get a reply, like in five minutes I would be shocked.
You know, I’d be like, Whoa, I didn’t expect it that fast. It’s so that’s still stands the quality, but plus wanting that is huge. but I think about like, what are the ways, you know, some of these companies serendipitously ended up with these kind of cult followings, but what are the ways where I can delight?
Anticipate for my customers, what their needs and get ahead of that and serve them sprinted well, but still that’s a hard one. you want to Excel with S product quality and service and support quality for sure. That’s tablescape tapes, but I lean into other things too. How can you sync, like, you’re kind of talking about masters, your language around that, by the way is so interesting because you can tell it, like, you’ve got an attachment.
To that one, I think is a golf tournament. I think
that’s key that has resonated. That’s the next word. I’d probably use delight people and then find the things that resonate within your brand. Your cause. Like I think companies should champion causes. Now. I’m not saying you should just go to left field and say, I want to support this political thing.
I think it should like align with who your customers are and who you are and beat that drum. Shine, the spotlight.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:16:31] We’ve talked about that with Tom’s shoes before how they, they went in on, is it a good shoe? Maybe like people enjoyed them. They liked the style. It obviously got people in the door, but what really resonated when it came to being a evangelist for Tom’s shoes, it was the one for one, it was buy a pair, give a pair.
And that is that’s what connected. And that was their cause. And your cause does not have to be giving away. 50% of your products, but that’s an example of an extreme SP and use to, bring the brand forward and create that cult. Following another, go ahead.
Cory Miller: [00:17:11] When you can just, again, we’ve talked about this a lot, cause it’s so core to on really good entrepreneurship and building lasting enduring companies.
But when you can align with someone’s identity, their lifestyle, like you said earlier, that’s so key, because you connect on that level. I think about, I know everybody gives the Apple references, but we talk about these stickers on the back of trucks and stuff. When I see those, I look at the car, I look at the person inside and I make some judgements and I think to myself, okay.
Okay. why do they have the sticker? That’s because something along, let’s say Apple’s core values or way of operating in the world and their ethos is huge, right? It’s think different it’s, you know, being, having the power right now to create things, you know, that I could have created 10 years ago. But they’ve tapped into the identity in that lifestyle that says, this is me, I’m an Apple person.
Same with Harley. That’s the other flip side. If I go on the other side of the contrast is Harley for years, nailed identity and lifestyle. And I was reading about in this book, amazing book called the power of cult branding, about, you uh, Jimmy buffet. Now like a songs, but we, when I say Jimmy buffet, that probably strikes in you a set, a person there’s demographics attached to it.
You probably can see.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:18:31] Yeah. Like your beach hippie.
Yeah.
Cory Miller: [00:18:37] Hippie baby boomer is what I think. but I go, they’ve tapped into something. He has tapped into something, especially with all of its brands and it is last style, like our work hard. And then I want to go on, I want to live the Island life and, I want to get away.
I want some quiet, know, Corona. the beer has tapped into that to find your Island kind of thing. It’s an escape, but it’s all about attached to identity and last style. And if we bring this down to our people, Our tribe at commerce journey. It’s find every way you can to latch into that identity, to build your tribe, to say, this is where you are welcome.
This is who you can be. Exactly who you are is where does it is
Brian Krogsgard: [00:19:22] So another, one of the ways to create this loyalty. I think that we’ve used some with post status. When I think of the Masters, I think of it. You don’t know all the details of how that works, but, and I also see this in some eCommerce businesses that I’ll bring up.
And it is creating exclusivity. and that the masters is an example, does this by they have, you have to apply for ticket auctions, and there’s basically no secondary market. Like it is someone gets tickets and then they give them to their friends. But like getting to the tournament is. Hard and weird.
And if you’re outside of the auction process, if you’re one of the longterm ticket holders, I think you can like lose your tickets if you’re found scalping them or something like that. It’s just some strange, like some things that essentially make it difficult to get to the masters without winning the lottery or whatever.
and in addition to that, it’s the. The premium am-ness and exclusivity around the tournament, more broadly, for better and worse in some ways and over time, but it creates this like enhanced. Experience for everyone that gets in, right? Because they become part of the club. We use that same terminology with post status, call it the post status club because it’s where professionals in our ecosystem go.
They pay a little bit to find exclusivity. It’s not constant noise. You pay to remove a lot of the noise and increase the signal from a content perspective. And that exclusivity can also be created in brands. And I see this frequently, you guys are doing it with the visa bars, but I think of it maybe with, I feel like the stitch fix was early to this, but doing batches or doing, collections.
And it’s like, Here’s a thousand pieces. After we sell a thousand pieces, this t-shirt design will never be made again, this or this specific pair of boots will never be in production again. get this trunk full of goods. That is a one-time offer and you’re getting something that other people will not get by now.
And I think that’s a very powerful tool. For someone that’s selling something to be able to, encourage people to actually go through the purchase process.
Cory Miller: [00:21:49] Okay. Take what you said now let’s put it up against this, the characteristics of a tribe. Like let’s just think about what we know as a tribe, small group of people or a group of people.
They have a name, they have traditions. You just said that with, I mean, you can’t say Masters golf tradition,
Brian Krogsgard: [00:22:08] a tradition unlike any other.
Cory Miller: [00:22:10] Yeah. Right. I even know that. I don’t even to know that I even know when the masters happens, by the way. I know where it is, all that
Brian Krogsgard: [00:22:16] except for this year just happened.
But normally yeah. Everybody knows. It’s like that first
full week in there, right?
Yeah
Cory Miller: [00:22:24] that’s right. But think about the characteristics of this tribe. What’s what will you kind of think about tribe? It’s you know, a group of people, there’s probably a leader, there’s protection, there’s safety. There’s a way of doing life and think about applied to everything you just said, traditions, you know, like there’s a tradition that they protect.
There’s a sacredness about the Masters that you just described. You can not scalp tickets. If you do your you’re rejected, Trump, you go against the norms. You’re not going to be in the tribe anymore. Right. And these are all. Human evolutionary characteristics of our re you know,
Brian Krogsgard: [00:23:01] sometimes these are used for ill. We’re not establishing this as always good. Sometimes it is used in very bad ways. societaly we go South quickly sometimes with these very same ideas. Yeah. In a eCommerce sense, they can be used to pull on people’s purchasing strings and for building good brands and good companies and hiring people.
There are two sides to creating tribes and to creating cults. If you like to a cult, it obviously has the potential for negative connotation.
Cory Miller: [00:23:33] Tribe is sexy and trendy, I used cult because I wanted visceral reaction. Right. I that’s how I use it, but like I led what I said privately within our team is like, we’re building a cult, we want a good cult now, but I’d say with the mantra of, and the motto of entrepreneurship, which is, I believe it’s do good.
Purposeful work for people like. that is the exchange. ECommerce, you’re exchanging something for something of equal value, you know, and you should do good. You should serve people. You serve people above board, like really well. And if you do that really well, you should be paid incredibly well.
Do good. Do well, handsomely for that. But it starts with doing good and right by people. So that’s the caveat to all of this, but, you know, I was thinking about something Post Status for instance, I want to give this as an example, because it’s really shining a lot of how you built it. I’ve only been here at post status for the last 11 months.
Yeah. Almost a year now. Right? You did it for five years and I can tell you have a cult following. You have built a tribe. Of the influencers in the WordPress ecosystem. If you’re someone that does WordPress, full-time what we call the WordPress pro or professional. You need to be here at Post Status.
This is the center of influence where conversations happen. We know our Slack, you know, channel most the overwhelming bulk of the conversations are private. Well, this is where they come to connect in between. Right now it’s even exaggerated because we don’t have in-person meetings. but you built this center of influence this tribe that everybody goes, and we can go to our sponsors and we can say, and almost dictate.
Here’s what the deal is. If you want to be existent. And I know you’ve cultivated it because you’ve led this tribe for six years, almost. You’re very protective. Think about the characters, the tribe and how you lead it. I know because we’re talking about sponsors and you’re like, won’t even go there.
Won’t even talk about this sponsor. And I go, but they have money and you go, I’ll do it. That is again, back to this element of a tribe. Like the leader protects the tribe, the leader anticipates, the leader thinks, okay, we’ve got to shift, we’ve got to move camp or whatever that is. And that’s what you’ve done with Post Status same can be said in all the good sense of eCommerce businesses.
Same with Vida Bars. Oh, here’s the other thing. Tribes have values demonstrated values that you don’t have to have it hanging on a door to set
Brian Krogsgard: [00:26:01] that doesn’t have to be a motivational poster.
Cory Miller: [00:26:04] No. Yeah. It’s a thing that every time I see a poster of a core values, I go, that’s BS. Nobody cares about those.
Those are fakes. If I ask somebody within the organization, say, look around, describe what you see. That’s the core values. now I want to make the real quick to Vida Bars. She had a specific hoses and a note on Ana for a long time. but she has specific things that just ring true. And she’ll say, Hey, I want to do this.
From our packaging, by the way she says, I said, Hey, there’s a bunch of boxes over there. It’s cool. Seeing all those boxes sack now, and they’re going to be filled and shipped. She goes, yeah, the manufacturer of that, we’re going to go with the new one. And I know this manufacturer. I’m not going to say the brand, but I’m like this, isn’t a big deal.
This brand for boxes, you know? And she’s like, no, they just don’t sync with our values. And I’m like, Oh my God, you live your values and you see your comments in this part of it. So
Brian Krogsgard: [00:26:57] well, if you don’t, the tribe will notice. They will. Your tribe calls you out when you do wrong. And that keeps you on the straight and narrow for that same purpose.
Cory Miller: [00:27:06] So true. They can vote you out of office. Yeah, with their dollar, with their pocket book.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:27:11] So one final thing, and I think this is maybe a test. It’s not something you have to go after, but it’s something that’s going to give you feedback on whether or not you’re creating a truck. and that is by just naturally how it’s structured.
There will be people. Who are against your tribe? It’s your people who choose used to be the enemy of your tribe. they will just, they will not buy in. You’re essentially saying, we know we’re for a certain type of person, a certain profile of buyer or fan or whatever. Now that could be a diverse group, but it doesn’t, it just means they’re sisters, you know, a certain personality that will follow the tribe.
And certain that will not. You see this viscerally with Apple as the strongest? I think because people love Apple products or they hate them, like just mock anyone willing to pay so much money for a laptop or say they just steal Android’s best features years later, you know, like they have mockery galore that does not mean that Apple is a, not a successful company.
They’re the most successful company in the world. Yeah, they’ve polarized essentially two thirds of the market against them. and it’s a fascinating thing that you end up seeing there is that by creating a tribe inherently, there will be pushback against that tribe from some, and I think it’s a decent weather vain to tell you, are you doing enough to establish your purse, your purpose, to identify who you are in the market, because.
If you do, not only will you have people that choose to be in, you will have people that choose to be out and make you aware of it.
Cory Miller: [00:29:03] And we talked about this an episode or two ago about the mythical monster. And we were really quick to say, like, this isn’t mean like go out against them. Particular person, but I like attacking more like limiting beliefs, mindsets, outdated mindsets, and things like that and making those, the adversary.
But you’re right. Like, you know, Mac versus PC it called back to my memory, Brian, those, those commercials, you know what I’m talking about?
The guy from…
Brian Krogsgard: [00:29:38] it’s the nerdy office guy with the drab, drab shirt looks like he came out of the movie. Exactly. This he’s I’m a PC. And then the Mac guys, like the young, skinny jeans t-shirt guy.
I can’t remember who it was. That was the actor. But yeah,
Cory Miller: [00:29:55] they were very clearly saying if you’re all buttoned up, like you’re not Apple, that’s PC, they were labeling. now I think that can get. A little bit, it can border on the edge of dangerous, you know, where you we’re never advocating here about discrimination.
Right? hate speech, racism, anything like that. We’re not advocating that at all,
Brian Krogsgard: [00:30:20] but, and they weren’t quite go in there, but they were. you know, they were creating some boundaries of like, Oh, you’re like an office tech guy. No, thanks. You’re a hip, young, designer or something. It’s like, you’re
Cory Miller: [00:30:38] Cool over here. Not cool over there
Brian Krogsgard: [00:30:41] Right. It was cool versus not cool. That’s what it really was.
Cory Miller: [00:30:44] It really was. Now I think that can be dangerous
Brian Krogsgard: [00:30:46] and big companies do that in a whole lot of ways. And sometimes it’s not as visible, you know, like I think of another one old spice. They create co-branding around them, but it’s like this Manliness about it.
You know, like if you’re not masculine enough, then maybe you don’t qualify for being in the old spice tribe. so people go all kinds of routes and people will do a lot of things for attention and the bigger, the brand, the bigger the market, the broader the market, the more you kind of have to dig into that to create conflict in order to establish your tribe.
Cory Miller: [00:31:21] Yeah. I had a thought there and it just went by, but I think, no, no. With old spice and everything, I was kind of hearkened back to my dad. Fund’s old spice and the S you know, medicine, cabinet and stuff. but they found something that resonates with people, but I th Oh, this is what I thought is it’s merely taking a stand for the things that you as entrepreneur leader of your eCommerce store in business, believe in.
Finding the people that identify with that and resonate with that and saying, you’re my people now in anything we do, we say the only time I discriminate is when you’re a butt-head. As a client, you got to get fired. You’re fired quick. You know? I won’t, I won’t do that. So I’m inclusive in that sense, except for buttheads. If you’re going to be an irate and justified customer, you have no place here. Go find somewhere else.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:32:12] Yeah. And that’s part of your, your, your mission statement for what your company is in the first place, which is, and this is what can make a Cory Miller company different from a Jeff Bezos company. As a Jeff Bezos company is.
They’ll handle the butt-heads because they are a customer first company, no matter what above employer, whereas, a Cory Miller company, another friend of ours, Pippin Williamson company, y’all are two of the best that I know in terms of being a employee company. This is about the company first, before the customer.
And that is part of what you said, right? As your, your table stakes, like you’ve talked about before. It’s like, if we’re not serving our people, then we’re not going to be able to serve our customers. If our CA if there’s a customer preventing us from serving our people, then we don’t want that customer.
That’s part of your rule set about how you buy, like you said, with Anna and her, her choice of a vendor. So I want to summarize by a couple of things that if someone is looking to create their tribe, check back, how are you handling these things? Number one, we talked about a commitment to product quality.
Now this does not mean you have to go super high end with every little single decision, but it needs to be, you need to audit your product, your quality, your product quality, and you need to strive to be best in class. And with within your kind of budget. Right? Right. If you’re side-by-side, it doesn’t have to be the most expensive, but you want to be best in class for what the market you’re serving for your product quality, number two, your service to the best of your ability to provide outstanding quality service.
Number three, I think that we talked about is to, Maybe create that persona of the, of your tribe member. What do they look like and how can you, identify whether you’re achieving that or not. And that’s by people either joining the tribe or, you know, maybe even see evidence against it, right.
Some pushback against that, those decisions. Do I, did I kind of, did I get everything, the primary stuff there for how to start working on that tribe?
Cory Miller: [00:34:30] Oh, yeah. Identity lifestyle. Find the things that resonate, but start with you, you know, your core values.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:34:37] I mean, that’s, that was going to be my number four, which was, should really be probably number two or three. it’s established those core values, write them down because that’s going to help you. You take those core values. And then from there, you kind of expand that out to who are the people that fit this, right? So that’s where you get that loyal fan from that loyal fan persona from is based on those core values.
Cory Miller: [00:35:00] Absolutely. But things out there isn’t it with you and see what kind of the reverb is. And, but pick things that have lasting long-term value inside you, because those are the things you’re going to continually drive, push and focus on and never let go in there. Aren’t going to be that little facade of a core value sign.
We talked about. They’re going to be things your customers talk about.
Brian Krogsgard: [00:35:21] Awesome. Let’s leave it there. Thanks Cory. I enjoyed this. We want to hear how y’all are working on your tribes. Let us know in our Facebook group commercejourney.com/facebook. Thanks so much to our partners at GoDaddy Pro. Go to commercejourney.com/go to check them out.
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