Hello.
Welcome to Community Case Studies.
This is a look at how belonging is really built.
I'm your host.
My name is Seth Resler, and in every episode, I sit down and talk to somebody or in today's case, some buddies who are actually in the thick of it.
They are running a community, and we talk to them about how they're doing it and how they are using certain universal principles that apply to all communities.
And how they're putting those principles into action.
My guests today are the founders of YellowTech Sito, which is not your average marketing company.
They are all about teaching small business owners and freelancers how to stand out in the crowd.
They offer practical support, training, and mentorship in their digital circus community.
He is the creative force, and she is the tech wizard.
Please welcome Emily and Alan Braithwaite.
Hi, guys.
Welcome.
Oh, yes.
Thank you for the round of applause.
Hello.
Well, say is the tech.
Is that right? Is that, uh and is that because he's just not? Well, no.
We had a bit of a role reversal.
So my background was like IT, tech, things like that.
And then we started this business, and, um, Emily was kind of learning it all.
And we just found ourselves crossing over, and it was almost like the years I'd sort of stifled my creativity suddenly unleashed.
And Emily was getting really into the kind of technical element, and we literally crossed over.
So I now kind of forge ahead with a creative noise.
And, uh, Emily does the majority of our tech.
I'm the mechanics behind the background.
You are, uh, everyone prefers you.
Well, well, let's talk before we get to digital circus, which is your community.
Uh, let's start by talking about Yellow Tuxedo, which is your company.
Uh, which predates the community by a little bit.
And that was an evolution from what the two of you were doing before.
Can you tell us a little bit about the history of the company? Go on then, Emma.
Okay.
So, uh, yellow tuxedos started in 2019.
Um, and previous to that, Adam and I'd worked together in another business, uh, from about 2032.
So we are married, we're a husband and wife team, and you are not yet divorced.
So high five that.
You're you're due for my first wife.
Okay.
Thank you.
Um, but we we, um, had an event outdoor events business.
So we're working a lot, um, in corporate events, festivals, outdoor weddings, things in The UK, and we, previous to that working in that business, had corporate careers in exactly what we do now.
So when we started working together in 2020 we found ourselves marked in our business the way that we, you know, with all the skills that we already had.
And because of the the outdoor events industry, we we're working with Marquise Supplies and Flores and Caters and all the other sort of assets that you have in an event.
And they kept going, Emily.
And how do you do what you do? Cause we did not wanna be the types of people going to trade fairs or, um, wedding fairs and sitting in a clubbing, hi.
Here's the thing.
Would you like to buy it? We moved everything online.
And we realized that there was this this opportunity there for so many operational, sort of small business owners there, who tech and online isn't really their their their strongest set of of skills there to help people to understand how to market their business and be more visible online by them because not everyone has the budget to be working with a large scale marketing agency or they don't want to.
So how or do they move themselves online? So twenty to twenty nine 2019, we started Yellow Tuxedo as kind of a slow exit to being in outdoor events.
We have three small children.
We want to spend more time with our kids rather than being sort of out on events.
Um, and we started out.
They're really studying.
It's a bit of an exit strategy.
Now the thing is Oh, it got sped up quickly.
It didn't split up really quickly because just as we started to to design that business, we had the big sea.
We had COVID started.
And then the whole world is completely turned up.
The other big sea.
I think the big sea is something else.
So this is like the other big sea.
The one that we don't talk about these days.
No.
I'm alright.
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, that that predates the digital circuits, which is our community.
Um, we we were thinking about how we can do online support for small business owners.
We were doing more consultancy, and we still do consultancy and kind of helping with training.
When in COVID hit, we realized that actually so many of those small business owners that we were working within that one to one space were frozen still.
They did not know what to do next because Sorry.
I am interjecting the product, but you you know what it is that sometimes for people to achieve something, there's a couple of things missing.
And a lot of times it's two main things.
One, they're a bit scared, and the other one is they don't know how.
Right? And we thought if we can kind of, um, you know, help these businesses achieve their goals by showing them how to do the technical part, then there's nothing stopping them achieving their goals of and the fear part, which perhaps they can work on or that might disappear as they understand the technical part.
So we just wanted to start sharing that.
Um, and and that was the kind of was the principle for Yellow Tuxedo, isn't it? Where were small businesses and show them how to do the things? Some of what we do is a bit like Robin Hood.
We feel like we're robbing from the big brands, the big corporate, kind of tweaking it tidying up, making it simpler.
And then sharing it out and go, this is how you do this.
And this is how you achieve this because when we were in our events business or outdoor events business, we we, um, a large TV program in The UK called ITVs this morning contacted us to come and do and work with them and people were like, how much did you pay for that PR? And we're like, we didn't pay for that PR.
They came to us.
And it's like, well, how did you achieve that? Okay.
So let's start showing people how we achieved it because the formula, well, it's not, no, it is simple.
It is simple as say it's not.
Of course, it's simple.
Everything's available on the internet.
Everything's simple when you know it.
Yeah.
I so I love this because you guys come to the community space from the in person event space.
Uh, and and in a lot of ways, that mirrors my own journey.
I mean, I was a content creator because I was a radio broadcaster and a podcaster, but I was producing a lot of events in the forms of concerts from my radio stations over the years.
And I think when you understand how in person events work and what makes them work and where the magic is, I think that actually really helps when you start to build an online community because a lot of the same principles apply.
It's just, you know, they're virtual instead of in person.
Totally.
Yeah.
Sorry, sir.
No time totally.
I I was just I wanted to agree with you.
And and that was one of the things we we did actually because when we sat there and this was all predominantly during lockdown at the time, and when we sat there thinking about it, we were like, what are people missing from events? What are they missing? And and and we asked our our audience, you know, we asked them, what are you missing? And some of the things people were talking about was the food at an event, the conversations at an event, and all these other things.
So we went stuff this let's run an online conference, but try and make it as real person real life as possible.
Right? So we had this focus on human connection in a digital world at the time.
And we arranged this event where you could order food to be delivered to your house on the day of the event.
We finished the event with sundowners.
So we're all on screen doing drinking gin and tonics talking about the end of the day.
The platform we are used allowed for conversations in the foyer as you're moving in between rooms at What was it? I forgot on what a platform was called? Hoping.
Hoping allowed for these things to happen.
And one of the best bits of feedback we ever got from that event from bringing these people together was they wrote.
I felt like I've been at a conference an in person event all day and I've not left my office.
And it was like, just because if we hadn't have had that experience in real world in person stuff, I don't know if we'd been able to bring it to the online world at that time.
Yeah.
You know, one of the things I've noticed about events is that there are events that are built for audiences, and then there are events that are built for community building, where you are trying to, you know, facilitate connections between the attendees.
And, of course, you can do both.
But for when I was producing concerts or or if you go to the movies, right, that's that's about an audience.
Right? In fact, they literally tell you, don't talk to the guy next to you.
We'll keep you out, um, as opposed to speed networking or speed dating where it's all about, you know, making connections between other people.
And, you know, with virtual events, you gotta think about it because I think often when people do virtual events, they focus just on the content portion.
Yeah.
And it just be it just becomes a series of webinars where really I think what gives it that feel of being in person is those connections, those points where people can actually connect with one another and setting up the events so that that can happen.
Right? So Totally.
Totally.
I think that's Oh, go ahead.
No.
No.
No.
No.
After you, I I to be honest.
No british.
I was so british.
No.
I felt there was a pause, so I thought I'd fill it with something.
The reality was I should have just eased up and awaited the next I was like opportunity to say something.
You know, it's not I should have just bought us.
Let me give you an opportunity to say something you've touched on this, but, you know, when you set out to build a community, um, often it starts with the shared mission, why are these people coming together? What are they trying to do? And why do they get value out of doing it with each other? Can you tell me what the shared mission of your members are? Yeah.
So and it has evolved.
It's important to know.
It has evolved every time.
So we started the digital circuits in 2020.
So we're nearly five and a half, six years into it now, and it has evolved.
But when we started the digital circus, it was to be a point of contact where people didn't feel so lonely in a place where the world did not make any sense to anyone at that point.
That kind of still is the goal, Emily.
The world does not make any sense.
It's pretty This world still makes, you know, say.
Um, but with it started being let's just gonna have some arms length, help and support to make sure that people had somewhere that they could come, and they could feel heard and have that support so they keep keep, you know, their legs underwater like a swan, they keep keep going underwater.
And that, as we came out of COVID, is still the kind of mission for people as Alan says.
But what we realized is that human connection, regardless whether you're online or offline, has to be the, like, the epicenter of everything.
People still want to have human connection.
We're all, especially as small business owners.
We are all a lot of us fighting our own fight in our own little lane, trying to a lot of it's quite lonely.
We are all trying to get from that a to b, and actually to have the knowledge that someone to sat your right virtually or not, you know, can have your back there.
It's a really nice space and that has been kind of the core mission is to make sure that someone knows that they have somewhere to come.
They can't they can't ask a stupid question.
There's no such thing as a stupid question and that they will feel supported for as long as they want to stay with her.
Actually, that's really important, isn't it? As the way it's evolve because we don't want we never planned for the for the cure.
We don't even really see it as a community.
We see it more as of a team of people kind of, you know, connecting together to achieve something.
But we also didn't want somewhere where people wear a badge of honor.
Oh, I'm a member of the digital circus.
We didn't want that.
Now that does naturally happen at times.
They tag it and go, we've done this, etcetera.
But we wanted it to be that safe space.
They they we're big on business on your terms where, you know, there isn't one size fits all.
We're all different.
All of this, we wanna celebrate that.
But having a place where you can come, get that knowledge, be yourself, you know, uh, a port in the storm, so to speak, has always been there for us.
Yeah.
So let's now differentiate that from the organizational value.
In other words, we just talked about what your members get out of being part of the digital circus.
What does yellow tuxedo get out of it? Uh, I mean, are you monetizing it directly? It you know, is there a membership fee? Uh, are there other benefits? Yeah.
And we're coming to you live from Bora Bora.
Thank you, members of the digital circus.
No.
We're not.
Day.
What? Share in England.
We're drinking Pina Gladys and Barbados, you know, how amazing this? No.
We we So we monetize the community from day one, um, and in terms of that, from a business perspective with Yellow Tuxedo, so it is a really, uh, affordable opportunity to get involved with additional circuits.
It's always been quite a low ticket offering, and we will always keep it as a low ticket offering because, again, our main sort of driver is to make sure that we're an accessible place for someone who needs the help.
We don't want it to be so arms that they can't get to what they need if they are struggling.
So we've always wanted it to be our, um, be an affordable space for someone to be part of.
What that does mean for us is twofold.
Number one is that our reputation now is to be that we are that, you know, arm around your shoulder to make sure that you're fixed.
We we have people talking about us.
We have our ad focus there.
And also from a yellow Tuxedo point of view from that part of the business, we are by having the community aspect there and for them to understand how we teach, how we break things down, how we can help support from a to b means that when it comes to that up set of our larger ticket programs or our one to one services, that hard work's already been done because they they recognize that we are that trusted source there.
So we do have that kind of from that monetization.
They start with the with the membership.
And a lot of our members our core members have been with us since day one.
We we have members since day one.
We've got people who've been arrested nearly six years now.
In fifteenth twenty twenty.
Oh, you know the exact date.
Um, but that does mean that they it's an easier self for when we do need to kind of monetize with our larger services, they already know us.
And I I think the larger services is important to kind of us okay.
We do offer, so you got the base membership, and then we've got the digital circus plus where you get an hour every month with Emily, uh, working because she's the clever one on technical stuff.
And we do host the odd in person mastermind or no homework hub and things like that, you know, we call it dining table mastermind.
It's in our house around our dining table and no homework hub co working.
So there are levels in that.
Then we've got one to one service levels, you know.
You can you can have, uh, an online visibility blueprint time with Emily and things like that.
Who's with me? Well, you're the tech support.
I'm we're getting the stuff I do in a moment.
But we've also got layers of events.
So we have Christmas shenanigans, which is our Christmas meal, the fun printers big day out, where we take uh entrepreneurs to a local theme park the day.
And we're building up to a trip to Morocco this November.
So we're we're currently we've booked out an entire hotel in the middle of Marrakesh, and we're inviting people to come for time and space.
So that's less about the technical side and more about them as individuals and human connection.
And at really important that our business does do more than just one thing to us, and we believe our clients because we don't want them to just come to us, get the technical information and go off.
And this isn't about revenue producing.
This is about life.
Right? We want to offer everything because we're human beings living our life.
We've only got one life, and we want to go on more adventures.
So we're like, well, hold on.
Let's invite people along on these adventures with us.
I love that.
And I love the Morocco trip.
That sounds like a lot fun.
He ain't coming sending something.
You know, I I would very much like to pack my bags.
I'll send you, you know, I'll send you a link.
Please.
Uh, I'm in America.
They may not let me back in.
It's it's getting it's touchy at the moment.
Let me ask about, uh, your community space.
Uh, because what we're really doing when we're community builders is we're creating a space where people can come together and connect.
That could be a an in person space that could be a virtual space, could be a combination of the two.
What is your space look like.
And what do people do when they enter that space? Yeah.
What do they do? A lot of things.
Um, so it's that's a great, great question.
And, again, it has changed and evolved over the year.
So when we first started, uh, the membership with the community in, in back in that June 2020, we had simply, uh, we were doing Zoom calls, and we had a portal on our website where someone could sign up to join and take a net recurring revenue from us.
And then, um, all of our recordings were available on our website.
Sorry.
I'm just laughing.
We rang up our web guide when we think we might do a membership reckon, you can get it done in in forty eight hours because we're gonna go live on Thursday.
And he's like, are you kidding me? And and because that's what at that time was all it was meant to be.
It was meant to be a source of information for people and, you know, come along to the Zoom calls if you want to in person, or you can watch the replays in your own time if that's not your bag.
And again, it evolved.
It changed, and we realized that that community aspect was much more important than the educational aspect of what we deliver.
We still deliver the education, but the the people around them was where the magic happened.
So we moved to we were early adopters of heartbeat in Thank you, appsumo.
Thanks, appsumo.
We've got an appsumo lifetime deal back in the day, and, um, haven't looked back.
Uh, but we moved over to heartbeat, uh, three years ago.
February, March.
Yeah.
It was three years ago.
Uh, to have that space because what we we were lacking with the first guys of a digital circus was that place where people have conversations.
So we wanted to make sure that there was a forum space there.
Again, we don't want that to be necessarily the noisier space.
If you need to come in and you want to speak or you wanna share or you, again, feel your boost.
Interesting.
Sorry.
It's a relevant interjection.
And because we were online, we are, sorry, not words, online visibility specialists.
And our focus was on online visibility.
We always want to encourage conversation to go on in the DM, on social media, or wherever else it needed to be.
But we learn quickly that going back to that safe space, they they didn't always want to.
And they they didn't even know who the other members were, some of the times, because of the way we built it in the early days.
So, yeah, that's partly was solved in.
Hartly was our solution for that because it was an a space for a forum if you want it.
And again, there's always that option if you want it.
We do community match ups once a month.
So there's that opportunity to meet new members.
We offer a virtual coffee morning once a month, which actually have now opened it out past our digital circus community to our wider yellow Tuxedo community because again, it's a great shot window to see the fun, the shenanigans, the playfulness we have within our own community.
It's a great way of them getting a snapshot of what that seals like.
So we have a virtual coffee morning.
It's like the the least networking event you'll ever go to.
Ditch the elevator bit.
No elevator bitches.
None of that.
We just talk about real life.
How how's your week been, what's been, you know, what's what's the crack? What's what's gone right? What's gone wrong? This this is a great example.
Right? We're chatting to Seth.
We're talking about communities, but my takeaway is actually he was in radio and events.
Yeah.
And that's that real life connection that always always will resonate the most.
Alan wants to be a radio presenter if I went to move he he did not fit them up.
Oh, if we got a YouTube channel, I don't mean to, uh, be a radio.
Do do do you anymore? Him.
Um, so, yeah, I think it that that that's where he's done with it.
There's there's space for them if they want it.
And we do it in person if you want it to.
If you don't, you can stay online, there's option Inclusivity was really important, actually.
We were because there are people who who aren't mobile, who can't run out the door, who don't have a car, can't afford to drive.
Right? And as Emily talked about, we wanted to be accessible and inclusive from day one.
And actually online is that regardless of what you, you know, whether you want to be in person and the power and benefits of in person online ultimately is the most inclusive way.
Yep.
Or I hope it is.
I've just without that.
So, uh, if I'm hearing you, right, you've got the online space that you built on, uh, heartbeat, which is the forum and everything, but it sounds like events are still very, important to the strategy and to the engagement and to getting people involved.
Yeah.
So, well, so, so, if we take the fun for an early big day out, for example, which this June, we go to a theme park, we there's more or two of it than just going to a theme park, but the principle No.
There's not.
We really bad fries.
On roller coasters, especially.
That that day out has two jobs.
Job one is a summer party for the members of the digital circus and the people we talk to regularly in our client base, etcetera, etcetera.
Job two, and actually, someone asked me this today.
They said, do you make much money on that? I said, no.
That's not its job.
Its job is almost a lead magnet for want of a better phrase.
We wanna provide and then obviously there's a kind of a third job of just providing a space for entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, to come and meet each other in a in a kind of a get to know each other as humans.
Um, so that's why we do it.
So we have a we we've ticked box on a summer party for the hardcore audience.
We have a tick box box for bringing new people in and a tick box for them getting to know each other.
Um, and it's just ridiculous fun.
And we we we wanna focus on the people every time.
Every time folks, and we don't need to turn up and talk business.
We can we can get to know each each other.
Everything about our business is online.
It's on LinkedIn.
It's on our website, you know.
So, uh, one of the people of the f entrant funpreneurs big day out was I caught up with them a few months afterwards.
And she said, oh, I sent some work to such and such is direction.
Gemma sent some work Kate's direction.
I don't need to be vague.
And she said it was really simple for me because after screaming next to where I'm on a roller coaster, I knew how much I trusted her.
And it's like crazy.
These little life things.
We we sort of take for granted, but we shouldn't do humans, people every day of the week.
So that leads right into my next question, which is, uh, you know, how are you measuring the success of this community? And and let me actually break that down into two buckets because we talked about the shared mission of your members and what they're trying to accomplish.
So how are you measuring, whether you're able to help them do that? But, also, we talked about the organizational value, you know, what this community is, uh, doing for Yellow Tuxedo, And how are you measuring that? Perfect.
Perfect, though.
So are you we we look at it in this, you're you're gonna make me an answer to it.
This is definitely a new question.
This is a serious question, I mean, I don't do I'm discussing bloody hot cross buns on LinkedIn.
Right? Serious stuff year.
So taking it from the, uh, the measuring with our members in our community there.
So we have, from our digital circus communities, um, explicitly there, we have always pride in ourselves that we've kept quite a small membership, and that has done intentionally.
We don't we don't want to have thousands, tens of thousands of members in that space because we know the name of every single member, what their business is, what their pain point is, what their desires are, where they're trying to get to their a to b.
So we've always been able to have that level of conversation.
We are always asking how we can be of help and service.
Their businesses are still running.
They're still coming back from all all the time, but we are also really, really, really keen on getting that real time feedback So we are always asking with questionnaires.
We do our quarterly kind of feedback forms to make sure that we are designing the membership in a way that they want and things that they need.
Our sessions have changed.
There are sort of online sessions have changed so many times over the last you to to fit their needs and what they want.
That's true.
We were doing so much one directional explaining in educational pieces that actually, that's one part of our month now.
The the sessions that get the most feedback in terms of people turning up and having conversations, are they eat the frog sessions, their co working spaces where they can be side by side with their neighbors and still moving their businesses forward.
Yeah.
No.
Sorry.
Yes.
From a organizational point of view, you know, again, we we all measure, well, from a from a financial point of view, is it is it still a viable for us to be doing? Because at the end of the day, for any community, and you all know that Seth is it's so labor and 10 sense of running a successful community to make sure that you're not just dropping and running.
We are in that space all the time.
We are so accessible to our members all the time.
It has to be financially worthwhile while at the same time.
Otherwise, it's just noise and we're not actually feeding our three kids They need new shoes and Melissa.
Damn it.
Um, but from a reputational point of view, that is what we measure.
We we we we're looking at those social keys.
We're looking at, um, the social proof out there.
We're looking at seeing how we've helped Nicola or John or whoever to see what they're doing.
And we we're showcasing those caseloads, and that reflects on us as well.
So that's how we measure both sides.
But really, it is just so good to see people thriving and seeing those incremental steps forward with their business.
They may be teeny minute minute ones, but everyone is moving their businesses.
I think so true, isn't it? We may not have a suite of KPIs and ROI like whatever the percentages that we like to track.
That's not our style.
We're more like I say, we're banging on about the people side of things.
But knowing that our clients' businesses are not closing, and I'll still grow it, are growing.
However small that is, right, is so important.
It's such an important kind of metric for you, you know, you can't truly we don't have spreadsheet attracts how many clients businesses have shut and how many are still going.
No, we don't.
But and the the other thing that I'm really keen that we do, so when someone's pay pays to be part of the paid community with digital circuits, when they leave, we're also quite excited when they leave, we're in a good way because some times, it's done its job.
That person has felt the confidence to step out by themselves and not need to have us as their support.
Um, but they stay, and they always say, and this is the language we've always used.
They stay as part of the additional circus family.
They're part of the the alumni.
They are always, so we are always still them in everything they were doing moving forward.
So they feel that at any point, they they can come back and be part of that plan.
You could leave, but you can't hide.
You could never hide.
So you talk about the feedback that you get from the members.
And one of the things that you've said a a couple of times here is that, uh, the community has changed, uh, or evolved over time.
And, you know, coming from the world of content creation, I I think this is the hardest thing for people to wrap their minds around because I come from a world where you have total control over the thing.
Until the moment you hit publish, and then it's out in the world and you don't touch it again.
You know, you've released your Hollywood blockbuster, you write your novel, you publish your podcast episode, your YouTube video goes up, and it and it's done.
And and that is not the case when you are building a space for community.
It is a ongoing process, and it's really an act of cocreation with your members.
Can you talk about that? It has to be.
And I think if anyone who the the narrative I see online, which really sort of grinds a bit is this, like, this this formula, work on this form, you find a 6 figure, 7 figure business coach going, do this formula.
This is what's gonna work.
You're gonna make your millions Again, we'll all be on Barbados drinking Pina Galades.
You're never going to win if you take that approach to community building, because that's not what it's about.
As one stop, you know, that that that one formula will not fit every single membership every single community out there because Alan keeps saying, we're all human.
We're built on human connection, and therefore, it has to be a two way conversation.
If you only go out there to project what you think that person wants because that's gonna make you those money or that's what that coach told you, you are going to fail.
The the key to what I've was our success is our active listening.
Our active listening to understand that what we think you need may not be what they actually need, and how can we be supporting and be of use of purpose to make sure that we are giving you what you need.
So you have to be listening, you have to be reacting.
And if you're too scared to ask, then you have to have a good short sharp look at yourself and go, why is that? So we are always asking for feedback on sessions.
We're always sort of in those conversations and opening dialogue out there.
Even to when someone exits our communities, well, they have that sort of exit, um, questionnaire as they leave because we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can.
Hopefully, they've left on good terms, and nine times out of 10, you know, we we can't say no.
It's 9.
9 times.
9.
9999%.
It's not gonna but, you know, if it's a a learning style, for example, because we do attract quite a lot of neurodiverse.
Um, you know, in a large evolution, actually.
We we have a lot of neurodiversity in our community as well.
And actually, you know, one learning star doesn't suit another learning star, and we will sit back and go, okay, how can we break this down further? How can we make sure that we are giving enough information to you to feel that it's going in your brain and and and sticking to that stickability without you feeling that overwhelm our job is not done if we completely make someone feel even more stressed than before they started.
Yeah.
It it is, like, I I can see now you've got a creator with a larger audience who feels for the community who is a logical next step.
And and it is like you say, there is kind of the you wanna do some high value ticket items? Do you wanna do a community? So no ticket but more people? Do you wanna do a me and and the the it's like the it's like the marketing rule book in search company name here and marketing's the same.
Right? That so many people think it is just a simple book, and the reality is not.
And I do think one of the things we've got very right is being approachable and honest and and normal in inverted comments, not that we can say.
It's normal.
It's 2026, Alan.
Can't say that.
We did we had a session in the big top this week, and it generated so much straight.
We didn't even ask for feedback, but people just kept messaging us.
There was a couple of things they felt could be better.
And as some of them thought this was my epiphany, I needed, but they they just sent it, and those DMs came in on Instagram on Heartby and elsewhere, and and they and they just kept coming in, and we're like, actually, part of that part of that honest and open part sorry.
Part of the success is the honest and openness of how we do it.
So that's what you've done done right.
Can we take a moment and talk about things that you may have done wrong and and learned from and changed? I mean, are there any things Have we got long enough for that.
You said half an hour, sir.
We'll just gross it over my age because of the positive.
We don't wanna delve on the bad stuff.
Well, but, I mean, looking back, you know, what advice would you give to other people who are at the beginning of their community building journey? You know, what did you learn from it? What would you maybe do differently? No.
Actually, can I answer that? I know something a 100%.
Before you launch it, understand what financials you want from it.
What do you want from it? Right? I mean, if it is a financial If it is financial and you need to keep the gas going until you hit that.
You cannot truly ease up on that community kind of starting until you get that goal.
Because if you only get halfway to that goal.
And it's realistic.
It could be a break even goal rather than a super stretch.
Right? But if you don't get there, that community will never sit in the right space in your head.
And it's so important to get that right And ours in the early days was a little bit up and down until we got to the place where we wanted it to be.
And I just sometimes think if we'd have kept the gas on a little bit sooner, then that's right.
For me, when it comes to closed door policy, open door policy, and all these other things, I'd I'd I think they're all much the muchness, if I'm honest.
We've tried both and seen pretty much the same results.
And and we only did the closed door offering based on someone else's advice.
And it just didn't sit well with us.
I think a, trust your gut, do what feel was right to you.
And for the people in it, right? People in it.
So the reason we stopped with a closed door and had an more an open door policy is because I don't want you to have to wait without getting marketing one zero one at the scarcity model, wait for the the door to be open and flood them in.
Actually, from what our what our mission is, if you are standing still in your business feeling really the the most lonely you've ever thought and you don't know how to go forward, I don't want you to feel like you have to wait six months before you can get access to us.
No, thank you.
That's not what we want.
So we all have a drip feed of people coming through, and it works a lot better.
Like I said, we we have that stickability.
We have people with us for six years, and they're not going anywhere.
That counts for something.
The thing that I would say in terms of a learning we had, not a failure, not a not a problem.
We never fail.
We always, um, is Blah.
Is that offering too much in the early days.
Yeah.
We do do that as well.
Value.
You're always trying to add value.
You're gonna put this in the mix.
And that in the mix, we're gonna add that session.
We're gonna do this there.
We're gonna have a mixer over here.
We're gonna add this benefit here.
And it becomes so much noise.
I think the one thing that we really took from that was we are not the center of everyone else's universe.
Well, never a pipe down sharp teeth on it.
Just because someone is in your community, they may be in that community, and that one, and that one as well.
And we all recognize, especially in 20 physics, how freaking noisy the world is out there.
The online space is noisy and is overwhelming.
So therefore, when you're offering too much, people don't know what to do or they feel like they're gonna switch off.
So taking it back a notch Yeah.
To make sure that they don't feel overwhelmed by so much on offer, but also not diluting the amazing stuff of doing a few things really, really well, and then building it if we need Well, we did that.
So first, we're going back to the noise.
That's one genuinely one of the reasons we're running off to Morocco is because there's so much noise online.
We thought, just wanna sit there with some other human beings and get to know them.
So that is Morocco happening time in space Morocco 2026.
Um, but the other is exactly.
And we said, yeah, we did full foul of running these hour long sessions where we felt we needed to jam pack it full of kind of technical learning, and we're sitting there people like literally dying as they're listening to it.
So we evolve that into what we now call one task workshops where we only do one thing in that hour session and where possible they need to have completed it before they leave or understand what they're doing when they do leave if they can't it there and then.
And and that's be I think that's been really important, but then part of that's talking to the members again.
You know what? It sounds crazy.
Well, if you run a if you have a community, you have people who are buying your product on tap to learn from.
It's not like you're selling something once a month and you go, oh, wonder what, you know, they're literally there.
They wanna talk to you.
They wanna share stuff.
And, you know, if you're not talking to them and learning from them, you're missing out on the biggest opportunity a community builder.
Yeah.
I love that.
And I love that, uh, that advice that there is this temptation to just overstuff it and to and to keep putting, especially content in or or more things in thinking that that will add the value, uh, and that that maybe doesn't always.
And that's not why people show up.
Um, let me ask one final question.
Uh, you know, one of the things I love about community are sort of those moments of serendipity, those moments where people connect to each other, and you see magic come out of it, those relationships.
Um, are there any that you've seen in your community that you can you can share with us? Any stories? We always love the fact that they all connect with each other, and then they go on there and they're like, don't forget us.
You're right with it.
We we have see again because we've come from us.
I I use what? I'm just I know exactly what you're talking about, and I was just laughing about it.
No.
It's it's magic.
And, like It's mad.
It's beautiful, Emily.
We Anna used the word team the other earlier on, and it's so, so true.
And we come from my space to where we're all lonely, and I've used that word a few times in this into you as well.
And it's just really I get the the warm and fuzzies all the time when I see in plain sight that people are walking away from this, but in actually finding true friends and true confidantes and people that they can partner with, and we see those collaborations on how again, we're all online.
We see them happening in in plain sight.
We see those collaborations happening in, whether a podcast episode or a partnership when they're working together.
We have a few business owners who are very down the eco friendly industry, and they are, you know, they found each other, and they have got a spark of an idea to create a project together.
And we go we introduce those.
We introduce them.
That's It is not a sorry.
I get I so sorry for interrupting.
It's okay.
But I remember the first digital circus live, so the one day conference Yeah.
Mentioned.
And afterwards was like this.
I don't know what to say, but this, you know, we we brought all these people together.
We'd actually connected about three or four different kind of spaces we were involved with because it was still the early days of us and brought them all together for our event.
And then afterwards, it was like this.
Well, you know when you drop a paint on water in the art and it goes off like that, like a snow lake.
It was like that of podcast, uh, guesting and guest blogging and chatting on socials and these people had just and it it would genuine it.
I said beautiful guy, mildly facetious it was a beautiful moment watching these people connect and grow, and some of those relationships are still there.
One of our best mates in this kind of business world, it started on a voice note in Instagram.
I said, oh, you know, thanks for up in us.
We still chat.
He was a magician on our we'd have we'd open up our online events with magic and he would do the magic.
And we're still chatting that it's brilliant.
And I think for that that same digital, um, conference that we had, the best bit of litmus paper there of how well that had fared and how what we had created, and we're watching, like, in that serendipitous moment, was we had this sundown session.
Oh, yeah.
I mentioned that.
Of a whole day of learning and chatting and foyais and all that kind of stuff.
We had everyone in the room together, and they'd had a mail order gin and tonic sent to them, and they were pouring their glasses and was sat back.
And then the session finished, it was like half past the hour.
I'm like, okay, and that's us done.
And we could not get them out.
No one wanted to leave.
No one wanted to leave.
Lovely.
We we need to go.
We need now go and pick up our kids to start with our Good to finish.
But that that that to me was a sign of actually we've done it right.
They they are happy.
They are they feel supported.
They're in a in a safe space, and they are chatting away, and we step back from the feeling really proud.
Oh, I love that.
I love stories like that.
Uh, well, Emily and Alan, thank you so much.
Uh, if people are interested, it is, uh, Yellow Tuxedo was the company.
People can find it at yellowtuxedo.
co.
uk, and the digital circus is the community, particularly if you are a small business owner uh, or a freelancer, uh, absolutely go check it out.
Thank you so much for sharing the story with it.
This was this was really enlightening.
Oh, thank you so much for asking us.
I mean, this sounds crazy, but Seth, if you just dropped us, uh, uh, a contact through our web sight.
And but isn't that the power of this world we live in now? You know, we are truly pushing human connection and real people.
Right? It's a massive thing for us.
But the bit you can't ignore is exactly how we've got here today.
We've with every step we've taken and every step you've taken has then connected online to evolving this here.
And that is so important as we all move on and involve our businesses.
So thank you for dropping us that note through our web site.
Truly appreciate it.
Oh, yeah.
Thank you.
And and we'll thank you for responding.
Thank you for coming on
