I just wrapped up day three of Jessi Jean's YAP Challenge training and I have thoughts. Her launch numbers are wild (over $6 million and 22,000+ customers), & so far I have loved how much of her content advice translates directly to community building. In this episode I'm breaking down what nervous system regulation, attracting the right people, leading with service, and making things fun have to do with growing a thriving membership. If you've ever felt burned out on your own community or wondered why some groups just have a better vibe than others, this one's for you.

Check out my previous episode – Breaking Down Jessi Jean's 1.2M Product Launch

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Okay, so I did it.

The.

The FOMO went way too hard with Jesse Jean's YAP Challenge, and so I joined.

So I've just finished watching the training for day three, and I want to share a few takeaways that are super, super relevant for community builders.

And if you're not familiar, I'll link the episode I did recently in the show Notes after her first launch.

So she has a $297, 40 day challenge.

Yap challenge.

It's all about talking to camera and doing these videos mainly on Instagram.

Her first launch did 1.23 million, and she just opened a second cohort before the first one had even ended and did over 5 million.

So she's had over 22,000 customers, which is truly incredible.

I mean, it's bonkers.

So real quick on the structure, so you know where my notes are coming from.

So she had a kickoff in day one that was mostly talking about her story for the first half, but then she got into like, how she thinks about content.

It was like two and a half hours hours long.

And I did watch it all and I did take a lot of notes.

And then day two was about a content game plan and just talking through, like content strategy.

I got so many ideas, I'm very excited.

And then day three was, she called it the foundation, the art of a Damn good Gap.

And it was like an hour, almost an hour training.

So the last two days I've watched these almost hour trainings, taken tons of notes in my notebook.

One of the things I'm really excited about is using some of the lessons she's shared to, to make my podcast better, because she's teaching people how to communicate better, how to tell really great stories, how to structure content so that it really draws people in.

And so my podcast has been one of my new favorite outlets over the last year since I launched it.

And I also want to keep improving it and making it better.

So from here on out, hopefully the episodes really land even more.

So I'm excited to hear from you.

Okay, so I have really found myself kind of like nodding along to a lot of the things she's saying and just like a lot of.

Yes, exactly.

Whenever she's sharing things and I'm like, this is exactly relevant for communities and why some communities are successful and why others aren't.

So I wanted to share some of those takeaways with you.

I love when I get to share any lessons from my health journey because I really think there's so much impact on your business when you Prioritize your health.

And if you're not familiar with my story around that, I did a lot of work, regulate my hormones, my nervous system, et cetera, et cetera.

I'm not going to go deep on it right now, but Jesse talks a lot about nervous system regulation in these first few trainings and grounding herself.

She talks about how she used to be, like, really breathy and, like, speaking up here and, like, in her throat and, like, ending every single sentence on a question and, like, I can't even do it.

And before.

But now she's, like, so grounded in the way she speaks.

She speaks with conviction.

So before she records a video, she takes five deep breaths and she speaks from her diaphragm, which allows her to speak with conviction.

And most importantly, this makes her viewer feel safe.

It draws them in, it makes them want to stay.

And your community is the same.

When your members feel safe, they're going to stick around.

We've talked about psychological safety before on the show.

This is like the thing, like, if you are the community leader, if you are bringing people together, if you are connecting people, they are much more likely to stick around, to be part of your energy, to want to connect with others that you're connected with.

If you are grounded in your own body, if your nervous system is regulated, if you feel good, so your energy is impacting the people around you.

And so I really believe that nervous system regulation is a very important tool for community builders.

And if you've not really heard that phrase before, I want you to kind of go deep on that.

But I will tell you, one of the most basic things you can do to regulate your nervous system is to just close your eyes, guys, and take some deep, deep breaths and connect with your body and just be in your body.

Because we float around a lot.

We're, especially with all of the dopamine and the social media and just like, constantly being so entertained and connected and everything.

Like, we're.

We're very much in our heads.

We're not in our bodies and really connected to ourselves.

So if you can connect to yourself before you connect with your community and before you're connecting people to one another, you're going to make them feel safer, you're going to feel safer, you're going to feel better, and it's going to help you grow your community and have more of an impact and create a place that people actually want to be and hang out to that point.

She talks about the importance of attracting the people in her words that she wants to kick it with your people, the community you're bringing together, your community is so much more likely to be successful if you want to be part of it.

This is something I told somebody recently that I'm.

Well, long story short, I'm launching a new membership as a co, as a founding partner of a business and that more information will come out about that soon, which is really exciting.

But what I told my partner is that I'm.

I need to make sure that this is a community that I want to be part of because that's the only way it's going to be successful or it's going to be.

It has a much higher chance of being successful if I want to be in the room, of course.

Right.

This sounds so obvious, but I can't tell you how many community builders I talk to that are like, I'm just really burned out on my community.

Like I don't even want to go in there.

I don't want to talk to people in there.

When people message me, I don't want to answer them.

And it's like, well, are you attracting the people and bringing people together that you actually want to hang out with that you actually want to get to know that you want to help, that you want to support?

Because if you're not, then you have to stop and you're doing the wrong thing.

Jesse says to be a friend, talk like a real person, listen and pay attention.

Respect your members intelligence.

This is a big one, especially in the, the education space and make them the hero.

The worst communities I audit put their leaders on a pedestal and they think like their ability, like their members ability to connect with them should be, you know, have very extreme high level service or they're not actually interested in doing that.

They don't want to be connected with them.

I mean, this is why I've seen communities that had thousands of members like drop off a cliff because they're like, you know what, I don't care anymore.

I don't want to be part of this.

And so if you're just getting started or if you're struggling, ask yourself like, are you attracting the right people?

Do you have the right members in your community?

And if not, we need to pivot.

Jesse says to lead with the heart, your focus should always be on service.

Not yourself, not what you're going to get from this exchange, but how you're going to serve others.

And this is kind of like my personal ethos in general and like why I love community so much.

I really believe that businesses that prioritize community have this in mind already.

So Jesse has been both honest about her intention to earn money and provide for her family while trying to serve her audience at the same time.

And that has resulted in over $6 million in revenue in like a month.

So I think we can all acknowledge that you can do both.

You can be of service and you can make a lot of money.

And where I think people get tripped up, and this kind of goes back to the last point about attracting the wrong people, is that they're not thinking about the service, they're thinking about how much money can I make.

But when you're connecting with people, when you're really, truly serving them, then you understand what they need help with.

Jesse had did a couple posts, I think she said it was a hundred posts ago from her first challenge she launched, you know, a month ago, that she started to talk about her like, quote unquote yapping.

It did really well that first video.

So she posted another one.

She started getting a lot of questions people would comment about, like, why am I so.

I can't stop watching your videos.

Your voice is like catnip.

I want to understand how you're like, you know, doing so well with these videos.

How do you yap like this?

Like, blah, blah, blah.

And so she's connecting with people, she's hearing their questions, she's talking to them, she wants to help them.

She really enjoys this topic, which again is also important.

And because of that, she was able to be of service to these people and develop a product they actually needed.

Because she's connecting with them, because she's really honest about her intention, because she's showing up exactly as herself and being really authentic.

And she's not trying to be authentic, she's just showing up as her and just being herself.

So you can be of service and you can make a lot of money.

Okay, you can do both.

But you have to lead with the heart.

You really have to connect with the people that you're attracting.

And if you're attracting the wrong people, then stop making that type of content or stop having that kind of strategy.

Maybe you need to change your positioning for your community if the wrong people are joining.

I mean, you definitely do if the wrong people are joining.

Maybe you need an application strategy.

Maybe you need to do more of like culture fit style interviews before people can come in.

There's so many strategies here that you can make sure that you're crafting and curating the right space.

Because culture and community is everything.

And it's the only way that you can really, truly build a community that you want to be a part of, that's going to be successful, that everyone in there wants to stick around and there's like a good vibe.

Right?

Your why also has to be strong enough to sustain your community building work.

Because there will be days when you want to give up.

She talks about this like your why has to keep you going when you don't want to keep posting.

Like, that's her angle.

But for me, for community building, the why has to be strong enough.

Like, you want to serve these people.

You really care about solving a specific problem.

This is why there's so much recommendations and noise around.

You should solve a problem in your business or your business should solve a problem that you used to have because you really care about solving the problem.

Because there's going to be days where you want to like, you're laying on the floor and you want to give up.

And so the only reason you get up is because you care enough about actually keeping going.

So with your community, like, your why for bringing these people together has to be so strong and strong enough that it sustains your desire to give up and you're able to keep going.

Okay, the last thing that I wanted to share is that Jesse talks about having fun.

Like, we're here to have fun.

This is supposed to be fun.

You have to make it fun.

And when you're making content, you're a lot more likely to keep going.

Similar to the last point, if you're enjoying yourself and you're having fun and your, your energy is going to share that you're having fun and attracting people.

So I talk about this a lot with your member Journey design.

When you bring on a new member, how do you make sure they're having fun?

Because that makes them want to stick around.

And I think that from like a product lens, what Jesse's doing with this program is, is great for that because she's already creating this like, element of, okay, this is fun.

Like we're learning some lessons, we're getting some ideation going and then we're gonna like do this challenge together starting, you know, day five or whatever, which feels really exciting.

And so there's like this momentum we're building.

We're having fun talking in the DMs, whatever.

I'm in two different group chats with people I know doing the challenge.

Like, there's a lot of fun camaraderie around it and so it's fun.

So we're going to keep going.

So how do you make it so that your experience that you've designed for your members is fun.

Because if it's just a checklist of things that they need to do on their own and they need to, you know, download this app and do this thing and fill out this form and whatever, and it's all like, just feels like paperwork and homework to them.

They're not going to keep going.

Okay.

So make it fun.

All right, that's it for today.

If you're doing the challenge, DM me on Instagram.

It's always linked in the show notes, so you can find me that way.

I would love to hear from you, hear how it's going, watch your yap videos you're creating, and if you're not, that's cool, too.

I hope you enjoyed this episode.

It's super relevant whether you know who Jesse Jean is or not.

And if any of this struck a nerve with you, if you're like, oh, man, I need to pivot my positioning.

I need to think about structuring my community differently.

Oh, no, I don't actually like being a member of my community.

What do I do if any of this really resonated?

Book a free discovery call.

The link is in the show notes.

We would love to chat about this with you and help you.

And until next time, keep building.