Yesterday, we talked about why you should give away merch. Today, we’ll dive into how to create that merch🧵 For this, we’ll use a print on demand (POD) service. Gelato is one of the known options, having the widest product variety📋 Personally, I use Creator Studios, H&M’s POD service🧶 It has less variety but better quality and more modern cuts. Keep in mind, though, it’s also a bit more expensive💲 What I’d recommend is to search for POD services, check out their product catalogs, and choose what you like Quick tip so you don’t make the same mistake I did: Check delivery availability, because some products aren’t available worldwide🌐 Once you’ve selected your product and designed it in the editor👨‍🎨 you’re super close to the finish line 🏁 Tomorrow, we’ll talk about what to do when someone unlocks merch and at which stage it makes sense to add it to your leaderboard📊

I've gone from being a shy introvert to being able to speak on stage (and on camera) and i know the feeling, freezing up pressing the rec button. I want this post to serve as the end all to your fear so you can share your beautiful message and work with amazing clients. Please... for the love of lord of the rings.... take what I've learned from years of watching 1000s of big YouTubers, and years of consuming self help books so you don't have to waste your time. So, there was a time I used to think: "𝗜𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝗮𝗱/𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁." That's not entirely true. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝘀, 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀. Making thousands of "not-so-great" videos will sharpen your skills. Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction any day. Many people are scared even to upload one video... ...Adding the pressure to make videos "good FIRST" is too much at the start. It makes it harder to keep going because the resistance to start is too high to develop a habit of simply showing up. If you want to fail at putting out content: make it invisible, make it unattractive, make it difficult, and make it unsatisfying. Habits are easily formed when you follow these rules (from Atomic Habits by James Clear): 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗯𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗳𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴. You improve by doing something, in this case striving for quality by showing up even if the videos suck, over and over for a long time. Make it easy to start, AND have self-compassion. This is a marathon, not a sprint. There are many stories where big names have "destroyed" their brands and somehow, no one cares because they've continuously shown up with good, after-good content. There's a story from the book "Art & Fear" about a pottery class that explains this principle pretty good. A pottery teacher split the class into two groups. Group A made lots of pots, one every day. Group B spent all their time on one perfect pot. In the end, Group A had the best pots, while Group B didn't do as well.

Yep, giving away free T-shirts will make you more money💰 Give away a free merch item once members reach level 5. This could be a T-shirt, cap, socks, etc., the choice is yours🧦 Having a physical item at home with your community’s branding will strengthen their bond with your community. People want to grind for that T-shirt because it resembles a little trophy🏆 It also makes your online community feel like something they can wear, which, in the end, makes your digital community more tangible. And if they were to leave your community, that trophy becomes basically worthless. They don’t want it to lose its value, so they’ll stay. Come back tomorrow, and I’ll teach you how to create items like this🧵

If you haven’t filled out every single level, you’re losing money There are so many communities with empty leaderboards, so here’s why you should let members unlock something at every single level📊 Basically, it gives everyone a reason to grind for that next level and, in the end, a reason to stay active in your community. This leads to members getting to know others, building connections, and not wanting to leave because they’ve already climbed in level🧗 It’s also easier to become part of an active community than a dead one. At the end of the day, everyone will be super invested in your community, which ultimately decreases your churn, and that’s exactly what we want!👍 How many levels of your leaderboard have you filled already? But what can we give away that makes everyone want to grind for it? That’s what tomorrow’s post will be about💎

When it comes to auto-DMs, less is more. Keeping it short and straight forward works best🥇 There are multiple ways to approach auto-DMs, so here’s what I’d recommend: 1. Congratulate them on joining 2. Highlight the best feature of your community 3. Ask what they hope to get out of your community 4. Clear CTA to an onboarding call Build a personal connection by sending a second DM, letting them know your first message was auto-generated🤖 Continue the conversation from there on by introducing yourself, As always, avoid sounding needy, when funnelling, and focus on building a relationship and providing value!💎 What is your current Auto-DM?