The Ryan Meetup Phenomenon: A Playbook for Crafting a Thriving Community
If your name is Ryan, then I’ve got the community for you. However, there are three essential guidelines you’ll need to meet before you can join their vibrant Meetup community: This group gathers monthly to socialize, united solely by the common thread of sharing the name Ryan. Their shared aversion to the name Bryan has […]
The Valentine’s Day Bandit of Portland: Unveiling the Power of Anonymous Acts in Community Building
Portland, OR, is covered with cloudy skies for almost 50% of the year, but that doesn’t stop the Valentine’s Day Bandit from lifting the spirits of the city by secretly planting hundreds of red hearts all over on Valentine’s Day. For four decades, the bandit remained anonymous. However, his identity was revealed as Kevin Fahrman […]
Vision, Mission, and Values Part 3: Creating a Mission Statement
In my last post, I shared a process for creating a vision for your organization. What type of world do you want to create? If everything goes right, the vision will be the final result of all your efforts. I referred to this as the mountain you want to climb. Now that you are clear […]
Vision, Mission, and Values: Part 1
One of my best friends moved 2000 miles away from me to set up a new life with his family in Colorado. Needless to say, we knew we had to find ways to stay connected. So we decided to plan an adventure trip together and settled on climbing a mountain. Neither of us had any […]
Stop Trying to Engage Your Entire Community With The Same Type of Activities
It was a sad situation, knowing that the group spent thousands of dollars and no one showed up to the event. I was working with a university in Georgia that was hosting an outdoor adventure day for their campus. Ironically, it was raining that day, so they had to move the adventure indoors. The entire […]
How to Allocate Resources For Maximum Member Engagement
1000 Free Hugs signs cost me $40… and that was with premium paper. I used the signs for an event at a conference I was keynoting. The purpose was to create an engaging activity that connected people together and increased the energy of the conference. It took me about 30 minutes to set up the […]
Who Makes The First Impression in Your Community?
“Mo!!!” Everyone in the room yelled in unison. Of course, everyone knew instantly who I was talking about, but all I said was, “The security guard out front is great!” Mo is the security guard at the main entrance to Seton Hall University. He is the first person that everyone meets and greets as they […]
Marketing More Won’t Solve Your Engagement Issues
FedEx Print & Office thought I was crazy for ordering 1,000 posters. A friend of mine was in a wedding competition to win a dream wedding. The competition was based on the number of votes each couple received. With less than a week left in the competition, my friend needed help getting more votes. That’s […]
And the Winning 2023 #FreeHugs Postcard Is…
Thank you to everyone who has participated by submitting wonderful designs and voting for our 2023 #FreeHugs postcard! We are so grateful to Kevin Battersby for such creative contributions. He designed six wonderful postcards for us, and through your votes, one was chosen! Kevin works at Lehigh University as the Assistant Director of Housing. 3 […]
Increase Engagement By Changing The Environment
I couldn’t believe I was standing in front of a 50-foot, 250-pound giant red ball. My daily morning routine to get coffee at the local cafe in Chicago before heading to work was drastically interrupted when I crossed paths with a giant red ball squeezed between two buildings. By giant, I mean 50 feet tall […]