243: Engineering Serendipity and Best Practices for Community-Building with David Spinks

"For the first time in a decade, I feel free again." That’s how one of my earliest blogging friends, longtime community leader David Spinks, was feeling when I caught up with him in-person in the middle of his yearlong sabbatical, after selling his community-based business. David and I discuss best practices for creating and nurturing communities, for engineering serendipity, what it’s like to build and run a conference (and later sell it), and the freedom that comes with taking a deliberate sabbatical. More About David: David Spinks is the author of The Business of Belonging and a popular weekly newsletter for community creators. Previously he co-founded CMX, the leading network for community professionals that was later acquired by Bevy. 🌟 From David’s Post on How to Engineer Serendipity A 2015 study set out to discover how serendipity occurs. Through in-depth interviews, they uncovered the 4-step process (edited for clarity): ⚡️ Trigger: A cue that sparks an experience of serendipity. (e.g. meet at an event, see a question in your Slack, get introduced…) 🧠 Connection: The recognition of a potential valuable outcome (e.g. learning, collaboration, friendship) 🤳 Follow-up: An action taken to obtain the valuable outcome (e.g. set up a meeting, plan a project, chat on AIM…) 🏆 Valuable outcome: The positive result of the serendipitous experience (e.g. form a meaningful relationship, learn something new, commit to build something together…) And there’s one more factor. . . for serendipity to occur, there must be an 🧵 “unexpected thread” throughout the experience. The more unexpected each step feels, the more it will be perceived as serendipity. 📝 Permission To say no to virtual meetings! ✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next If you run a community, build a process to facilitate random encounters: Introduce mechanisms that encourage serendipitous connections among community members. For example, you can implement a "random pairing" feature that pairs members together for one-on-one conversations or create opportunities for members to showcase their work or expertise. 🔗 Resources Mentioned David on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn David’s Substack: David Spinks Articles: Substack—How to Engineer Serendipity How I Reduced Scheduled Meetings by 90% 📚 Books Mentioned The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community your Competitive Advantage Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Masters of Community with David Spinks Free Time: 141: Process, Permission Slips, and Business Pivots with Tara McMullin 241: Finding Freedom and Financial Reciprocity through a Paid Newsletter with Nic Antoinette 093: How to Sell Your Online Business with Alexis Grant 167: Transform Your Approach to Community-Building with Gina Bianchini 🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake ❤️ Join our private BFF community for Heart-Based Business owners 💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter for instant access to the Free Time Toolkit 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey ☎️ Submit a voice question or comment: http://itsfreetime.com/ask 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts 📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/243 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices