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Hey everyone, Ashley here with RSS.com podcasting.

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On today's episode, I'm interviewing Bess Auer, who's the founder of Florida Blog Con

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and the Florida Swim Network.

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She's also the author of UNIO, the Art of Intentional Community Building.

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Enjoy the show.

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So, Bess first, I just want to say thank you so much for being part of the show.

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And tell me a little bit about what it is that you do.

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Yeah, so I am a digital consultant and strategist.

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And so I help people learn how to build their communities, whether it is a blogger learning

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how to kind of build their tribe, whether it's a nonprofit trying to engage people and

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get them to give of time or money, or if it's big businesses trying to figure out how to

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engage their fan base and grow their businesses.

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And that's kind of my sweet spot, letting them know because even though the platforms

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may change, you know, you got Facebook or now TikTok or you know, you have all these

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different platforms, the fundamentals actually don't change.

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You know, good marketing is good marketing.

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Good community building is good community building, no matter what the platform is.

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So that's my sweet spot.

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And you definitely are sweet at it.

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I mean, I've known you for a few years now because you built the Florida BlogCon community

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and that's how you and I met.

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And tell me a little bit about what it was that kind of led to that.

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I have read the story, but just for anyone listening, I'm kind of curious as to how you

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started something so cool.

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Oh, you know, I had the honor of being part of two really amazing communities.

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And one of them was a Florida blogger and social media conference.

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And I was a classroom teacher for almost 20 years teaching my kids how to write.

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And through that time, the internet allowed blogging so my kids could actually publish

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their own work, which was amazing for students.

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And so I thought, well, I need to know how to do this as well.

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So I started blogging early with my first blog, Missing Florida Top 5.

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And I wanted to learn.

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I wanted to figure out how to do blogging even better.

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And fortunately, Orlando, where I live, has some of the biggest bloggers in the nation.

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So I went around to them and I said, if I hold a bloggers conference, because I can't

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afford to go to a real conference, if I hold a bloggers conference, would you please come

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and speak?

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And every single one of them was so gracious with their time and knowledge.

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And so we held the very first Florida blogger conference in the gym where I was teaching

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at the time.

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The maintenance guy and I are setting up tables the day of.

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I had two teachers come in and take mercy on me and they helped with the registration.

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And we were so low tech that I had a big piece of bulletin board paper up on the wall, duct

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taped to the wall.

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And people were writing their names on there to be able to connect because we didn't have

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any other tools at that time.

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But that was the birth of the Florida Blogger and Social Media Conference.

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And it grew from there over the next decade.

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And I was very proud of the community that grew up around it and was honored to be able

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to connect bloggers of all different job reps.

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And we really stuck by where Florida bloggers helping other Florida bloggers.

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And that was something very important to me.

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Now I kind of get kind of lost with the timeline.

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Did Florida Swim Network start before, after, during?

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How did that play out?

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Yeah, during.

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It started during almost at the same time.

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So my husband is a swim coach and I was a swim mom.

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And I'm one of those, I don't do well sitting up in the crowd talking with other swim

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parents because I'm kind of introverted.

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You wouldn't tell by this, but I'm good one on one, but not in the crowd.

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So I said to my husband, I'm like, I can't sit up there.

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It's driving me nuts listening to these parents.

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You know, if I'm going to be poolside, I got to do something.

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So we're here a blogger.

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Why don't we, we called it webcasting at the time.

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Why don't you webcast the swim meet?

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So we went to Best Ball and I got this little eyeball camera.

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It cracks me up because that's all we could find at the time.

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We plugged it in the computer that my husband asked the coaches if I could webcast the swim

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meet.

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They had no idea what that was, but they're like, yeah, go ahead.

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So I sat down by the little speaker, the guy that was announcing the meet, put the little

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web ball cam up on the speaker.

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Every time he spoke, it shook and said it's the worst, worst, worst, worst broadcast ever.

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But people on deck are like, Hey, what's that's doing?

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And he's like, well, he's web, she's webcasting the meet.

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And so they're like, Oh, that's cool.

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So he gave them, I think it was called Jason TV at the time.

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And he gave them the address and we had 300 live viewers watching regular, like little

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league type swimmers ages 12 and under in the pool.

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And that's why I said, Oh, there's a market here.

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And so it sprang up from there.

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And so we started webcast, sitting live streaming before it was a thing, amateur sports and

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Florida being such transient state.

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We had a lot of viewers because people native here from Florida, if you're actually from

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Florida.

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So we had fans all over the world that would tune in to watch their kids swim.

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And it got bigger and bigger to where we were asked to live stream college swim meets.

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And then eventually ESPN actually hired us to broadcast some of their swim meets.

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So it took on a life of its own.

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But again, we concentrated on Florida.

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That was my sweet spot with the community.

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That's amazing.

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I just think it's so cool.

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Like, I mean, people hearing this, it sounds like, you know, Oh, you may have come at it

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with a plan, but the fact that it happened all so organically is what I love so much

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about it.

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You know, they both did.

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And what I talk about, you know, in my book, you know, is that timing really does play

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a key factor.

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And if you're first to market, which we were, and on both of those communities, it really

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gives you a leg up.

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Yes, and the book that she's referencing is UNIO, the art of intentional community building.

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So tell us a little bit about how that played out, like how it was that you brought all

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of your thoughts and all this knowledge and expertise about building communities and decided,

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Hey, I'm going to write a book.

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You know, I'm a writer at heart.

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It's my passion.

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I do love writing.

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I do a lot of creative writing, fictional writing, but decided, you know, I have some

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stories to tell, some things to share about building these communities.

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I had a little bit of luck with these two communities.

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What can I share about it?

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So originally I wanted to call it the big book of everything I've ever learned.

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I thought, I'll give you a very short book.

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As I sat down writing it, and actually, you know, 2020 was a gift to me because I had

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time and the locked in time to be able to write.

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And as I sat there writing and organizing, I realized, wow, there really were some commonalities

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that I can convey to people.

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There were some real lessons about communities in general.

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You know, why do people join a community in the first place?

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And then why do they stay?

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And when I say community, it might be a community or it might be a customer fan base or your

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clientele or listeners of a podcast.

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Why do they choose to listen to your podcast or why do they come back again and again?

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So that's what I mean by community.

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It's applicable to your fan base.

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Now since it is applicable to one's fan base, what would be your first tip for if someone's

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trying to build a community from their podcast listeners, where should they start?

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You know, the biggest thing I say for everybody is know your why.

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And I do talk about this in the book.

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I have two different whys.

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The first one is what is the purpose of your podcast?

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Why are you doing it?

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Does it convey information?

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Is it to talk about your passion?

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Do you just love romance books and so you want to talk about romance books all the time

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and share your love of that?

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Or is it a business podcast where you're helping people grow and develop?

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So what is your why?

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And I always use the example of Sport a Swim Network.

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We thought we were in the live streaming business.

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We thought that we were live streaming swim meets.

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Really we were.

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But what we were actually doing was connecting families.

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We were allowing the mom in Afghanistan that was serving overseas to get up in the middle

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of the night and watch her son swim live here in Florida.

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And not only that, she was in the chat room talking with me as I was commenting the swim

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meet to be able to give that shout out to her kids, hey, Will and lane four, your mom's

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watching from Afghanistan.

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She said to go fast.

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And then when Will gets home after the meet and he's watching himself on the replay, he

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hears that and he knows mom was there and we're connecting those families.

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So that was our why.

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So the first thing I always tell anybody is understand your why.

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Why are you doing this?

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Because that's going to be the basis of everything you do to promote your community, your listenership.

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So once you know your why, why you're doing it, then you have to decide, well, why are

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people going to listen to me?

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And so there are three reasons really why anybody joins the community.

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And the first one is needs.

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All right.

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So think basic needs.

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Are you providing a service that they absolutely need?

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For example, I use Tom's shoes as an example.

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He provides shoes for your feet.

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Everybody needs shoes.

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It is the basic need that we have, unless you're me who goes barefoot in Florida all

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the time.

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But, you know, it's a need.

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Or are you providing a want?

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So a want would be like Peloton.

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You may want a Peloton.

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Doesn't mean you can afford one now.

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You can very easily just work out or ride a bike outdoors.

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So a want is more of an ego stroke or a luxury need.

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So you have your needs or your wants.

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Or are you providing the third reason people might join a community is that continuing

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development.

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Are you helping them grow?

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Are you providing health and wellness information?

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Are you providing business tips for them?

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Are you helping them grow?

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If you can meet through your podcast one of those needs, a need, a want, or a growth,

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and ideally you do all three, it's possible to do more than one, then you have the recipe

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for a winning podcast that people are going to want to listen to.

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And they're going to want to join your community because they're getting something out of it.

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So it sounds like you just gave us the secret sauce to actually building a community with

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a podcast.

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You know, part of it, part of it.

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You know, you have to though, then have to, once you understand all that, then you have

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to execute with the messaging that you do.

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And you have to make sure your timing is right.

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And you know, there's all sorts of factors that go into it.

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But if you can start with those first your why, and then those three basic reasons why

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somebody joins a podcast or listens to a podcast, you're definitely on the right road.

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Absolutely.

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I love that.

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And now I confess I haven't gotten completely through the book, but I did, I did glean some

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pretty good insights.

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One of the things that you said is whether it is one we have built for our business,

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or excuse me, whether it is one we have built for a business or one we have cultivated for

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ourselves, our families, our friends, and our communities are how we make sense of life,

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share our experiences and engage with others in a meaningful way.

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One of the stories that obviously really touched me was you spoke about the loss of one of

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your swimmers and how the community it was more than just you sharing the news, you,

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well, I mean, I'll let you speak on that.

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Would you like to speak on that a little bit?

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Yeah, I don't mind.

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I use that as an example in my book.

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It was, so Vance Sanders, who was a rising star, often compared to Michael Phelps or

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Caleb Dressel, and a standout swimmer 15 years old.

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And when we were broadcasting meets, we would see these kids over and over and over at the

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different meets.

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We were doing two and three meets a weekend.

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We would see them, we would interview them because we treated them like rock stars.

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We'd be down doing the one-on-one interviews with them.

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So we got to know a lot of the kids, the coaches, and the teams very well.

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And Vance, unfortunately, shot himself one day after swim practice.

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He got very upset.

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His little brother found him.

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And we got a phone call from his coach, Randy Reese, former Olympic coach.

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He called up my husband, Joe, and said, I need you guys to spread this news before rumors

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start going and everything else.

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So he was asking Florida Swim Network to craft the news and spread it.

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And so I sat down to write that.

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And it was first very heartbreaking to us, as it would be for anybody, you know, a child

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that you know.

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Life lost senselessly way too early.

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And the manner, the fact that it was a suicide made it very difficult to write about.

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And then I knew that many of the teams and many of the swimmers that knew him, and many

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of the parents that knew him, would be hearing about it the first time from us, from what

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we wrote about it.

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And so I really felt honored that we were asked to do that, that our community trusted

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us enough to do it in a very sensitive way versus sensationalized way.

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But it really was one of the hardest things I've ever written.

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You know, I wrote it and kept rewriting it and rewriting it.

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And I guess we did a good enough job that, you know, sensitive at the same time, you

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know, conveyed the loss and what a tragedy it was.

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But I later found out that his mother actually used that blog post to send to her friends

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and family to let them also know about the news.

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So if you can build community in a way that trusts you to do the right thing and to, you

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know, deliver for them and be there in times of need for them, then that's another key

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component as a community builder.

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It's our obligation.

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Absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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And I mean, the thing that stood out to me so much about that story is that you really

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did build a family.

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You built people that were not just people you saw at swim meets.

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They weren't just the parents you spoke to.

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It was truly a community that you could talk to about everything.

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Swim related, of course.

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But just so, right, right.

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But just the fact that even with our podcast, you know, we're giving our messages every

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day and we sit at home alone with our microphones.

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You know, sometimes we're lucky enough to interview somebody and connect with someone

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in another part of the world.

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But we forget, I think, that every time that we get behind the mic, we do have a chance

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to build a community that matters, something that's meaningful.

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And I just, I think that story, I'm really glad you shared it because I feel like everyone

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needs to know that you don't just have to be a podcaster.

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You don't just have to be a true crime podcaster.

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You don't have to just be a health and wellness guru.

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You can be so much more.

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And I think it's awesome.

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You know, when we started broadcasting, out of necessity, ours was interactive.

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I didn't know enough about swimming.

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So we had this chat room where we oftentimes would have coaches tuning in, college coaches

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that were watching recruits and they would like give me information.

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And hey, that kid just set a new record.

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I'm like, oh, great.

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And so we've really established the whole social, you know, live streaming is not TV.

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So don't use it.

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It's so much more than TV.

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It's a step up beyond TV.

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So I get irritated when I see people just live streaming and talking at you.

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Social media is social.

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So open that up.

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And it's a great way to build that trust and to build those relationships.

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And it's one of the reasons people will stay a part of your podcast audience.

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That's awesome.

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So basically it's almost like throughout your entire messaging, you shouldn't just be waiting

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till the end of your episode to leave a call to action.

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Instead you should be, you know, it's something in this resonates with you, tweet us at RSS,

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you know, that kind of thing.

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And so I love that idea and I never really thought of it that way.

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So all right, I'll be taking lots of notes from this.

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And one of the things that you said in the book that I really liked is you said, our

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communities are a direct reflection of ourselves.

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All of these communities from the ones I built to the ones I was simply a part of, have brought

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me closer to the human experience and allowed me to walk a few steps in other people's shoes.

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Speak to me a little bit about that.

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Speak to me a little bit about that.

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You know, for me, because I am such an introvert, I mean, I'm in my sweet spot right here, sitting

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behind a camera just talking to you and then we're done and I'm back in my lower permit

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shell.

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That is perfect for me.

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But there are other people that it's not.

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Like my husband's an extrovert.

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He needs to be out amongst the people.

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So the communities that we build and we're active in, they really are a reflection of

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ourselves.

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So I was really good at building the online audience there.

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My husband was really great at being out, actually talking with the swimmers and talking

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with the people.

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So first, you have to know your personal comfort zone with where you want to be when building

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your audience.

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Podcasting may be great for you because you do have this passion, this voice that you

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want to do, but that microphone is a great audience for you rather than standing in front

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of 20 people getting interaction that way.

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So you have to know your comfort zone there.

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But the other thing that I do feel strongly about with community is community, the actual

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word.

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It means more than one.

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Even, and I talk about this in my book, I talk about the community of one, meaning the

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conversation is happening in your head.

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You're going to have the naysayer, the self-doubt, the imposter syndrome.

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You're going to have the cheerleaders saying, oh, I think I can do this.

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So you do have, even in your own head, it's a community of voices.

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So looking outward to our actual communities, our podcast audience, you need to be able

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to understand where they're coming from, what they're thinking.

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If your goal is to truly grow that audience, then you have an obligation to be thinking

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about how to engage them.

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And so you're going to need their feedback.

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You can't assume what they know or what they understand or what they want.

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So you're going to have to get that feedback from them.

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And many times that means being empathetic, having a listening ear on, finding that feedback

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any way that you can.

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Now how would you go about finding the feedback for the communities that you built?

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Yeah, so for us, live stream, we have that chat room going all the time.

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People would tweet us all the time.

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They would tag us and stuff.

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So that was a very robust one.

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The Florida Blogcom is a little bit different.

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It was a once a year thing.

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And we did a little mini workshops throughout the year after that.

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But that once a year when we would have the speakers there, it was an in-person event.

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That was probably my most taxing day of the year, not because I didn't have this great

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planning team that helps set up everything.

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It wasn't the actual physical putting on the event.

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For me, it was taxing because I was there talking with people, getting their feedback.

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And that introverted me was like, no, I don't want to do this.

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But it was a great way to get in there and get that feedback.

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And we sent surveys afterwards asking for the feedback.

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And sometimes it was painful to read.

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If we screwed something up or people were angry, then you have 300 attendees.

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You're not going to make them all happy.

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So sometimes that critical feedback, even though it is really hard to read and you feel

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all down for a little bit, it's still important to take into consideration.

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So surveys are a great way to do it.

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Interaction on Facebook and social platforms, in-person interviews and talking, those are

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great ways to get feedback from your community.

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That's fantastic.

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I think everything that you've shared here today has just been wonderful.

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So where can people find your book?

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And what is it called again?

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Yeah, it's called UNIO, the Art and Intentional Community Building.

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And it's available at Amazon and paperback or in Kindle format, either plan, whatever's

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easiest for you.

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And you can also check out the website, buildwithunio.com.

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That's fantastic.

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And where else can we find you online?

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You can find me at best underscore hour, A-U-E-R.

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And Twitter is my most favorite platform.

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So if you tweet me, I'll tweet you back.

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One of those that, you know, Twitter is my first platform.

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So it's my first love.

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And I'm available on just about all of them.

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So hit me up definitely.

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I love it.

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That's fantastic.

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Well, I'm going to ask you the same thing that I ask everyone before I let them go.

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Is there anything I didn't ask you?

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You wish I had.

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Oh my goodness.

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Now you're putting me on the spot.

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That's what everyone says.

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Oh my gosh.

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You know, the only thing I'll add is we talked about why people become a member of a community,

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but we didn't talk about why they stay.

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And I think this is especially important for podcasters.

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So there's three real reasons why people stay a member of the community.

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And I call it the ifs.

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Do they feel included?

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So is your podcast relevant to them?

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Do they feel included in the conversation?

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Now, it doesn't mean they have to be talking to you, but it's a conversation I'm interested

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in that I feel like I, you know, yeah, I have input in that.

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They can feel included.

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The next one, do they feel valued?

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So are you respecting your listener enough?

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Are you respecting their intelligence, respecting their interests?

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If they do give feedback, respecting their feedback.

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And then the final one of that ifs is an S. That means are they satisfied with the engagement

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that they have with your community?

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So if they tweet you, do you tweet them back?

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If they respond to something on a Facebook comment, did you answer them back?

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Do they leave your community feeling satisfied?

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So keep in mind those ifs because they are incredibly important to a person remaining

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a member of your podcast audience.

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So good.

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So many good things.

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Thank you so much for being here with me today.

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I really appreciate it.

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Thank you so much for having me on.

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I appreciate it.

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Well, my fellow podcasters, I hope you enjoyed all the amazing insights that Bess had to

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offer on building a community with your podcast.

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To learn more about launching and growing your own show, visit us at rss.com backslash

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blog.

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You can get your first episode on us if you start today at rss.com.

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Thanks for tuning in.