Five years ago, the company I had founded stalled. We wanted bigger, more exciting and more complex problems to solve with a bigger and better team. But with negligible sales experience, and a limited budget to hire top talent, I didn’t really know how to make it happen. The answer, we discovered (almost by accident), was to put our people, friends and community first. By focussing on real-life community building as a core part of a successful business strategy businesses of all kinds can: - Attract and retain great talent that believes in their mission - Generate more sales without needing salespeople - Create more happiness and fulfillment for everyone involved Building strong communities benefits the entire business ecosystem - just look Silicon valley, NYC and Toronto. With a strong community, we’re able to raise the bar and improve the overall quality of work, the return on investment, and thus support the economics of bigger projects, more investment and top talent. The rising tide, as they say, lifts all boats.

1. Community Building for
Business Success
Dom Bortolussi, CEO @ The
Working Group
Wednesday, 31 July, 13

2. Hi, I’m Dominic.
Wednesday, 31 July, 13

3. I <3 community
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4. According to the
Enneagram personality
test I’m both a ‘helper’
and an ‘explorer.’
Meyers Briggs classifies
me as an Extrovert.
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5. Wednesday, 31 July, 13

6. This presentation is
about...
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7. How community helped our
business.
And how it could help yours.
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8. So, what is community?
•A group living in the same place or having a
particular characteristic in common.
•A feeling of fellowship with others as a result
of sharing common attitudes, interests, and
goals.
•A group of interdependent organisms of
different species growing or living together
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9. Communities form around
•Interests and Activities.
•Action and Desire.
•Place or Habitat.
•Circumstance
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10. Communities enable us to
create and discover who we
are.
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11. “We are the average of the
five people we spend the
most time with.”
- Jim Rohm
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12. Wednesday, 31 July, 13

13. To build your business,
you need a community.
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14. Communities are evolved.
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18. You can’t defeat a wooly mammoth
without people to back you up.
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20. Community = Cooperation
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21. The Prisoner’s Dilemma
•2 prisoners asked to inform on each other
•Both inform on the other = Both get 3 years in prison
•Both players cooperate with each other = Both get 1
year in prison.
•One player informs while the other player cooperates
= Informer gets off free and the cooperator gets 5
years in prison.
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22. For cooperation to prove stable,
the future must have a sufficiently
large shadow. The importance of
the next encounter between the
same two individuals must be
great enough to make
[noncooperation] an unprofitable
strategy.
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23. Conduct business at the
intersections of interests and
practices. Community
happens there.
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27. The results
•Attract and retain great talent.
•Find good work, with good
people, even if you’re not
salespeople
•Get invited to cool events
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28. Building a community puts
people first and makes you
happier. That’s the best goal
unto itself.
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29. So how do you do it?
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30. Event planning
•Hand pick 50 - 80 good people to invite, tell them to
RSVP and bring friend.
•Promote in places you know your community will
take notice
•Structure for content and conversation
•Use real wine glasses
•Follow up with a thank you, an invite to the
subscriber list for future events, and a link to the
photos that were taken.
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31. This isn’t a zero sum game.
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32. Greater community increases
the velocity of information
transfer. Greater interaction
and idea flow generates
greater innovation,
entrepreneurial activity, ideas
and growth.
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33. 37.5 coworking spaces per
million people
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34. Taking action
•Commit resources to finding and supporting
your community.
•Identify the things you are passionate about
and host a meetup or event of your own
•Spend your free time attending community
events
•Give willingly
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35. “No man is an island, entire of
itself; every man is a piece of
the continent, a part of the
main.”
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36. “No business is an island,
entire of itself; every business
is a piece of the community, a
part of the main.”
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37. Thank You3
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38. Community Building
for Business Success
Dominic Bortolussi
twg.ca
@dombort @twg
Wednesday, 31 July, 13