“Are Tribes Dead, Or Is A New Day Dawning?”

daily crushers.jpgRIP Tribes?
After all the rush and hubbub about marketing syndication tribes, are they already starting to fizzle out? After all, internet marketers by the hundreds joined tribes last year and early this year, sometimes several tribes. Syndication and traffic was the pot of gold they sought. But one-by-one many a tribe member lost momentum and their enthusiasm for syndicating waned. Oh there were some cool automation tools that came along and still have a lot of people excited, for a while anyway. But all-in-all the interest level in syndication has peaked. So are tribes dead? Are tribes too 2009?

Tribes Revisited
Before you pack up your laptop and delete your tribe’s group from your Skype contacts, think about why you joined a tribe in the first place. Was it to get traffic? Sure it was. Was it to meet new potential JV partners? You bet it was. And it was also to learn from best practices, to build a panel of advisors who could help you trouble-shoot your business, and to bring a bit more warmth into a technology focused profession! So before you give up on tribes, ask yourself whether they delivered any of these other benefits!

In my case tribes have more than delivered. My website traffic grew. My panel of advisors was formed. I met friends who have become JV partners. And I’ve had a lot of fun along the way.

The Death of Syndicating
I recommend we re-purpose our tribes. Syndication and backlinks are great, but if you’re going to invest time and energy into a tribe, don’t you deserve to receive more than a bunch of backlinks? Syndicating is the moral equivalent of factory work. The fact is, syndicating can be virtually automated now. Tribes are much too valuable to relegate to mere syndication drudgery!

Getting More Out of Tribes
I can understand why some people are dubious about tribes. After all there have been enough people who looked at tribes as little more than an arcade game. . . put in an hour of syndicating and get 10 hours of backlink play in return. People joined multiple tribes, and frankly, some people abused their privileges with tribes.

My tribe is The Daily Crushers. From the outset we did things a bit differently. For one thing we attracted people who wanted something different. In fact our recruiting slogans were “World Domination” and “Change the World Into a Better Place”. One thing we did differently was to form permanent small satellite tribes, called mini-tribes. Each mini-tribe was essentially a permanent tribe licensed to use the Daily Crusher name.

Because we created stable groups, relationships grew strong and deep. Trust was developed and three of our seven tribes actually started joint ventures and began developing their own products to be marketed by the greater membership. Infrastructure began to go into place such as affiliate tools and webinar software to support the entrepreneurial efforts of these tribes. And we noticed something else. Syndication was no longer the focus. Lifelong friendships and business partnerships were born.

“Tribe 2.0”: The Awesomeness of Tribes in the Future!
But if you’re a cynic and wonder whether tribes have a place in 2010 and beyond, I’ve got an idea that might just turn the tide for you. I call it “Tribe 2.0”. In my vision of the tribes of the future, the tribe becomes much more customized to your needs and focused on helping you become a success. We’re probably dropping syndication all together! In a word tribes are getting PERSONAL.

“Tribe 2.0” is a re-purposed and seriously improved version of the original. In “Tribe 2.0” we strip the requirement for syndication as a condition of membership. Instead of syndicating or promoting each other’s business, tribe members are going to be supported and mentored by the tribe. “Tribe 2.0” will have as its core purpose to grow the members’ skill levels and help them become crazy-successful in their business!

Incubator for Masterminds
“Tribes 2.0”builds on these experiences. I believe “Tribe 2.0” will become a mastermind incubation movement. Tribe members will be able to rely upon their trusted tribemates to help them build their businesses and thrive. I propose to completely change the mission of tribes to specifically focus on each member’s businesses. In “Tribe 2.0” members will work together to set meaningful business goals. They will hold each other accountable for achieving those goals and their commitments along the way. Members can brainstorm together. They can help each other with ideas, recommendations, and if necessary, labor. Checklists and benchmarks can be created to help assure that each member’s business is achieving all it can. Folks, that’s what masterminds do. That’s what “Tribe 2.0” will do. But “Tribe 2.0” will do it with all the options open for lifelong friendships, business partnerships and joint ventures, large groups of people joining together to share overhead costs like GoToWebinar accounts, Nanacast subscriptions and other support tools.

Oh, tribes can still syndicate if they want to. And tribes can develop products if they want to. But from now on tribe members can be assured that somebody’s in their corner to help assure that their business is a success and that they meet their objectives. And yes, in that corner will be tribemate lifelong friends!

So are tribes dead? No. They have only just begun! If you’re not in a tribe, join one. It’s one of the smartest business decisions you can make.

7 Comments

admin, June 14th 2010 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized

The Daily Crushers Marketing Syndication Tribe: A New Business Model

daily crushers

My partners (fellow tribe members) and I created a new Internet business model when we designed our Marketing Syndication Tribe called the Daily Crushers. We were all a bit idealistic, but if it weren’t for idealists, we’d all be living average lives! Here is a look at what we intended when we set out to create the Daily Crushers.

We designed the Daily Crushers to be scalable and we started out with some basic premises which are beginning to make a real difference:

• The world of business can be inclusive, warm, kind and still be prosperous.
• We are more powerful together than we are alone.
• We can make money individually and even more money together.
• Treat each other with respect, dignity and love.
• Encourage, help, support, and stick up for one-another like a close-knit family.
• Work hard and play hard, making sure to live life to its fullest.
• Promote each-other’s business as if it were your own. Share in the triumphs and give comfort in the losses.
• Give more to others than you ever expect in return, knowing that it is in the giving that the reward is received.
• Be willing to step up as the leader when you have the leadership to give.
• Take this powerful new business approach to the world and make it a better place.


After three months working together, the Daily Crushers is a very cohesive group, and frankly, powerful syndicators, and one heck of a lot of fun! In fact we are now expanding, creating new “satellite” tribes.

Seth Godin Tribes
According to Seth Godin, author of Tribes, a tribe is “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea”. So we adopted Seth Godin’s three connections as our guiding principles: idea (purpose, concept); leadership; inter-member (connect to one-another). This is powerful stuff. It’s also very basic human nature, serving at the heart of what causes us to cling together in families, communities, congregations, and even nations. I’ll venture the argument that connection is one of the three or four most powerful forces in human life, along with the need to survive, and to reproduce. We simply wouldn’t have civilization without it.

Our Idea
Just like Seth Godin suggests, our tribe started with a powerful idea. The idea was to form a synergy that can be expanded and actually change the world at the same time we operated and grew our businesses. And that at the core of that synergy was the optimism that by treating people with dignity, respect and caring, they would reciprocate with the same. It is a model which assumes that we are more powerful together than we are alone.

Seth’s Three Connections
We set out to create that person-to person connection between each member. We established three tools or mechanisms to accomplish that. We established a Ning community where we could share ideas and build our knowledge base. We established a Daily Crushers Facebook page where we could communicate with the rest of the world (you’ll also recognize us as #DailyCrushers in Twitter). And we established a one-hour weekly Skype call where we could chat with each other, have a beer, come up with ideas, problem solve, oh and yes, syndicate. The most powerful of those tools for creating our connections has proven to be the Skype call. None of us will miss it if we can help it. It’s like time spent with your best friends.

The Leaders
We held off on establishing a leader, realizing that no single leader would be able to take us where we may need to go. Instead, by working as a group of equals, we could each offer leadership as we saw the need. So far a group of seven has been able to stick with this and no single leader has emerged. The idea is that the right leader will emerge for each need.

Giving and Sharing
But we went beyond Seth Godin’s model and ascribed to two additional guiding principles. First we all agreed that by working to first give to others, we would receive much more in return. This actually makes sense because that’s at the core of any blogging alliance. And the second additional guiding principle was that we would make money as a group and share it equally. So there’s the profit motive.

Looking At It Differently
Now to take this out of the language of Seth Godin and put it in a completely different mindset, Marc Allen in The Greatest Secret of All, the greatest secret is:


“Loving and serving
yourself and others
is the key to fulfillment,
happiness, and inner peace”.

Marc Allen also added that “Together, working in partnership, we can discover how to live the life of our dreams, and along the way help create a world of peace and prosperity for us all.” And that’s the point of The Daily Crushers EXACTLY. Now, compare that to the average corporation’s view of dealing with the world and I think you’ll see what I mean.

So the Daily Crushers is on its way. It’s something very different than most of us have ever experienced in business. Certainly it’s different from other Marketing Syndication Tribes. And it’s growing and taking on new members. Look us up and join in the fun.

Note:  The similarity of today’s blog image with Gary Vaynerchuk’s best seller Crush It! is entirely on purpose.  We named the Daily Crushers after Gary’s book.  In fact we will be giving away copies of Gary’s book at our first ever webinar on March 24, where Gary’s video discussion of Marketing Syndication Tribes and Crush It! will be presented.

12 Comments

admin, March 15th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Daily Crushers!