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.
