Franziska: Hey Legend. We have been running a lot of marketing AI sessions, also a really popular marketing AI boot camp, which is great because we all need to be at the forefront of what’s happening. We all need to use these tools in one way or another. The thing though that also needs to happen at the same time is yes, AI all in must, must use some of these tools, not all of the tools.

And we talk more about this in our marketing AI sessions. We also must not forget about building community, about human connection. And I would say that for the future of many businesses, that’s going to become crucial to be successful

because AI is going to get smarter and smarter and we need to get more human. We need to do things in our businesses that facilitate this human connection that so many people crave more and more because more and more people are feeling lonely and we all have a need to belong and we can facilitate some of that through our businesses.

And so I just wanted to share some examples here with you that might be helpful. So one is some of the bigger brands and then I’ll give you some examples for smaller businesses too. So quickly before I do so. For knowledge workers especially so coaches, consultants, strategists, creators, the biggest differentiator for them now and into the future is not just the knowledge anymore that they have, but it’s their community, their ability to connect at uh, a deeper level.

And I’ll talk more about this stuff and content and how to create more deeper human connection through content soon because this is going to become also incredibly important as more and more people are using AI to create their content. So quickly, some examples of some bigger businesses that are understanding the importance of the need for people to connect, to belong, to build community.

One is Chanel is opening a huge store right now in Sydney because they understand that they need to build human connection. They need to have face to face with people in person experiences for people to become loyal to their brand. Meta, even Meta is pushing harder on real life events, creator meetups.

And again, they understand that community is important online and offline LinkedIn, even LinkedIn has an offering which is called the LinkedIn Community Builders, which is an initiative to help event organisers on LinkedIn. So people who run events on LinkedIn to build community around their event, to build human connection conversation around those events.

And so the question is, how do you do this on a smaller budget and how do you do this if you are in different industries? Like I was thinking about, what about tradies, what about tradesmen, what can they do? And I’ve Written down some examples here of what you could do.

So builders, electricians, plan farmers, etc. How can you build community? How can you make people feel like you belong? They belong. So of course very simple things are hosting some quarterly, maybe barbecues, gatherings and you don’t have to do this in your premises, you can do this in combination with, in collaboration with another business, for example a hardware store or a really cool example is we have uh, here I’m part of a uh, board writers, a surf board riders, a surf club and we get sponsored by local businesses, tradesmen for example that come to our events to connect to meet people and that’s how they pick up a lot of business.

Now for E commerce of course very important for E commerce businesses to be successful again into the future. You must not only of course the most important thing for E commerce businesses is you must have an incredible product that’s a topic for another day. You, you also must build community.

And more and more brands that are smart, that get it, they build community. Now some examples and again this doesn’t have to be super expensive or high end. One of our own examples for ocean lovers, we facilitate beach cleanups and we make them fun. And this is what builds community around the world.

And now people, other people organise these beach cleanups in the name of ocean lovers as ambassadors, um, and for fashion brands you can do try on parties, pop up stores where people can connect together, VIP circles, collaborations again with other brands so you don’t have to host these gatherings on your own.

And these gatherings, community gatherings can be online and offline, doesn’t matter if it’s in, well in person is really cool but you can also do it online and really I’d like for you to think about how can you build or join communities, how can you start thinking in terms of how you can make people feel like they belong really important because connection is your superpower in the age of AI.

Connection, human connection is your superpower in the age of AI. And if you would love to join our community here at Basic Bananas, we have a really awesome event coming up in October next nearby and bay in Australia called the Experience Summit. This is our seventh annual summit and it’s an amazing time, two days together with other like minded business owners building community, connecting in real life, human to human.

The conversations that come out of it, the connections, the inspiration are next level. So we’ll pop the link here. If you go to the Experience Summit you can find all the details and um, just think about how you can build, create joint community in your business right now and into the future.

Thank you for listening, and I can’t wait to see you next time.