Ep 43: Create a Highly Engaged Community That Converts with Sebastian Mencía

Dec 13

Create a Highly Engaged Community That Converts with Sebastian Mencía

What if you could run an online challenge with over 100k people and have more than 90% of participants active in your Facebook group? My friend, Sebastian, has cracked the code on creating a highly engaged and active community that converts and carries through into your paid program.

Sebastian is a genius in so many areas of business. One of those areas being affiliate partnerships, but also in launches. He has been able to create a highly engaged community that not only converts from the challenge, but that momentum transfers into the experience in the course as well.

Jesse, Sebastian’s wife, has a business, Mis Letras Lindas, which means beautiful letters. They lead a community of Spanish-speaking women all over Latin America who are learning how to draw beautiful letters for their own enjoyment or even to start a side hustle offering lettering and calligraphy services.

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Most of the members of their community are housewives, moms, people that have focused so much of their lives to serve their kids, their husbands, their household, and sometimes they just forget about themselves. This community has helped them with their self worth because they think they are not creative. Being able to do lettering and calligraphy can give them back time for themselves.

I want everybody to pay attention to this right now because if you didn't catch that, this is what makes a business that scales. It's not “we help Spanish speaking, women do calligraphy.” They clearly know their community. They know they are often moms and are serving their family all the time and are exhausted and don't make time for themselves.

I know that mom. I am that mom. That understanding only comes from really deeply knowing your people and knowing how you can serve them beyond the actual thing you are teaching and doing.

When you have a free community, a membership community, or a course community, and you care deeply about people’s success, you cannot help but know internally who they are, what they are really struggling with, and how the work you are doing impacts them. Since they have been running this community for five years, they know them deeply. Defining your avatar cannot be an exercise you do once and that is it. You have to continue to know more about their community.

Create Engagement in Your Online Challenge Community

They did their first challenge in 2020 and around 30,000 people registered. They planned from A to Z in three weeks. The difference is they created an experience where they really served their community for five days. They had a very intentional learning program each day.

They knew that after the five days, if people attended the trainings, did the homework, and then shared in the Facebook group, they were going to see progress on their letters. By the fifth day they would have gained their trust. That was exactly what happened after the five days.

The Facebook group was on fire because people were posting their homework, and going live about their homework. They gave them directions to comment on other people's homework to support them. They wanted to create the type of community that they wanted to see in their paid program. A community that would support each other. People loved it and that was the main reason that they decided to join the paid program.

The first time they had around 30,000 people join that group challenge, and around 800 people joined the program. Sebastian thinks the main reason why is because of the experience that was created with the challenge in the community. They structured the curriculum and teachings around helping them make progress, which means it couldn't be too overwhelming. They gave them a clear call to action throughout to share their homework, and not only share, but to support each other. That is where real community and relationship starts happening.

How to Structure an Online Challenge to Get Community Engagement

They made it super easy for the participants to join the Facebook group. Then included clear guides and welcome posts celebrating their decision to join the challenge. Reiterating the reasons why they were there and what they were going to achieve if they participated. They painted a really clear vision of what could happen to them in just five days if they go all in.

They also created a safe place in the Facebook group for them, a place where there are no judgments. Where they could share their limiting beliefs. Then once they started the training they told them, this is your homework for today, go live in the group, and make sure you support your fellow challenger by posting in their comments.

They knew that was going to trigger the algorithms in Facebook. Because of the size of the Facebook group, someone was going to be live at all times and someone would be commenting. That way every time they would pick up their phone and go to Facebook, there was a notification there. That helped skyrocket the engagement inside of the group.

Facilitating a Large Online Community

How do you handle a group with 30,000 or a hundred thousand people that are not just in the group but are actually actively participating in the group?

A lot of people from their team, regardless of what role they play, are asked to pay attention to the comments. Also, their students, the people that participated in previous challenges, members of their membership ambassadors, they ask them to join as moderators and encouragers for people and to share their experiences. They rely heavily on the community for that.

People think they need to formalize it, but it starts with just asking. They want to participate because they have made progress. They want to talk to the person they were many months ago or many years ago, and they want to feel valued and involved. The truth is that it serves them as well because people want to feel like they can contribute. It's just a part of who we are. It gives us a deeper sense of connection to the community and a deeper sense of identity.

Best Advice for Running an Online Challenge Launch

Sebastian primarily launches with challenges because they convert so well for them. The main reason is because they give them a result, a transformation even before they give them a penny. Nothing in return until they serve them. That is reason enough to try a challenge.

To be successful with a challenge, be very clear what the promise is and decide whether it will include teaching every day or a community or homework. Be focused on achieving that promise. Because if they achieve that promise, then they trust us. They trust us with their money and they will join our paid programs.

Shana Lynn