Leanne on Demand Daily with Leanne Hughes 🌴256. Creating a community of clients feat. Alan Weiss (Weekend Rewind)
Today on Talk the Walk, I grabbed my coffee (Alan Weiss had his martini 🍸) and we dived into two big C-words: clients and community. It was a global hangout—Brisbane spring for me, early fall for Alan—plus friends dialing in from Portugal, Seattle, Sydney, Italy, Montreal and Silicon Valley.
We unpacked how to create a community of buyers (not just followers), the difference between tribes vs communities, and why evergreen clients are built on breadth (multiple buyers inside one org), generosity, and staying visible in the right public squares.
My favourite bits:
- Evergreen clients = many doors. Don’t get stuck with a single buyer—build relationships with their direct reports and (crucially) their assistants. When people move, opportunities move with them.
- Communities are inclusive and porous. People come and go—that’s healthy. What matters is a strong nucleus and clear norms (short posts, debate the idea not the person, beach-flag rules 🟢🟡🔴).
- Evangelism beats ads. Bring your best clients together with your next-best clients and let the “chain reaction of attraction” do its thing.
- AI is a tool, not your identity. Tie AI to your lane. For me: “the do’s/don’ts of using AI to build influence and long-term relationships inside organisations.”
- Loneliness is a market. Soloists (and now remote workers) are “collegially lonely.” Offer connection in multiple formats—audio, video, text, live, remote—so people can choose their own adventure.
- Be respected over being liked. Set the tone, enforce the norms, and don’t fear unsubscribes. Communities thrive on clarity, not appeasement.
Timestamps
- 00:00 — Coffee vs martinis, Brisbane spring & top-down weather
- 03:10 — Evergreen clients: why one buyer isn’t enough
- 07:45 — Assistants, internal moves, and following the buyer train
- 11:20 — Cracking global orgs: referrals + local-to-parent leap
- 15:05 — When to be generous (and when to invoice)
- 18:40 — Community ≠tribe; inclusion, porosity, and norms
- 24:00 — The teaching-hospital model & beach-flag moderation
- 28:15 — Evangelism and the “chain reaction of attraction”
- 32:10 — “I’m burned out on communities” (and why formats matter)
- 36:00 — Platforms: live, remote, newsletters, “A Minute with Alan”
- 40:05 — Frequency without burnout: be the nucleus, set rules
- 44:20 — Self-esteem, permission, and resisting conformity
- 48:50 — Tech teams, responsiveness, and scaling content
- 53:30 — Final takeaways + next session teaser
Pull quotes
- “Don’t just interact with your buyer—know their direct reports and their assistant.”
- “Communities are inclusionary and porous. Tribes are not.”
- “I care less about being liked, and more about being respected.”
- “AI isn’t your brand. It’s a tool in your process.”
Try this this week
- Map one client to 3+ internal relationships (buyer, two directs, assistant).
- Send a value-only note (no pitch) to a client you haven’t served in 90 days.
- Add one more format to your community (e.g., short audio, monthly live, or a light-hearted thread like “what to watch”). Variety increases stickiness.
Shout-outs & mentions
Lisbon/Portugal crew, Seattle, Sydney, Montreal, Silicon Valley—love the global energy. Tools mentioned: newsletters, private podcasts, Zoom workshops, forums.
CTA
If this sparked ideas, hit reply and tell me: What’s one move you’ll make to widen your buyer map this month? And if you’re building an evergreen client base, I’m brewing something special—jump on my list to get first dibs.
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