How Dustin Built a 6-Figure Pipeline from One Community

Dustin Solo: [00:00:00] this is really about serving well first, and when you go in and you serve well, you will attract the right people if you have a clear message, right?
Dustin Solo: And so that's really what I've done. And I've just been able to do that in multiple communities. And this isn't just a Dustin thing. I've definitely seen this with clients, and this is part of the flywheel effect, a part of the marketing system that we teach inside our podcast profits accelerator. So I know this works and no, it's not manipulative.
Dustin Solo: It's actually the exact opposite. It's like, how can I give as much as possible and then receive from these amazing communities that I've been invited to be a part of?
Dustin Solo: Welcome back to the seven really podcast in this special solo episode, I'm going to complete [00:01:00] a bit of a trifecta. So if you go back into some recent episodes, what you'll find is I've shared some of my favorite kind of client getting strategies. The first one I covered was basically how to be the best case study whenever you invest in someone else's.
Dustin Solo: Program or group or mastermind and those sort of things and how that has been extremely fruitful for me and my own entrepreneurial journey in the second session, I talked about how to highlight your clients success to get more clients. Right? So first was how to be a great client, really. And the second was how to you.
Dustin Solo: Basically, leverage when you have amazing clients and amazing success stories, how to leverage that so you can get more clients and really build on your marketing flywheel. So in this episode, I want to actually talk about my favorite of these three client getting strategies, and that is being an amazing member of a community.
Dustin Solo: So we have. Case studies, you case studies of your clients. And now we're really going to talk [00:02:00] about how to plug into communities, serve really, really at a high level and then have that be like one of your best client gathering strategies. So I honestly think when I think back through seven figure leap and the things that we've done in the past several years.
Dustin Solo: Every community that I've plugged into in any meaningful way, I've gotten a return from, and that's pretty remarkable. And so I think of Sean Anthony's email Rainmakers program. And I think of something like Front Row Dads, which is not really a business investment, but it's a group of entrepreneurs.
Dustin Solo: And so I've got lots of clients from that. It's probably a half a dozen clients from Front Row Dads. StoryBrand community and my journey in really the past 18 months within StoryBrand. And the fruit that that's yielded from a business growth standpoint. So before I get into that story, though, I really want to highlight how this works because on the surface, even the way I just introduced a few of these ideas that came to mind for communities [00:03:00] I've been involved with, you might think, wow, Dustin's like really manipulative.
Dustin Solo: Does he like. Spend money or come in and, and, you know, yeah, take advantage of people and take their clients and put them in his community. A hundred percent not. And in fact, I've given examples in those previous two episodes about how this is really an abundant strategy. And this is really about
serving well first, and when you go in and you serve well, you will attract the right people if you have a clear message, right?
Dustin Solo: And so that's really what I've done. And I've just been able to do that in multiple communities. And this isn't just a Dustin thing. I've definitely seen this with clients, and this is part of the flywheel effect, a part of the marketing system that we teach inside our podcast profits accelerator. So I know this works and no, it's not manipulative.
Dustin Solo: It's actually the exact opposite. It's like, how can I give as much as possible and then receive from these amazing communities that I've been invited to be a part of? So StoryBrand how did I get involved in StoryBrand and really what's happened there? And what I want to share [00:04:00] sort of. To bury the lead a little bit is I've generated at least 200, 000 in revenue from being part of the story brand community in the past 18 months, right?
Dustin Solo: And so I want to unpack that and talk about why that is, how that is, how this came to be, and I hope that you will be able to think about communities you're already involved in where you could be serving in a bigger way and grow your business as a result, or be very strategic about the next investment you might want to make.
Dustin Solo: And I will say that many people come into our community at Seven Figure Leap and they come in through our podcast, Proverbs Accelerator program, and I tell them right up front, like. No, don't come in and pitch people. And this is, that's not what this is about, but if you come in and you serve in your unique ability and you stay in your zone of genius and you talk about what you do, we have some amazing people, we have 150 plus alumni.
Dustin Solo: Like there are people who need what you do. Right. And so people absolutely hire each other. And I've hired a ton of our alumni because I get to know them in our [00:05:00] community. And that's, that's why I think so special about this specific strategy is it's community based. All that to say. Let's talk about story brand.
Dustin Solo: So in May of 2023, I got certified as a story brand guide. Okay. And even the way I got involved in story brand is pretty telling to the strategy. So, a few months before that, I got introduced to this woman named Macy from an alumni of our accelerator program named Brooke. So Brooke's like, Hey, you should know my friend, Macy.
Dustin Solo: I've got to know her really well recently, and she's amazing. And so I had this great call with Macy and she talked about some of the things that she did. Sort of on a personal basis where she helps authors launch books and
just had a really cool success story. And then she mentioned, oh, yeah, and I have a full time role at story brand story brand.
Dustin Solo: Like that sounds familiar because, you know, I read the book building a story brand by Donna Miller, and it definitely left an impression on me. But I wasn't like aware of this community and this whole certification program. And it was not on my radar of something that I was looking to plug into. [00:06:00] But as I got to know Macy, what happened was she actually.
Dustin Solo: Ended up joining my accelerator program in that spring, 2023 StoryBran is actually my client because they, they put Macy in as a representative of their company into my program. So she could learn podcast guesting at a strategic level and of course, take it back and spread the message of StoryBran, which.
Dustin Solo: All happened and that was awesome. But as I got to know Macy, I was like, there's, there's more here for this community that she's representing. And so I got curious about it. Long story short, I went and got certified in Nashville in the May 2023, as I mentioned. And so that was my first dose of community when it comes to StoryBrand.
Dustin Solo: And I would say StoryBrand is one of the first primary like business communities that I've decided to, to plug into. So why did I join StoryBrand? And actually. I'm, I'm a guide, but like, I don't do guide stuff. And what I mean by that are the guides, the storyboard guides are implementers, right? So these are people you want to hire to build your [00:07:00] website, write your copy, do your emails, work on your messaging.
Dustin Solo: And I do shades of that, but I don't do any done for you services. So. On the nose, it's like, why don't I spend five figures and go to Nashville and get certified in something that I'm really not going to use in the traditional sense? Well, for me, I was like, I want to know the frameworks. Like I, I know this would be super valuable in what I teach through storytelling, you know, like how to, how to have a compelling story would be really important to I wanted to be around Donald Miller, who's the founder of story brand.
Dustin Solo: And I thought this would be a really cool way to get to understand him. And he had, and he had created a business that I really admired. And I was like, You know, there's something here sort of as a mentor from afar. And three and most importantly, I was like, this has got to be like a community that would be really valuable for me to be a part of.
Dustin Solo: Like I knew some story brand guides. I knew Macy. She was the director of certification at that time. So I knew it, how she represented the brand and I just knew they attracted really high quality people. And I thought, well, there's gotta be a role [00:08:00] for me in this community where I can learn you know, and maybe get some clients that wasn't like the primary thing that I joined for.
Dustin Solo: So from that. Experience in person in my onboarding class. I developed a few key relationships. Okay, so I got to know a few people and eventually, a couple of them actually became clients, but not like right away. So it wasn't like I walked away from the certification. Hey, I got some clients. It wasn't quite like that.
Dustin Solo: But, you know, long term over the course of 18 ensuing months, a couple did become clients from that onboarding class. But what did happen in that room in Nashville was like, I got known a little bit, right? Like I got to talk about my brand script and what I do and my one liner. And I got to talk about podcast.
Dustin Solo: Guesting is like the thing I was focused on. I had this accelerator program that Macy had been in, right? So I sort of had some credibility in the
community because Macy was in the community as a alumni of the program, you know, that I taught. And so that helped, but. From there, though, what happened was that summer 2023, I got invited to do a virtual [00:09:00] roundtable I should say to be a part of a virtual roundtable.
Dustin Solo: This is not like a huge deal. So within story brand and the community, they like to have some of the certified folks basically help teach the other certified folks. Folks stuff. So I'm I had 10 15 minutes as part of a virtual zoom panel where I taught podcast guesting. And you know, that was cool. And then I became active posting in the slack channel, which was the communication channel at that time.
Dustin Solo: And I just made an effort to have profitable podcast guesting in my headline. And I, you know, gave thoughtful, helpful comment responses to people and talked about partnerships and marketing and, you know, the stuff that I love to talk about podcasting. Thanks. And so I got to be known a little bit virtually through that roundtable and through being active in Slack, then in the late summer, 2023, they had a call for speakers.
Dustin Solo: So they were doing their annual summit, which is for all the certified people, coaches and guides to come to Nashville and they have they have what seemed to be a good time. And I, of [00:10:00] course, never been, I'd just become a guide, but I went ahead and applied to speak basically to host a workshop. Yeah.
Dustin Solo: Yeah, a breakout session. And frankly, I was a little surprised, but I was selected and I was like, well, this is really cool. So I went down to Nashville in October of 2023 gave, but has been told to me, I really compelling a workshop. It was not very polished. It was actually the very first business talk I've ever given from a stage.
Dustin Solo: So that was pretty cool. Pretty pretty awesome and terrifying. And, and, you know, what I remember most about that to kind of show the contrast between this year when I went to the summit is I didn't know anyone. Like I walked into the hotel there and I knew Macy and I felt really good. She was in my session and, and, you know, she, she was supportive of me.
Dustin Solo: And. I knew a couple other people from my onboarding class, but that was it, right? So maybe I knew four people when I walked down, walked into that those hallways there at the summit. And I was also speaking on the last day of the event. And I like right for everyone [00:11:00] left. I had this paranoia that like everyone's gonna leave.
Dustin Solo: No one's gonna come to my talk. And, you know, funny side note, I started my talk and about six minutes in, there was literally like 10 people in the room and like, well, I'm just going to do well. And, you know, like I'm here. I'm going to do well for the cameras. And Macy wasn't in the room. Like, well, this is disappointing.
Dustin Solo: And then about 7 minutes later, all these people come in and it turned out there's this like major I don't know. I don't know, session or whatever. They got let out late. And so basically I just started over. So it made it a little awkward. I just started over and I had to squeeze for time, but I wanted to, you know, give the right context.
Dustin Solo: Everyone came in. So turned out I had a pretty packed room and I had all these people come up to me afterward. They want to know how I. How, how it looked to work with me and all this stuff. And so from building in the community, from my certification time, the Slack channel, the virtual round table, and then getting to speak at the summit with, I don't know, 50, 75 people in the room.
Dustin Solo: That's when the, the, the cash register started to to, to ching a little more started to get [00:12:00] clients and I stayed active From that. And I did a really, but I think a really good job following up from that summit and everyone who had RSVP to my session, I sent an email to you and I ended up posting like a webinar, basically like a, Hey, if you couldn't be live in the room, come to this follow up session.
Dustin Solo: I'm going to go through the highlights of what I taught on my round table and answer questions. And that was a really good way to build more rapport, get some of the people to come back who had seen me the first time and also get some fresh faces who, who hadn't been able to make that session on that final, you know, Friday afternoon of the conference.
Dustin Solo: Somewhere between then and, you know, five months later. So kind of the next point of reference here is spring 2024. I had had 16 clients. Okay. So for my flagship program, so we're talking about. Six figure return at this point. So 16 clients, guides and coaches, some from the summit directly, some from that follow up session, some from just being active in slack and hey, can we [00:13:00] have a call?
Dustin Solo: I want to know more about you. Some from referrals because, you know, I was continuing to serve story brand guides and coaches throughout this time. So basically, a year after my certification, I had 16 clients, From the story
brand community for six figures. And really importantly, five of those clients also became members of my seven figure lead mastermind.
Dustin Solo: So this is my ongoing mastermind. We only have. 20 something slots available. Five of those slots are story brand affiliated people who initially came into my accelerator and they really got a lot of value and they said, I want to continue to be part of this experience. And so they joined my mastermind.
Dustin Solo: So lots of and then another has since joined. So all in all, I would say. Around 20 clients and six of those are in my ongoing mastermind, including Macy. So like the original person I met who introduced me to this whole story, brand opportunity, and has been a big supporter. She ultimately joined the mastermind as she's growing her own personal brand [00:14:00] and doing some of the really cool stuff that she's doing to help people get true to their own message and launch.
Dustin Solo: Really successful speaking and writing careers. So really, really cool. Since spring and since I started getting these clients last summer, this summer, 2024, I got invited to do another virtual roundtable. This time, one of my mastermind members who she was actually the host. Her name is Jessica Miller.
Dustin Solo: She was the host of the session. It was on offers. So not the thing that, like people say, I need Dustin's help with as directly as marketing and podcasting. But, you know, she knew me and she said, I'd love to have you come co host this round table. So I did that and we had a great time. It was really fun to to serve the community in yet a new way and got another client from that.
Dustin Solo: And then most recently, you know, as I, as I record this toward the end of 2024 in October, I was back at the summit again and I did not speak. I did apply and did not get selected. So, you know. I beginners luck wore off or whatever. It was just, they, frankly, they just [00:15:00] restructured the sessions.
Dustin Solo: There wasn't many opportunities to speak and they had there's some really amazing speakers, but I went down to Nashville again, and it was just this amazing contrast. When I think about community, when I walked in that, in those same doors, one year earlier in 2023, I knew a handful of people. I had one client at that point from StoryBrand when I came down this time.
Dustin Solo: Not only did I have, you know, 20 clients and six mastermind members, but like I came in actually a day early because one of my alumni named Kurt, he's a really well connected and well respected guy in the story brand guide community. He's like, Hey, Dustin. I'd love to invite you to this private dinner. I mean, that's amazing.
Dustin Solo: So I went to this private state dinner. It was amazing. And I got to meet like a lot of the higher end agencies who are storybrand certified. So I got to meet some amazing new people who are going to end up being just great connections. And I was like, that, that was before the event even started.
Dustin Solo: I'm at this in this session with, I think like 10 other storybrand people, this type [00:16:00] of people, I would just, you know, Couldn't imagine knowing 18 months earlier and now I'm like at a dinner with them. There were some authors there who had spoken to the story brand summit from the keynote stage in the past.
Dustin Solo: It was just amazing. And then I wake up the next day and go to the actual summit and everywhere I turn, I know people like at this point, I know dozens of people from this community. And then the first night of the event, I hosted a little meetup because I had, you know, six. Story brand certified people at the summit from my mastermind.
Dustin Solo: There's some other alumni who were at the summit who aren't in the mastermind, but they're part of the seven fairly community. So I invited them. And then there was at least one local person who's in the mastermind who's not story brand affiliated, but you know, he's in Nashville. So it's just amazing.
Dustin Solo: You know, I'm looking at, I don't know, 12, 15 people standing around getting to know each other or getting reunited At this someone else's conference at the story brand conference, a little meet up that I put together. And then the 2nd night I had dinner with some of our mastermind members.
[00:17:00] It's just like, what is completely different experience a year later from the previous summit is just all relationships, right?
Dustin Solo: It was all people that I've gotten to serve and know and love and trust. And, you know, they become part of our community and in some cases, our mastermind. And it was just super gratifying. And I say that to say like, that's the real juice here. Like that's the real power is building relationships within communities in a way that honors the community.
Dustin Solo: And I think, you know, Macy, you know, still is working at story brand. If you talk to Macy or talk to anyone on the leadership team, I think they would view what I do as very additive to what they do, right? I've never. Had a member come to me and be like, you should quit StoryBrand. Like you should just be on my thing.
Dustin Solo: No, it's like what you're doing at StoryBrand is awesome. And what I do supplements that in a huge way. And if you're a StoryBrand guide, like you should totally be using podcast guesting to grow your services, which makes them more successful, which is why StoryBrand might want me to speak or have me on round tables because I'm [00:18:00] actually.
Dustin Solo: An additive to the community, right? I'm never doing it from a posture of I'm better than the community that you're that I'm meeting you in. It's very much like. This is awesome. And here's the thing that can make your experience even better. Right. And so I just, I want to say that cause like, if you're, if you're thinking about communities you're in, you gotta be really mindful, careful and doing this from the right heart, like this is not an invitation to take from a community to recommend anyone ever, ever leave a community to come to your community.
Dustin Solo: Therefore you shouldn't be in communities. In this. Way that are competitive, right? You should be looking for places to collaborate places where you can fill an additional need. So that's probably my biggest case study is like the story of brain community. And it's one, I feel like I have a very clear path that I can describe of how I got involved.
Dustin Solo: How I started to build relationships, how I grew from [00:19:00] there to a speaking opportunity, I continue to nurture those relationships after the speaking opportunity you know, all the way into. This kind of full circle moment of walking into the summit a year later as a year or two guide, feeling like I know the majority of the people I see a lot of people coming up to me.
Dustin Solo: We got new clients from being at that summit, just from having conversations or going to lunch with people. And they had heard about me at this point and want to know more about how the program worked. And we were able to have follow up calls. We'll be serving them, you know, in the new year. So this will continue to deepen.
Dustin Solo: And I just find that super gratifying and hopefully very encouraging to you. I do this on a lot of smaller scales, so that's like the big one, a story brand. And I mentioned, you know, I, I was at the front row dad's
conference and I've had some great clients from front row dads and some other smaller group coaching programs I've been in.
Dustin Solo: One of the things I love to do though, that might feel a little more approachable for you is what I would call like micro community Service, right? And so for me, one of my [00:20:00] key growth strategies has been, and I'm going to double down on this as we move into the new year is serving in smaller communities, right?
Dustin Solo: There's these big communities like I described digital marketer would be another big one for me that I got invited to speak and it became part of their mastermind and went to an in person event and that has continued to have a lot of dividends of credibility, access, authority and some clients as well.
Dustin Solo: Those are those kind of big ones like, yeah. Hey, that's a community I can go join, but what might be more approachable to you and something I probably love even more is. Guest training and other people say mastermind groups, or if someone has a group coaching program can you come in and provide your narrow niche expertise to that community maybe in a one off live setting, maybe in a way that becomes embedded training.
Dustin Solo: So my friend John Meese has a sold out coach club as an example. I recorded a master class for them on how to do podcast guesting on it supports what he teaches, which is group coaching programs. It [00:21:00] supports that because it's like, oh, here's a form of lead generation that might work well for you. If you're a coach or an expert, and it's an embedded part of the program, meaning when someone comes into his program, they get access to the training I gave.
Dustin Solo: Well, that has certainly led to clients, right? And in that case, I'm very happy to give John a referral fee. Like, Hey, this person came from your community. They watched the training. I did. They wanted to know more about podcast. Guessing, you know, John's in my mastermind. John's an alumni, so he endorses my work and I'm able to actually give him a referral fee in that case.
Dustin Solo: But whether it's monetarily, Okay. Incentivized or not, the idea that you can come in and serve again, maybe it's a one off training. I've certainly had people come into my community at seven very leap. They're guest experts. They come in and they add value in a specific way that something I'm not, you know, equipped to do.
Dustin Solo: And I'm always like, yeah, you should go hire them if it's the right fit, right? Like I endorsed their work, otherwise they wouldn't be invited into the community. So as you're thinking about your next phase of marketing, I hope that you think back to episode one of this trilogy, which is like, where can you be the [00:22:00] best case study.
Dustin Solo: For courses or programs that you're already in, like, get great results from the program and be a case study and tell that that lead expert or that thought leader that this is awesome. And here's why it worked for me because they're going to want to highlight you to their community and their other clients.
Dustin Solo: That's strategy. 1 strategy 2 is. Pay attention to your own clients and highlight people's success and case studies. And I talked about Lashay Lewis and some other people from my community who have just been amazing case studies, and they become sort of lighthouses for other people that want that kind of help.
Dustin Solo: So if you have great client success, you have people in your community. Where can you highlight them to show other people this version of success that they can emulate and then attract clients that way? And then today, what I hope that you took away from this is where are there opportunities to serve in communities and grow your business as a result?
Dustin Solo: And that can be in a big way, like my story brand or my digital marketer could be sort of a medium way where maybe it's [00:23:00] a little larger community. And it's just adjacent to your business. It's not really like the primary focus. Like what I do is front row dads. It's primarily to help me be a better husband and father, but because there are other entrepreneurs in there and people naturally ask what you do and people talk to each other, I do get clients that way.
Dustin Solo: I, even though I'm not doing any like direct training there, like I would be at say a story brand and then kind of level three of this, which might seem most approachable is where is there one. Mastermind leader, group coaching leader, someone who's got a great circle community or someone who's even got like a great LinkedIn following.
Dustin Solo: And you could come be a guest expert, you know, can you host a free workshop for their people? Can you give them some training that could potentially be embedded in their flagship program to where you constantly have an evergreen source of leads based on your niche expertise? Like I've done with John Mises program.
Dustin Solo: So I hope that gives you some great encouragement and food for thought. This has become such a thing for me and what we teach in the accelerator at an [00:24:00] advanced level people sort of started calling it pulling a Dustin sort of tongue in cheek meaning, you know, we'll go through the program. We're talking about podcast.
Dustin Solo: Guesting, of course, is a primary strategy. We get into the back half of the program. We start talking about more advanced partnership strategies, and this is one of them, like embedding yourself in communities are partnering with great thought leaders where you can come give amazing value and grow your business as a result.
Dustin Solo: And so people will you know, chuckle and be like, Hey, I pulled a Dustin. I got a client from going and being a guest expert in this other person's mastermind group or community. So I hope there's some great places you can pull a Dustin in the communities. Maybe you're already plugged into. You can just become more visible by serving in a bigger way.
Dustin Solo: Or maybe you can be intentional and think. You know, like once a quarter, once a month, I want to go be proactive and seek partnerships where I can come be a guest expert and then draw clients to me as a result. And a wonderful way to find those opportunities, source those opportunities is through podcast guesting.
Dustin Solo: So that's why [00:25:00] it's baked into our main program, the podcast profits accelerator. So if you're looking at your next year and you're looking at. Your marketing plan and you love to teach and you love to serve and you have a story to tell, talk to us, talk to us about the accelerator because there's very likely an application of what we do.
Dustin Solo: We could really accelerate your own results in your business kind of first and foremost through podcast guesting, but then we really grow exponentially from there through other partnership ideas, embedding you in other people's communities, heck, maybe, maybe making you part of the seven figure elite community, right?
Dustin Solo: As part of that experience, Where then you can get clients within our community if you show up and you, and you love people and you, you serve in a, in a great way. So I hope this is really useful to you. If you have questions about the Podcast Profits Accelerator all the amazing stuff we're gonna be doing in the Seven Figure Elite community to serve at a higher level and basically
practice what I've been preaching and, and doing in other people's communities let me know.
Dustin Solo: Yeah, you can always shoot me a, an email
dustin@sevenfigureleap.com if you have questions about. What we have coming up or [00:26:00] opportunities for us to serve you in a bigger way, you can always go to seven figure leap. com and click a button right there and book a call with us. We can do some strategy work with you and help you come up with a great effective partnership marketing strategy.
Dustin Solo: And of course, if we can help with that we'll let you know. And if, if not, we're not the best fit, we'll let you know that too. We're always just looking for the best fit clients for our programs. The last thing I want to say here. Whenever you're listening to this, it may or may not be quite open.
Dustin Solo: And maybe you're listening way later and you'll, you'll get the recorded version. We do have the pod profit summit coming up. I've been recording some of the content in preparation for that summit. It's going to blow you away. So, we're offering free registration. So podprofitsummit. com. If it's not already, when you listen to this, we'll be, we'll be live very soon for you to get signed up, get registered.
Dustin Solo: This is a community. A new event that you're absolutely do not want to miss. I'm 30 plus of my best relationships coming to bear and teaching you the best strategies to grow your business, the podcasting in 2025. [00:27:00] So really looking forward to that. And I can't wait to see you over there, but in the meantime, yeah, hit us up at seven figure leap.
Dustin Solo: com. Hope you have an amazing rest of your day. And thanks so much for tuning in and learning about the power of serving through communities. [00:28:00] [00:29:00]