SmartCatholics

Personal project | Online community and conferences with a mission to break the bystander effect, and help Catholics discover their unique gifts in evangelization.

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This project started as a personal case study. The goal was to take everything I love and believe about marketing, and test it.

Starting in April 2020, I saw a niche need for a faith community, and created ways to bring these people together.

I coordinated 10 virtual summits, and consulted in 4 more, to bring wider audiences together with influencers and creators.

The email list grew very quickly with all the summits. I polled the early signups for their interest in a community. It was an emphatic yes.

Not really knowing what I was doing, I launched a free community to humanize connections. I welcomed speakers to create their own groups, and host their own events.

In April 2020, we launched a monthly internal magazine and content roundup, and a weekly livestream interview series. Then pivoted toward courses and short-form marketing content for creators, such as author or teachers.

All of this success without doing any advertising. My approach is the backbone of my process:

  • Do something interesting that people will want to talk about.
  • Show up with a gift in hand, not a cap in hand.
  • When people know you care, they will care what you know.

Our growth model is intentional collaboration with other ministries, who outsource their community and comboxes to us.