When I started posting "Day 1 of Calling All Swifties", it was partly a joke and partly an experiment. Like most business owners, I'm constantly looking at what makes certain brands, creators and communities explode whilst others struggle to gain traction. The obvious answer is often money. People assume success comes from massive marketing budgets, expensive agencies and celebrity endorsements. Whilst those things certainly help, I don't think they're the reason Taylor Swift has become one of the most influential women on the planet.
The more I watch what she's built, the more convinced I become that her greatest achievement isn't her music. It's her community.
Whether you're a Swiftie or not is almost irrelevant. You only have to spend five minutes online to see the impact her fanbase has. These aren't passive consumers waiting for the next album release. They're active participants in a shared experience. They analyse lyrics, exchange theories, attend events together, create content, build friendships and celebrate each other's successes. Somewhere along the way, Taylor Swift stopped being just a singer and became the centre of a global community.
As somebody building a business, I find that fascinating.
One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is believing they need more customers when what they actually need is more community. Customers buy from you once. Communities stay with you. Customers compare prices. Communities buy into missions. Customers can disappear overnight. Communities become advocates.
That distinction has become increasingly important to me whilst building Dope Soul Village. When I first started, I thought my job was to create products people wanted to buy. Over time, I've realised that isn't really what we're doing at all. The products matter, of course, but they are ultimately vehicles for something bigger. Nobody buys a sweatshirt because it changes their life. They buy it because of what it represents.
The success of our Crows Before Bros collection taught me that lesson better than any marketing course ever could. Women weren't sharing it because they desperately needed another sweatshirt. They were sharing it because it represented female friendship, independence, humour and identity. It made them feel seen. It gave them a way of expressing something they were already thinking.
The same principle applies to almost every successful community. People gather around shared values, shared experiences and shared identities. The subject itself is often secondary. What matters is the feeling of belonging.
I think that's one of the reasons so many women are struggling with traditional social media at the moment. We're surrounded by content, yet many people feel lonelier than ever. We see endless highlight reels, perfectly curated lives and carefully constructed personal brands, but very little genuine connection. We know more about strangers than we do about our neighbours. We have thousands of followers and sometimes nobody to call when life falls apart.
That is why community has become so valuable.
It's also why I believe the future belongs to brands that create belonging rather than simply selling products.
When women join Dope Soul Village, I don't want them to feel like they've discovered another online store. I want them to feel like they've found their people. I want them to find humour, support, honesty and authenticity. I want them to feel understood. Because if somebody feels understood, they'll stay long after the novelty of a product has worn off.
The funny thing is that this entire Swiftie campaign has reinforced something I already suspected. Building a community isn't about one viral post. It isn't about hacks, tricks or growth strategies. It's about consistency. It's about showing up repeatedly with a message people connect with. It's about creating an environment where people feel like they belong.
That takes time.
Taylor Swift didn't build her community overnight. Neither will I. But every day I become more convinced that community is the most valuable thing a business can create.
Products can be copied.
Websites can be copied.
Marketing campaigns can be copied.
A genuine community cannot.
And if there's one lesson every small business owner should learn from Taylor Swift, it's that people rarely stay because of what you're selling. They stay because of how you make them feel. They stay because they find people like themselves. They stay because, in a noisy world that often feels disconnected, you've given them somewhere they belong.
That is what I'm trying to build with Dope Soul Village.
Not a customer base.
A village.
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