How I’m Turning Community-Building into Bottom-Line Impact
When I first started my journey into UX, the path seemed clear: design user-centric products, refine processes, and build a strong portfolio. But as AI continues to evolve, I’ve realized that the landscape isn’t just shifting — it’s transforming. As someone who used to juggle freelance gigs, run a design agency, and dive headfirst into countless Slack communities, I found myself wondering: Can I harness AI to not just grow a community, but also grow my revenue?
That’s exactly what I set out to do with Brady UX. And believe it or not, I used this chat with AI to craft a comprehensive strategy that might just help me shift from long-term community building to short-term financial impact.
Building Community vs. Impacting the Bottom Line
For years, I’ve been trying to build a community, thinking that strong relationships and trust would eventually lead to revenue. It’s not wrong, but here’s the catch: community building is a long game. In the meantime, I’ve got bills to pay and an agency to run.
Enter AI — my silent strategist in this experiment. It helped me take my scattered thoughts about growing a referral program, engaging partners, and rewarding clients, and turned them into a cohesive plan I could actually act on. Together, we structured everything from referral fees to partner commissions and even designed logos ideas for the initiative. AI didn’t just spit out answers; it helped me craft a strategy. And yes, I see the irony in having AI help me document the process I’m writing about.
The Strategy
The plan is simple: instead of just focusing on community, focus on deals. I’ll still engage with my community, but now the primary goal is to impact my bottom line. I created the Brady UX Growth Collective, an official referral program with distinct paths for clients and partners. It includes flat referral fees, tiered commissions, discounts, and even non-monetary incentives for bringing in new business.
I have to admit, Christopher Nguyen from Backlog gave me some great advice that shifted my focus entirely: “Get leads. Close deals. The rest is noise.” As much as I love the creative process and community engagement, closing leads is where survival happens — and AI helped me organize that.
A Journey, Not a Shortcut
Is AI going to replace my creativity, intuition, or the relationships I’ve built over time? No. But can it help streamline the process, remove friction, and turn “building community” into something that actually pays the bills? I think it can, or at least it’s worth experimenting with.
This is my attempt at marrying long-term goals with short-term gains. I’m using every tool at my disposal, including AI, to stay creative, but more importantly, to stay profitable. Whether this will succeed or not, I don’t know yet. But what I do know is that focusing on my bottom line doesn’t mean abandoning creativity — it means channeling it toward what matters most right now.
Let’s see how it goes.
