Building Community from a DTC Brand: Carl Maynard's Philosophy

In this episode of Guidance Counselor 2.0, host Taylor Desseyn spoke with Carl Maynard, who leads creative and community for Freaks of Nature, a clean ingredient athletic brand co-founded by Kelly Slater. Carl's approach to community building offers valuable insights that extend far beyond the DTC space, providing a masterclass in authentic relationship building and the philosophy of service-first leadership.

The Foundation: A Father's Lesson in Community Leadership

Carl's approach to community building stems from a foundational moment with his father during his military childhood. The story he shares reveals the core philosophy that drives his work today.

"My dad was very much involved in the community on military bases when I was growing up," Carl recalls. During a base-wide barbecue that his father helped organize, young Carl noticed his dad driving around on a golf cart, stopping at different tents and booths, asking everyone, "Do you need anything? How's everybody doing? What can I help with?"

Confused by this behavior, Carl asked his father why he was asking if he could help when, as the organizer, shouldn't everyone be there to help him? His father's response became the cornerstone of Carl's community philosophy: "People should never have to ask for help. They should just know that you're always there to help."

This lesson crystallized into what Carl considers the fundamental truth of community leadership: "Understanding that you're the least important." He clarifies that this isn't martyrdom or self-pity, but rather a recognition that authentic community building requires putting others first. "If you are willing to put yourself out there and say, 'I'm going to put myself out there,' you have to wholeheartedly be okay with your name being nowhere in the credits."

Freaks of Nature: Community-First Brand Strategy

Freaks of Nature launched a year ago with SPF 30 and SPF 50 sunscreen, a hydrator, and has since expanded into cleansers and other athletic products. What sets the brand apart isn't just its clean ingredients or athletic focus, but its authentic approach to community engagement.

"We launched with a community being Kelly Slater's community, but in that you have a responsibility to show up responsibly for that community," Carl explains. This responsibility shaped how the brand approaches community building - not as a marketing tactic, but as a genuine commitment to serve the communities they engage with.

The brand operates on what Carl calls a "spider web effect" - rather than constantly seeking new audiences, they focus on deepening relationships within existing communities and connecting dots between different groups. "Instead of going out a lot of different directions, those things sort of have to merge," he notes.

The Practice of Being Present First

One of Carl's most important insights is the necessity of being a community member before attempting to become a community leader. "I think it's important to join community before you create community," he emphasizes.

This philosophy played out in Carl's own journey when he moved to Washington, D.C. in 2012-2013. "I was nowhere near where I'm at now as a community person, but I found that through being a part of communities." He learned by observing and participating, studying examples like Ross, who works community for Cherry Bundy and serves as Carl's model for authentic engagement.

"I always sort of saw him as this example of someone who is very much just out there, but never necessarily behind a table or behind a booth or with a flag in his hand," Carl describes. "You just kind of always know that he's going to be there to support athletic events, marathons, races, high rocks, whatever the case may be."

This approach of being present without agenda has become central to how Freaks of Nature engages with communities. Rather than showing up with promotional materials or clear brand messaging, team members focus on genuine participation and relationship building.

Consistency Over Frequency

Carl makes an important distinction between showing up frequently and showing up consistently. "It's about consistency in showing up, not just showing up a lot, but showing up consistently in the same space," he explains.

This consistency creates what he calls a "repeat cast" effect, similar to how The Simpsons uses familiar characters in different episodes. When Freaks of Nature works with athletes and communities, they see the same faces appearing in different contexts over time, creating deeper relationships and more authentic connections.

An example of this approach unfolded through Carl's work around running events in France. A relay race led to connections with cyclists, which led to a solo run from Santa Monica to Las Vegas, where the support crew consisted of people from the original relay team. "It's like this repeat of cast... they all feel so familiar," Carl notes.

The Anti-Transactional Approach

Perhaps the most radical aspect of Carl's community philosophy is his explicit rejection of transactional thinking. "To me, there is no actual data point that you can derive from community," he states candidly. "You can't go into a community event and hope that there's an X ROI on that event."

This perspective challenges conventional marketing wisdom that demands measurable returns on community investments. Carl argues that the moment brands start thinking in terms of ROI, "it will quickly be discovered that you're in community for the wrong reasons."

Instead, he uses the analogy of holding a door open for a grocery store: "You have to sort of be willing to stand there as long as it takes without putting yourself in the room with everyone else." This requires genuine patience and commitment to serving others regardless of immediate benefits.

The approach extends to how Freaks of Nature structures its community events. "A majority of our events, there's no point of sale place. It's just getting to know people," Carl explains. This removes the pressure of immediate conversion and allows for authentic relationship building.

Content Strategy: Story Over Sales

Carl's approach to content creation reflects his broader community philosophy. Inspired by photographer Emily May's work with Tracksmith, he focuses on "invoking a feeling, invoking an energy" rather than explicitly connecting athletic performance to product use.

"It's not on me to tell somebody what their experience with the product will be," Carl explains. "We can educate them. We can help them understand when or how to use, how to apply, but ultimately their experience is going to be theirs."

This philosophy manifests in content where products appear visually but aren't the focus of the story. In a recent feature about a yoga instructor in Copenhagen, "the perfect summation of that is sort of the last photo in that carousel is she's... in this yoga pose, but our bottle is eeny, weeny, tiny just at the bottom of her mat. It's there, but it's not the focus."

The approach recognizes that people understand basic products like sunscreen without extensive education. "People can figure out how to put a product on. They can understand an application. We've pumped soap in our hands for a long time," Carl notes.

Global Perspective Through Travel

Carl's role requires extensive travel, which he leverages not just for work but for relationship building. When traveling to Copenhagen for marathon coverage, he arrived early to work on a profile of a yoga instructor who teaches in art galleries and outdoor spaces rather than traditional studios.

"Instead of just saying, oh, I'm going to be in Copenhagen for work, let's go a couple of days early. Let's work on a project. Let's go meet them," he describes. But the relationship building doesn't stop with the content creation: "After we were done shooting, we went to lunch. We went and got coffee, had breakfast."

This approach during his recent Paris Fashion Week trip involved not just documenting events but actively seeking opportunities to meet people for coffee and conversation. "The sort of fastest thing and the least important thing is that moment of talking about the product and about the brand and more so getting to know those people."

The Team Dynamic

Carl credits much of Freaks of Nature's community success to his colleagues Isadora and Julia, whom he describes as naturally inclined toward genuine relationship building. "You could talk to them for a long time without having to talk about freaks of nature. And I think they have just a natural inclination to want to meet people and want to get to know people's background and story."

This authentic interest in people creates what Carl calls an "affinity for the brand because I have an affinity for them." The brand becomes secondary to the personal connections, which ultimately creates stronger and more sustainable community relationships.

Scaling Authentic Community

Despite being a small team of three, Freaks of Nature maintains what Carl calls being "chronically online" and highly accessible through email and social media DMs. They use a platform called TYB (Thank You Based) for community challenges and engagement, where members can submit photos, earn tokens and badges, and participate in brand-sponsored activities.

However, the real community building happens through in-person presence at events, races, and gatherings. "For us, I think what's really helped foster community is like being out in public versus just showing up" digitally, Carl notes.

This approach requires significant investment of time and travel, but Carl views it as essential for building the authentic relationships that sustain long-term community engagement.

The Power of Showing Up Without Guarantees

Carl's philosophy was crystallized during his attendance at Nike's Breaking Four event in Paris, where elite runner Faith attempted to become the first woman to break the four-minute mile barrier. Despite extensive preparation including 3D-printed outfits, optimized track conditions, and elite pacers from around the world, Faith didn't achieve the record.

"It would have been beautiful if she broke the record. But I think it's more impactful long term that she didn't because it spotlighted just how hard the four minute mile is," Carl reflects. The event inspired young women runners despite not achieving its stated goal.

Most significantly, the event wouldn't have counted as an official world record due to various factors including male pacers. "All of these people make the trip to Paris, join this event, work on production, camera crews for something that theoretically would not have counted," Carl observes.

This example perfectly illustrates his community philosophy: "Maybe something doesn't count but it matters, and understanding that things that matter are oftentimes way more important than things that count."

Lessons for Community Builders Across Industries

While Carl's work focuses on athletic communities and DTC brands, his insights apply broadly to anyone building community in professional or personal contexts:

Service Before Self: Authentic community building requires genuine commitment to serving others without expectation of immediate recognition or return.

Participation Before Leadership: Understanding community dynamics requires being a genuine member before attempting to lead or influence.

Consistency Over Scale: Regular presence in the same spaces creates stronger relationships than sporadic appearances across many different venues.

Relationships Over Transactions: Focusing on genuine connections rather than immediate conversions creates more sustainable community engagement.

Process Over Outcomes: The act of showing up and participating matters regardless of whether specific goals are achieved.

The Long-Term Vision

Carl's approach represents a fundamentally different way of thinking about brand building and community engagement. Rather than optimizing for short-term metrics or immediate conversions, Freaks of Nature is building what Carl hopes will be sustainable, authentic relationships that create lasting value for all participants.

This approach requires patience, significant resource investment, and comfort with ambiguous returns. However, it also creates differentiation in a marketplace where many brands treat community as another marketing channel rather than a genuine commitment to service.

Conclusion

Carl Maynard's approach to community building offers a refreshing alternative to data-driven, ROI-focused marketing strategies. His emphasis on authentic relationship building, service-first leadership, and long-term commitment provides a roadmap for creating meaningful community engagement.

Whether applied to DTC brands, professional networking, or any form of community building, Carl's insights emphasize that sustainable communities are built on genuine care for people rather than extractive marketing tactics. His father's lesson about being available to help without being asked continues to guide an approach that prioritizes human connection over conversion metrics.

For professionals in any industry looking to build authentic community, Carl's example demonstrates that the most powerful strategy may be the simplest: show up consistently, focus on serving others, and trust that meaningful relationships will create value that transcends any specific transaction or measurable outcome.

The success of this approach ultimately depends not on sophisticated tools or complex strategies, but on the willingness to genuinely care about the people in your community and to demonstrate that care through consistent, authentic presence and service.

This blog post summarizes insights from Guidance Counselor 2.0, a live streaming show hosted by Taylor Desseyn that explores career development in the tech industry. Find the full video of the episode and more here: Community Building from a DTC Brand w/Carl Maynard