What if the secret to building a thriving business wasn’t a better sales funnel, a bigger ad budget, or a killer product?

What if it was community?

Not a Facebook group. Not a newsletter list. A real, physical, magnetic community — the kind that Mick Jagger, Lewis Capaldi, Drake and Paul McCartney all gravitated towards.

That’s exactly what Nick Hannes built at Tileyard Studios in London. Starting with 10 empty studios and a blank canvas of 100,000 square feet in 2011, Nick grew Tileyard into Europe’s epicentre of music and creative business — now worth well in excess of £100 million, home to over 1,500 people, and housing brands like Apple Music, Soundcloud, Pioneer DJ and Spitfire Audio.

And on the ActionCOACH podcast, he revealed exactly how he did it.

You Don’t Build a Community. You Grow One.

That distinction matters more than it sounds.

Nick draws on a simple analogy: his wife is a garden designer. When she finishes a project, it looks raw and new. Come back two or three years later? It’s breathtaking. A community works the same way — it needs time, the right conditions, and patience to reach its potential.

Here are the five steps Nick used to grow one worth £100 million.

Step 1: Shape the Environment — High Quality Only

Before a single person walked through the door, Nick and his business partner Paul Kemp made a decision: no compromises on quality. Where others might have skimped on fit-out costs, Tileyard brought in the best studio designer on the planet and built spaces so exceptional that clients simply don’t want to leave.

“We don’t have a single studio available today,” Nick says. “Because we built them really well for great clients who’ve built great careers.”

The lesson for business owners? Your environment — physical, digital, or cultural — sets the standard for everything that follows. If you want world-class people, build a world-class space.

Step 2: Curate Relentlessly — Synergy Over Space-Filling

Tileyard doesn’t advertise. It doesn’t work with agents. Every client comes through referral, and Nick is unapologetically selective about who gets in.

“If the wrong type of business comes here — one that can’t bring value beyond the rent they pay — then we’re not the right fit.”

His filter? Authenticity and believability. Like an A&R executive signing artists, Nick asks: do I believe in this person? Are their skills going to complement someone else already here? Is there a chance these two people will end up working together?

Good people recommend good people. The community, in part, curates itself.

Step 3: Grow It Meaningfully — Say No More Than You Say Yes

One of the most counterintuitive lessons Nick shares is the power of saying no — especially early on, when empty space might tempt you to take anyone willing to pay.

Tileyard’s growth was slow by design. Paul Kemp gave Nick the most valuable resource an entrepreneur can have: time to build it right.

A meaningful community only works if the people inside it can genuinely help each other. Cluster like-minded, complementary people together and the B2B value compounds naturally. Fill it with anyone who’ll write a cheque and it stagnates.

Step 4: Reinvigorate Constantly — Communities Can Stagnate

Nick’s daughter — just finishing school — told him something that stuck: you’ve got to keep working communities, because it’s easy for them to stagnate.

Once Tileyard reached capacity, the energy that came from constant new arrivals began to slow. Nick’s response? Storytelling. Relationship maintenance. Staying genuinely curious about what every member is working on, what challenges they’re facing, and who in the community might be able to help them.

“A lot of it is just about storytelling,” he says. “Those that are here are still creating new stories every day.”

Step 5: Show Up — Community Is a Contact Sport

Nick does something that might surprise you: he personally handles every single lease renewal at Tileyard.

Not because he has to. Because it gives him a structured reason to sit down with every client every two or three years and ask, honestly, how things are going — and where the relationship needs to go next.

“It doesn’t feel landlord-tenant,” he says. “It feels more like partnership.”

He’s there every day. He bumps into people. He finds out about collaborations after the fact and loves it. He calls clients friends, because many of them genuinely are.

The takeaway? You cannot grow a meaningful community remotely or passively. You have to be present.

What This Means for Your Business

You don’t need 165 studios or a King’s Cross postcode to apply these principles.

Every business owner building a client base, a team, a network, or a brand is — whether they know it or not — building a community. The question is whether it’s a meaningful one.

Shape your environment. Curate who’s in it. Be patient enough to grow it rather than just fill it. Keep reinvigorating it. And show up.

As Nick puts it, channelling Ted Lasso in his parting words to the podcast: “Believe.”

👉 Watch the video below .