Build Community Like A Rockstar (aka: effortlessly)

As I’ve mentioned before, when I moved to Maine 4 years ago (this month! MAINE-AVERSARY!), I had to reinvent my professional and personal community from SCRATCH. AS I built a new business (or, re-framed my existing one). WHILE having 100% responsibility (physically, emotionally, financially) for a 7 year old.

OH- and I was also home-schooling her at that point.
And had just gone through a heart-wrenching break-up.
It was a tough time, and it was made tougher by not having my old tribe of women from NYC behind me.

It felt pretty clear that I needed to be assembling a similar kick-ass group of supportive women, like the ones I had left behind in NYC.

To be clear, I had some friends here but they weren’t entrepreneurs. They weren’t single moms with their own business (or even married moms with their own businesses). And a lot of what really blew my skirt up, they couldn’t relate to. They couldn’t help me grow my biz women community. They couldn’t connect me to potential partners, colleagues, clients.

I needed a new Biz Tribe.

But how do you START to make friends in a new place- where there are so many women who ALREADY have their friends set? How do you create a NEW TRIBE?

The first thing I did was to reach out to what MY coach calls the low-hanging fruit- I knew a few biz owners (acquaintances, the two women who just opened the coffee shop I worked from most mornings, owners of stores I loved that I was on friendly terms with, etc).

I told them that since I was new in town I was interested in meeting other women like me, other women interested in building heart-centered businesses, and growing my community. I invited them to a monthly coffee-chat meeting (at the aforementioned coffee shop, to help THEM build business, which they appreciated), and invited them to each bring a biz owner friend. I led these meetings, where we went around in a circle and briefly introduced ourselves, our business, and said anything we wanted help with or anyone we were looking to connect with. In just a few months I was growing that circle a little wider each meeting.

From there, I started offering “tupperware”-style workshops.

I reached out to the women in my coffee circle and asked if anyone wanted to host a workshop for their community- I would present an interactive, 2 hour workshop on a topic they could choose (from some I had ready to go). They supplied the space and invited the people. I brought the content and experience (and sometimes some wine and cheese). I always got at least 5-8 women and often more, and at the end invited them to a consultation call with me. From those workshops I signed clients, made connections, and sometimes even got more offers to host the workshops to other women’s communities.

There were many other ways that I grew roots in my community and became a person whom people recognized and approached in the grocery store, on the street, at parties-I teach these tools  so my clients know how to be authentic and genuine and grow their businesses without ad spend or feeling douchey.

BUT: the most crucial first step is seeing clearly how you’re blocked around visibility. How fear of fraud/imposter syndrome is getting in your way- if you skip THAT work, then the outer tools will fall flat. You won’t see the results you want. It will feel HORRIBLE and uncomfortable- this was step number one that I had to get over in order to even REACH OUT to people at first.

If you KNOW that discomfort with visibility or fraud fear is costing you income, empowerment, leadership, clients, or WORSE… if you KNOW that it’s holding you back from the work you’re here to do…the ways you’re here to make the world a better place…