#036: The Power of Community

Sitting on the front net of a Catamaran, surrounded by high-energy women I had only met in person the day before, I came to a startling realization.Community is a must for me, and a stronghold of my business. You see I’m the person people are surprised to find out is an introvert. In social settings, I am high energy, (sometimes funny), insightful and go-go-go. At home, I’m often reserved, escaping with a book from the requirement to be “on” so much. Yet, over and over again, I find myself building and fighting for a community. In fact, if you’re part of my private community #thegirlboss club on Facebook, you’ll soon see a distinct change in what we’re building. So why does this matter to you? Because YOU, my friend, like me crave community. I believe that with everything fiber in me, and we’ve likely never even met. It seems the demographic we’re in: women well beyond college building businesses on + offline, make is even more difficult to find true community. My husband read an excerpt from Brene Brown’s book Dare to Lead to me while we were sitting beach-side in Miami last week. Pardon my extreme paraphrasing, but it boiled down to when we (as a human race) feel exhausted in the season of life we’re in, it often manifests itself in extreme exhaustion and despondency. Sounds familiar? It’s often the catalyst for us self-diagnosing ourselves with a form of depression, being in a “funk,” needing more sleep, etc. Instead, its more likely that we’re lonely. Let that sink in for you. Lonely. When I thought about how profound that statement truly was, I realized, I’ve spent a good part of my entrepreneur years lonely — yet often blamed myself my inactivity. Perhaps this will resonate with you too. The antidote? Community. To bring you full circle, I was on a catamaran cruise in Miami a week ago with 12 women from around the world for the Mastermind I am a part of. Most of us had only met online through Zoom or watching each other’s Facebook lives — yet, instantly we were connected. We spent three days deep into each other’s businesses, finding out about each other’s lives and creating a bond, that I find hard to explain, even days later to people. <h2>What have I gotten out of this special community?</h2> Hope. Inspiration. So much laughter. Opportunities. New clients. Networking. New business ideas by seeing what others in different niches or industries are trying, and adapting it to my own business. Friendship. Raw, realness. And the thing that’s hard to quantify, since joining and throwing myself into a community of peers like myself, all striving to build businesses that matter, I found an anchor to keep me grounded when so much of the work I do is in isolation of my office. It’s like having an SUV of women to roll into the club with — if that truly was something I did. In 2019, I’m going so far as adding value to my business: community. If it’s as vital to your growth as a person, and for your business, then I have to prove it. <ol> <li>Find a group of people, like you, who believe in the same things, and invest in them deeply.</li> <li>Keep looking until you find it. Building true relationships as adults is difficult, I’m not going to lie. Make it a priority.</li> <li>Show up fully for those around you, and see how they show up for you. This is like the adage: You get out what you put in.</li> <li>Can’t find one? Start your own. Invite people to it. Make it part of your business, if it fits. Be willing to make time to create one.</li> </ol> Here’s how I’m building community into my platform: <h2>#the girlboss club</h2> Despite my annoyance with Facebook groups, I keep starting them. Because of my introverted perfectionism and the need to make everything right, I often have felt that the groups I run need more. What I realized, is they just need real. Real engagement. Real curiosity. Real support. I created the #girlboss club because I wanted there to be a safe container for women who were chasing success and were tired of apologizing for it. I found myself pretending to not want to be as successful as I am, or downplaying my growth in certain circles because it was frowned upon because I’m a mom. Seriously. So here’s what to expect in the group: <ul> <li>Welcome parties for new members coming in</li> <li>Questions to help you get to know each other — that don’t feel corny</li> <li>Opportunities to connect with each other monthly on our group coffee chat</li> <li>A place to promote your business</li> <li>A place to practice talking about what you do and for and why (it’s something the majority of women don’t have nailed down yet)</li> <li>A place for fun! Fun is one of my highest values, so if anything happens in the group it needs to be fun.</li> <li>Honestly, it’s a place to be social while growing a business</li> </ul> <h2>the #girlboss Mastermind</h2> The second community that I’ve created is my #girlboss Mastermind. It’s my container for women business owners who want to hit five-figure months. I saw over the past few years that what makes us successful isn’t how much we know. It’s how much we execute. So this group is for high-achieving women who want to attract clients with ease. It allows me to serve more clients, and give them 1:1 focus on how to attract more clients, how to nail their messaging, where to find them — without the 1:1 price tag. The women in there so far knock my socks off with how dedicated they are to building great businesses. Each month we work on their specific marketing and sales strategy, dive into the details of their business to see what’s working and what’s not, so they can get laser-focused on what they work on, instead of doing #allthethings. There are monthly implementation days to work on new marketing techniques and lead generation ideas together — and training created just for them. And then we chat it up on Voxer every day about how to create on-point messaging for the new things they’re building, how to take a conversation with a potential lead and guide it to a sale, how to build a funnel to streamline how they move people they’re already attracting to hire them over and over, or how to get repeat client work with ease. I am onboarding new members into the #girlboss Mastermind at the beginning of each month. If you are interested in at least finding out more and getting specific marketing plans and strategies to scale your revenue each month, let’s hop on a 15-minute call and talk about your business. Grab a spot by going to <a href="https://divimallory.wpengine.com/connect">divimallory.wpengine.com/connect</a> One of my favorite authors: Mitch Album wrote: <blockquote>“Devote yourself to your community around you and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”</blockquote>

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