Navigating life milestones and business growth through the power of community
This week I'll be talking about community at the FemFestival, here is my tribute to the communities I've joined or created and the profound role they've played in my life and business as a woman.
I’m VERY excited to be talking at this year’s FemFestival about community, when reflecting on the role of community it’s actually underpinned some fairly critical points in my life over the last 4 years; moving cities, becoming a relatively new(ish) first time mama and launching not one, but two, new businesses. But community doesn’t always come easily, having intention, showing up authentically and engaging consistently all help you to maximise community value.
As part of this week’s article I’m going to share:
- having intention
- opportunity through community
- leveraging communities for help
- some really useful advice on using community to support your business
There may also be not one, but two, discount codes hiding somewhere down the bottom of this article.
Having intention with community
After 3 moves in 5 years, we moved to Bath in 2020, it was then I found myself talking about the need for community. When the pregnancy test turned positive in 2021, amidst the whirlwind of joy and excitement, I knew that living miles away from family would mean I need to find support elsewhere as I navigate parenting.
“I made it my intention to find a tight-knit community of women in the local area. Being clear on intention when it comes to joining or building a community hugely helps you to get the most out of it.”
In my efforts to build community, I went to pregnancy yoga and when the baby arrived, it was mum and baby classes. Even a year down the line I’m still bumping into women I met last year, with the line I’ve gotten used to hearing “You’re Huxley’s mum!”
This is just one example of community, but there are other types of community I’ve really benefited from. As I build my coaching practices, I had a separate intention to practice and test out group facilitation. I was thrilled to speak at an Agile in the Ether community meet up about difficult conversations earlier this Summer. I gave a short overview of definitions, lived examples, followed by some big questions and the response I got was pure and raw, and yet another reason to reaffirm my love for coaching.
Being clear on intention when it comes to joining or building a community hugely helps you to get the most out of it. For example, I joined the community of Doing it for the Kids with finding service-providers like coaches or accountants who I could connect with, likewise, I’m always happy to support and offer members of the community some coaching or mentoring when it comes to careers, business and marketing.
While these communities have all created safe corners of the world in which I can retreat, reflect, complain and laugh. In showing up authentically and honestly, I’ve been able to connect and share my mission, in turn, growing my own personal platform and business offering.
Opportunity through community
It was through my mama community that I found opportunity to develop a business offering of pre/postnatal training and group classes in Bath.
Through talking to the women in my community that made me realise how the care pathway for new mums can drop off in terms of physical healing, including pelvic floor rehabilitation; it can take months to see a pelvic floor physiotherapist on the NHS, the alternate private care is ££. It can also feel a little like the Wild West returning to exercise after having a baby with very little offering in terms of basic circuit training to rebuild strength and fitness.
The tight-knit community I’d built up of other women around me became my allies in supporting me in the early days of re-launching my personal training business. I was so pleased to have a number of friends join me for my first group programme.
It’s important to call out how connection and collaboration within a community can really inspire creativity and hold you accountable in doing something new and scary. In this instance, a community I’d grown for personal gain helped me to put my coaching skills out into the world, and once this started to happen, it all started to snowball.
Leveraging community to grow your business
Beyond the safety net of my own friends, I knew in order to extend my reach and grow my business effectively I needed to continue to widen the net. But if I wanted to continue growing a community with intention, I needed to be clear on my mission statements:
- Executive coaching: inspire women to make a positive change (Flux&Fly)
- Fitness coaching: educate and empower women about exercise to help them feel good during and after pregnancy (Coaching with Olivia)
With these missions clear, I could segment the audience group I’m looking to connect with. Missions should be aligned to purpose and it should be enough to fuel a full conversation over coffee or several blog posts - it’s also what underpins the people you connect with and the community you build.
The secret to business growth
In the commercial sense, a community is simply another term for network. In our increasingly digitised world, a successful online network or community, is one which feels honest and authentic. Authenticity doesn’t come from posting quotes or dog pictures, it comes from showing up and sharing opinions on things that matter to you and your audience.
In October, on my PT business Instagram account, I reached 1.3k accounts, making 9k impressions with new and engaging content, as I launch my next programme tomorrow I’m pleased to say I’ve hit my targets! Engagement has led to conversions and it feels awesome.
I’m in no way an expert, but if you’re feeling stuck, here are a few ideas to help you engage with new audiences:
- Assess your priority platforms for reaching target audience;
- Start releasing products/services - small, simple products/services like pop-up classes to start making noise
- Give your customers something to talk about; referrals or discounts
- Collaborate with others who can help grow your network; talk at events if relevant
- Connect and meet up with others in networking events; the last freelance gig I got by going to some after-work drinks
Last but not least, your DM inbox is your best friend, an opportunity to connect and build rapport with your followers or connections. All of these activities I call community building and can help build bridges otherwise a fairly barren digitised world.
My next challenge is to use the model I’ve applied to my PT business, to my coaching business, watch this space.
So as I close out, I want to say a huge thank you to YOU. Firstly, because you’re still reading but because you are part of this new and fresh community of like-minded people interested in coaching conversations.
By way of thank you, I’d like to offer subscribers the opportunity to book a one-off power hour coaching call with me at the rate of £75 (RRP £100). To redeem the discount, book in a rapport call with me quoting COFFEE75.
It’s also not too late to join the FemFestival today, use the discount code BOARD23 to gain access for £5.
