078: Creating a positive + profitable community culture w/ Jennifer Battle
Creating a positive + profitable community culture
With guest Jennifer Battle
My friend Jennifer shares all her best tips for building thriving and engaged communities — you really don’t want to miss this!
In the world of online business, it seems like everyone has a community — whether it's paid or it's free — tied to their brand, which isn't really surprising at all, considering it's a pretty effective way of encouraging deeper relationships with the people you want to impact. But anyone who's ever tried knows that there's more to building a thriving and engaged community than simply setting up a free Facebook group and waiting for people to join and start connecting with each other and with your brand. I've seen so many communities go absolutely tits up. So where do we go wrong, and how can we fix it? I've got the perfect guest to help us sort all this out:
Jennifer Battle is an online CEO, business strategist, and founder of the mastermind community Success Revolution Society. She's been around the professional streets for more than 20 years now, and she's truly mastered the art of developing meaningful connections in business. Today, her work focuses on helping entrepreneurs build values aligned and profitable networks and communities so that they can experience success on their own terms, surrounded by people who bring them joy. In today's episode, Jennifer shares with us the secrets behind creating a positive and profitable community culture.
Everyone has culture — whether you have created it on purpose or not, there is a culture there. You can either guide it or create it, or it will be created for you.
— Jennifer Battle
Episode links
Jennifer’s amazing mastermind community, Success Revolution Society (I’m in there!)
-
[00:03:02] Naturally shy girl creates genuine connections.
[00:07:59] Pandemic sparks emergence of various community types.
[00:10:55] Community needs purpose and values, not just monetisation.
[00:16:02] Coaches focus on sales, neglecting community experience.
[00:18:28] Culture shapes everyday experiences, guides behaviour, and requires engagement.
[00:25:33] Purpose is key; communities transform members.
[00:29:15] Branding is vital for community building.
[00:31:47] Importance of community, purpose, delivery and investment.
[00:35:13] Crystal clear purpose: key to successful communities
[00:38:14] Group success requires long-term, two-way communication.
[00:43:29] Friend's unique membership club helps clients transition.
-
Disclaimer: The following transcript has been auto-generated and then cleaned up – and while the general flow of the conversation is there, it’s probably not 100% accurate.
Petchy: This is so exciting. Jennifer, I'm so happy that you're joining me for this episode — welcome!
Jennifer: Thank you so much. I am very happy to be on the show, really excited to talk to you. Plus, we just have really fun and engaging conversations, so maybe your listeners will feel like they're sitting in on two friends, just having a cup of tea, chilling, and talking about the world.
Petchy: That sounds perfect. We're going to talk about all things community today, aren't we? And how a positive community culture goes way beyond something that's just nice to have. It's actually a really valuable business asset. But before we dive into that, I would love to invite you to introduce yourself so that our listeners can get to know you a little bit better. So spill the beans. Who is Jennifer? Business or personal — whatever you feel is important that people know about you and the work that you do.
Jennifer: Yeah, it's so funny. I always struggle with how to describe myself. But I would say I am actually a naturally shy person. No one ever believes that about me. But I think that's what makes me very good at what I do. And what I do is I work with people in helping them create really genuine connections, whether that's through community or their own personal business networks, so that they could really run a business or have a profession where they feel good about the people that they're engaging with every day. And a lot of times people say that's kind of hokey, or it's not very exciting. I don't have a fancy title like Sales Strategist or Marketing Extraordinaire. But I do think at the heart of what we do is relationships. The shy girl piece comes in because oftentimes when we think about connection and relationships, it's this big external thing. It's like how do we make ourselves exciting for other people? Or how do we talk to people? And really what I talk about and what I do really starts with the individual. And I learned that because when I was growing up as this big shy kid, I couldn't speak to anybody. And what I had to go through in order to really connect with people had a lot to do with more personal growth and seeing humans as humans. And so that's how I approach my work, which I think makes me a little bit different than other people out there. Because when you read the books, it's always like here's three steps to have the perfect coffee chat. Or this is how you connect with people, or this is how you create a community. And it's always talking about posts and engagement strategies. But I approach it a little bit differently. It really starts with the individual. It starts from within, it starts from being confident in who you are and what you're doing, what your message is and how you value things. And yeah, that's kind of how I got started in this kind of work. Fun fact: I worked in higher ed for 15 years at a university, did various roles there, mostly in strategy. And I’d always joke around and say if it was a big complex project that nobody wanted, that's what they gave me, that's what I did. And then I made a huge pivot and left that job and went full time as an entrepreneur into fitness. And I did fitness coaching and bodybuilding for several years. Then I decided I wanted to enjoy being fat and happy. And so I stopped doing the fitness piece and focused on the thing that really lit me up, which is community and connection and creating these genuine relationships with people.
Petchy: I love all of this and I can so relate as a fellow shy person. I was so shy growing up. Like if someone spoke to me, I would wish for a hole to open up in the ground so I could jump into it. It's like, don't look at me, don't look at me.
Jennifer: For real. I was remembering years ago, maybe I was eight or something, there was a small local mall, which has since closed, and all the kids went there. And my mom took me and we were in this jewellery store and I saw these earrings that I absolutely wanted so bad. And this is me back in the age, but probably like late 80s, seeing these very gaudy, tacky plastic earrings. I'm sure they were horrible, but I wanted them so badly. And my mom's like, you can have them if you can ask the sales lady how much they cost. I left those suckers in the store. I never bought those earrings. So when I tell people I was shy, I'm kind of like you. It's like, oh, no, I actually have to speak to people. My report cards always said, good kid, wish you would speak more in class. So I really love to challenge the idea that connecting with people is this big extroverted kind of thing, because it hasn't been the case for me. And if it was that, I probably would have failed miserably.
Petchy: Yeah, thank goodness that's not the case. I'm just going to dive straight in, I think. Let's chat. Communities. It seems like everyone has a community these days, and I think it's because everyone is craving that deeper connection with their people, but not everyone manages to pull that off. I've seen so many communities that started off great, the best of intentions, but then they evolved into something entirely different from what their founder wanted or from what the members wanted even. And I see so many dead, quote unquote communities as well, groups that are just eerily quiet or that even fizzle out completely and get shut down. And so I feel like we really do have a lot to talk about today. So I would like to ask you, would you dive into telling us a little bit more about the importance of community in the world of online business? Why is it such a powerful tool?
Jennifer: Absolutely. I love communities and I also am frustrated with communities that I see right now. Similar to your observations, I think we really hit a big peak, especially during the pandemic, because here we are, all over the world, isolated, and online business was already very isolating. Most of us are working from home. We don't necessarily go out into the world unless maybe you have a co-working space, but we have the other parts of our lives to kind of fill in those blanks. Pandemic comes along and really changes that completely. So then you start to see a lot of communities, groups popping up. You start to see Facebook and Circle and Mighty Networks as software starting to support this concept of community. And everybody jumps on. But my experience with communities is this is how I was taught: get a Facebook group, invite people in, post a lot of stuff, and when people post stuff, try to get them on a sales call. It's just… that's not really what community is. What people are looking for inside of a community is connection. And until people realise that, they're going to continue to start up communities that will fail over and over again. So when I've noticed communities, they kind of have fallen typically into three categories. There's what I call the prestige community. So you see people are like, oh, you have to have $100,000, you have to have been in Forbes or you have to have a high ticket offer. And the whole concept of these communities is to create this aura of expertise and we all got this. And the only people who are in my community are people who are at this level. The second type of community that I see is what I call a newbie community. And that tends to be like the people who are brand new. It's a great place, there's a lot of energy. People are asking questions like, what colour should I use for my branding? Or I need to do a lead magnet or I need to do something like that. And then the third type of community I've seen are sales communities where people are told, hey, we're going to refer, we're going to collaborate, we're going to sell, we're going to build each other up. And I feel like all of those three categories are wonderful, but they really need elements of each other in order to survive.
Petchy: I totally agree. I've seen so many communities that turned from a friendly group of people connecting with each other and it's just turned into a sales channel. And purely that for the person who founded it. And yes, it's their group, their rules, they do them. They're the ones who brought all the people into the group. So by all means, go ahead and use it to share your stuff. But when that becomes the only focus, I completely lose interest in that group.
Jennifer: I think the challenge with all these communities is that in the beginning you have to define some things first. And I also think there's an attitude or perspective that I feel is missing. Most people in the online business space are creating communities to monetize. Like at the end of the day, they're trying to monetize something. Either the community leader is trying to have a group where people pay them or maybe it's a lead magnet that goes into the community as a nurturer or a lead magnet or something that eventually goes to a sale. People are joining the community to monetise, monetise, monetise. And that's why people and then it surprises me why people start to feel that it's icky. It's like, well, you put the focus on the wrong thing. And so I have been a big proponent. I don't think there's anything wrong with monetization, but it can't be the thing that you lead with. The thing that you lead with has to be the purpose and the values. Why are we coming together since why are we craving such a community? And how do I get that to people? So you know that I run Success Revolution Society, which is a community for entrepreneurs who are really good at what they do and really want to connect with like minded people. The purpose first and foremost is to create a culture of deep connection. Does that turn to money? Yes. Do I monetize it in some way? Yes. Do my community members buy each other's stuff, hire each other, collaborate? Absolutely. But that's not what we lead with. The number one thing that I want to create first is connection. Because when you create that connection and trust and support of one another in a genuine way, then, yeah, the doors just open wide up. Of course I'm going to hire you to do something for me because we've established that foundation. So I think a lot of times when people are leading with money or leading with monetization, they completely forget the reason why people are coming together in the first place, which is something a lot deeper and more meaningful and emotionally satisfying than just the business outcome.
Petchy: I love that. And I love that you specifically spoke about values because, well, you know this already and my listeners will know this already, but I am very sort of value centred in the work that I do. I emphasise values a lot when I work with my clients, and that's because they are such an important and a really, really strong, almost compass for your business that you can lean on and help you when you are taking actions or making decisions of what direction you are going to take things in. So it absolutely makes sense that your values should also be the base of your community, 100%.
Jennifer: And I think that's the challenge with a lot of folks is because we talk about values a lot, we talk about them. But I feel like just like a lot of things, values are actions, right? I mean, the words that we use are just the words that describe or should describe our actions. So my community's values are deep connection. No surprise there equity and inclusion and daring authenticity. So being able to be very honest and speak your mind without necessarily without being a jerk, I'll just say it that way. But when I wrote those things down, the real question I had as the community facilitator is so if petchy, if you're in my community, how do you experience that? Do you feel like we are doing things to help create deep connection? Do you feel or see evidence of equity and inclusion? Do you see people being authentic? And do you feel able to do that? And that's my job as a community leader to make sure that those values are center stage, where if I never told you what those words were, you could basically describe those three elements of what your experience is inside of my community. So when people are values aligned and they're in the right community, the purpose is aligned, people know why they're there. Then you start to create this wonderful affinity to your community's purpose. So again, values are one thing, purpose is a second thing. Like why are we all getting together? And I find that community members start to disengage when those things are not clear.
Petchy: Yeah, I find the same thing, actually. There's just something about someone who is very vocal about what they stand for and they're not afraid to share it. And because they are so transparent about that, even before people are brought into their communities, the chances are they're going to bring the right people into that community.
Jennifer: Right.
Petchy: Because the people who don't identify with what they're saying or who disagree with what they're putting out there in the first place, they're not going to sign up or they're not going to join that community in the first place.
Jennifer: Yeah, and I see a lot of coaches who talk about communities or memberships. They're all talking about the sales part, right. They're talking about the marketing or the launch or the funnel to get people in. But I rarely hear people talk about what happens when you're there because then people get all frustrated because their retention is terrible or it's not good, or people are complaining, yet they are not focused on delivering, of the quality of the experience. So, yeah, I think it's a real challenge because I think people hear “community” and they think chaching chaching, or they think monetization, where they should really be thinking about how am I delivering this consistent experience. Just a fun fact, and I wrote something about this not too long ago. I said I think Facebook groups were such a great idea until Facebook started to institute the ability to put in rules. And the reason I say that is not because I think the rules are bad. Like be kind or no hate speech. Yeah, I think that's important. I don't want that either. However, I feel that most of the community leaders started to rely on, I'm just going to tell you how you should be in this community and that's it. And then they are surprised that people don't necessarily act in accordance with the rules. It's not so much about what you write, it's about how you behave. It's the consistency of your values, it's how you show up every single day and how people experience the community. In my community, we have no written rules, I have no application process. And people always think that I have somehow specially selected people that's like, yes, but not in the way that you think. People are thriving in our community because it is ridiculously clear who we are and what you're going to get. And hopefully everyone has the experience that once they're inside, it's exactly what they thought it was before they joined, because that's how we're continuing to reinforce those norms and values and the purpose. Yeah.
Petchy: So what we're really talking about here is culture, right? You're creating a community culture where people feel at home.
Jennifer: Yes.
Petchy: So what role does culture play? How does it impact the success of a community? What are your thoughts?
Jennifer: Culture is so fun because everyone has culture. Whether you have created it on purpose or not, there is a culture there. You can either guide it or create it, or it will be created for you. So the culture piece is important because it, to me, speaks to the things that people experience every day. So it's how you're translating the things that you believe in into your everyday activities, and it's how you reinforce those activities. So, for example, let's take, like, selling or promoting oneself. Now, we've all been in those communities where we go in, and you've got whether it's one or everyone or whatever my friend calls it the Humping Dog syndrome. Like, someone attaches to you, and they just won't stop and, like, buy my stuff, buy my stuff, see my thing. And when she said it, a light bulb went off because I'm, like, everyone can relate to that experience of that very overexcited dog that just won't let go. And so versus we've hopefully also been in communities where people can respectfully present their offers, and it's not a big deal. That has a lot to do with a culture of respect and why you're there. And if someone has set up a, hey, we are here to connect, we're here to support, we're here to uplift each other, we're here to do whatever, and that there are actions and activities that support that. If the leader is modelling that I think modelling is huge when it comes to, you know, that really determines how the whole selling or creating offers goes. So modelling is a huge piece of culture. And so when I started Success Revolution Society, I said, people are going to learn from what I do, not from what I say. So I remember saying I wanted people to be authentic. And so one of the things that I do and I don't think you've experienced this yet because our welcome session is tomorrow. During the welcome session, I will probably tell you one of a couple of ridiculously, horribly embarrassing stories about myself because I can't wait. Oh, gosh, it's not a good look for me. It doesn't make me look smart. Good. It's truly an embarrassing story. And not that I want every single person to embarrass themselves or share, but I want people to know that this is a place where it's safe for you to be really exactly who you are. We want the culture to be like, I'm bringing my real self. So, yeah, I can talk about all my years and strategy, and I can talk about my accolades. But I'm also going to tell you about the horrible time where I did the horrible thing that only like, Success Revolution Society and my husband know about and maybe some neighbours with a ring system. But because I wanted to model the fact that being vulnerable and open was okay. And so as the leader, I have to model the behaviours that I want people to see, right? So if I, for example, some subtle things that I notice in Success Revolution Society, we are very active in the chat, very encouraging, very empowering, and that's because a couple of our founding members and myself, in the beginning, that's how we started. We're like, hey, if someone's talking, it's like, hey, I love what you're doing. This is really smart. This is a really interesting take on blah, blah, blah. And it's very affirming and empowering and not in a fake toxic kind of way. So that becomes part of that culture. Little things like when we take turns, let's say we had to all introduce ourselves, we use a term: I'm going to bump this person, meaning I'm going to pass the baton to this person. So it's like, well, I'm going to bump you petchy. So it's like the little actions and behaviours that you model for your group and that you continue to reinforce over and over that help you create a culture of the community. I think the challenge is when people think of groups, especially as online business owners, they think of it as an offer, a one to many offer. I don't have to do as much heavy lifting. So they tend to be disengaged from their group. They want to post or they want to put something out there or show up with their live and then let it go. But communities, just like anything else, require someone to really get on in there, like be in there, be active, be thinking about your members experiences and be thinking about what is the culture, what are the norms, what are the things that I want to reinforce every single day? And eventually when you do that enough, then the culture can move forward with a little bit less involvement. But someone always has to be engaged in thinking about that cultural experience for your members.
Petchy: Do you know what? I think you did a really, really good job of communicating this even before I signed up. So full disclaimer. Yes, I just signed up to Jennifer's group. I'm loving it so far. I'm not getting paid to say this, but I'm very picky about the communities that I take part in because I'm investing not just my money, but my time. And I want to make sure that any community that I become a part of, it's going to be worthy of my time. I want to make sure that there are people in there who I will feel like I can be in community with and not just like random people sitting alongside each other. And for that reason, I think when I did sign up, I did hover for a long time. I was on the fence, I was like, is this right? But it sounds so good. And in the end, you just made it so clear that this is a space that I really want to be a part of. When I entered the group and started to interact with the other members there, I felt comfortable already being vulnerable and sharing stuff. So congrats, you did a really great job.
Jennifer: Thank you. It really is all of you as well. I mean, every single person inside the community contributes to the feel and that's why I always get excited with new members not for the monetization pieces, but because everyone's adding their little secret ingredient to the community. And I've just really enjoyed having new members come in and contribute the things that they do, the energy, the attitudes, et cetera. We're all values aligned, we all generally support and believe the same things, but the way we express it is so unique and diverse that it just makes the entire group fun and exciting and something that I look forward to all the time.
Petchy: So I bet everyone who's listening is going to be thinking, oh, how do I do that? That's what I want for my group. So I guess it's one thing to create this sort of friendly and welcoming and inclusive community culture in general, but then to align it with your brand and your business strategy as well, that's going to take a little bit of extra consideration. So I would love to chat a little bit about how we can marry those two things, so to speak.
Jennifer: No, that's a perfect question because yeah, we all want to have great communities, but every single community is going, even great communities, they should feel a little bit different. I think the thing that is really important is the purpose. And if people would take time to really be clear about the community's purpose. And if you think about and you're the branding expert, not me. So if I say some weird stuff, please feel free to correct me. But when you think about your brand, you think about your brand values and your messaging and that kind of thing, those should very much be expressed inside of your community, inside of the why you're getting together in the first place. And I would challenge people to think beyond the monetization question. So beyond monetization, because you can monetize anything, right? You don't need to have a community. You could have a one on one, you can have a group program, you could have a physical product, you can have a service. So why a community? Why is that so important? How does that serve your purpose? How does that align with the person that you are or the way that you want to roll in this world? The purpose is so important. And I would love people to spend a couple of brainstorming days, like, put down some ideas, do your thing, come back to it. Put down some more ideas, come back to it. Until you start to really understand why community is the reason, the way that you want to express who you are in your brand and in your business, then ask yourself, what do I want? My members? What do I want their transformation to be in the community? Because your community, whether it's free or paid, is still an offer. There still needs to be a transformation. So if day one; someone comes into Success Revolution Society. My ultimate goal is deep connection, but I want the transformation to be that by the end of the year, they feel like they have a complete, personal, wonderful network of people who they not only feel comfortable with as humans, but have also worked with in some way. Now some people work with might be podcast episode guesting, it might be people, we have a couple of people who've partnered together on an offer. We've had people who've partnered together on a more broad global impactful message. But my goal is at the end of that year that's what you've done. So then I work backwards and ask what needs to happen in your experience in my community for you to feel comfortable enough and to have the opportunity to execute that goal. So it really is the purpose why you're doing this, what you want their transformation to be and then to work backwards to figure out how is it that I create that transformation in my community.
Petchy: There seems to be a lot of overlap here with what's the central segment of my Brand it! framework, which is the brand base, which is your purpose, your vision and your mission, your values and your goals. And this idea of just taking the bird's eye view and looking ahead into the future as well of like, what is your vision and how can we get to that? How can we get one step closer to that vision with everything that we do? How can we get one step closer to our goals for everything that we do? So if you have a strong brand strategy and you have really solid foundations for your brand, I reckon it's going to be a lot more, it's going to be easier to create a community that then will help you achieve your vision and that aligns with your purpose.
Jennifer: I 100% agree. I started with strategic branding before I launched my community. And so just a plug to anybody out there who thinks branding is simply just the visuals or some cutesy messages. It really does kind of anchor your personal beliefs, how you want to show up in your business, how you want to show up in the world, what kind of impact do you want to have, who you want to impact. And then every time I was doing something in my community, I would refer back to my brand strategy, which contained my values, which contained my purpose, which contained who I wanted to help and why. So it really is an important piece of any business, but really with community. And I'd love to say that I'm this super smart guru and this is the first time you're hearing that no, these are tried and true and the most foundational parts of our business. It's like to operate our business in alignment with our values and to get people a transformation. However, that's not what people talk about when they talk about communities. So I feel like it's my job or my calling to make sure that people are aligning the basics and the tried and true things and the foundational, incredibly important foundational things, to how we express that in communities as well. I feel like sometimes communities become this like one off thing and then people wonder why it dwindles or it fizzles out or people become less engaged or your facilitator can't understand, like, I want this to happen, but it's not happening this way. It's because we've stepped away from the things that are foundational to our businesses, our lives. We think all of a sudden the community is just this like, whiz, bang, cute little marketing tactic that we can employ that doesn't take the same kind of consideration and effort.
Petchy: But I think if you look at your community as if it's like a product inside your brand as well, because you could create so many different communities that all are aligned to your values. If I think of my values, I could probably create like five or ten different communities, catered to different audiences that are all going to help me go in the direction, the general direction that I want to take my brand and the world. So how do you narrow it down? Like, how do you focus on the one that really is going to light you up?
Jennifer: Well, that's such a great question. She's thumping me, everybody. No, I love questions like this because it requires some real deep thought and I guess the first thing that immediately pops to mind is you have to understand or you have to decide, I should say, where community fits in your overall strategy. I have some people who use their community as a nurture environment. I have some people whose main offer is their community. I have some people where their community is just part of an offer suite. I think that kind of goes back to your purpose. Why do you want community? Why is it so important or what is the aspect of community that if it went away, there would be a hole it's missing? You can't necessarily duplicate this particular piece with another offer. So I've seen people, for example, courses. A course can be a flat course, it became course with a group. Or you can even offer a course in a more community based setting, meaning that it's delivered live. People are engaging with each other. And so I would ask that course creator, or I'd want the course creator to consider what is it that's critical about the person having that course experience that would say that this needs to be a community kind of delivery set up. You know what I mean? So I'm talking around it a little bit, but I guess I think that community is so it takes a lot to deliver it well. And you have to ask yourself, like, if I'm creating a community, why am I creating it and why is community the best way to do it? If it's not in a community, will people miss out on something that's exceedingly important to their experience? And if the answer is no, then maybe the community, having it delivered in a community format or having a community solution may not be the right thing for you. It might be more that I look at it as like, I couldn't do this if it weren't in community. The whole purpose of Success Revolution Society is the connection. And having that space where people can come together, that is the critical piece. I can't do that in a course. I can't teach people about coming together. I want people to actually come together. So the community aspect delivers something that's just mission critical to the work that I want to do. So I would say figure out what's mission critical. And if community is not mission critical, it's kind of a “nice to have”, you could do it, but if you want to do it well, are you going to want to invest the kind of time and facilitation and thought process that it really takes to create a long term, sustainable, thriving community? And if you don't, then don't do it.
Petchy: I see a lot of people having several groups as well. Maybe they have a free group that's connected to their course or maybe it's like a low cost group or it's like an entry level group and then they have another group that's slightly higher touch and that's their premium offer. And I'm kind of thinking “that's got to be hard to juggle”. And how do you prioritise? Where do you draw the line for how much you give to the free community versus how much do you give to the paid community before the paid members are going to start feeling like, hey, but these people are getting all of this and they're not paying. How do you balance that?
Jennifer: I think the people who do that really well are crystal clear on their purpose and the reason for getting together. And it's okay if the purpose is to nurture for a sale, right? It's okay. But there are also other aspects of when you say group versus community, sometimes I almost think of them as two different things because you can have a group that their whole concept is just a filter into another group. But if you want to have a community, I really do think certain pieces need to be in place. So I think the people who do that well, who balance multiple communities are crystal clear on what each one's purpose is and what each one's transformation is. Even if the transformation, and let's say their free group, is to get someone to the paid portion and it might be okay. So if I want to get someone to the paid offer aspect group, again, looking at that time to say, working backwards, how does that work? What are the things that need to happen? So I do think when you define your purpose, why you want to do that, it becomes a little bit clearer to develop that engagement plan or to develop that nurture plan or communications plan, or the actions inside of your community that lead to the outcome or the transformation that you want to get for each member. I still think it's a lot of work, and I would hope that people do spend that time being very purposeful about their actions and what they do and not just following this cute step by step guide they got from their coach one day about how to have a free group. And that's what I see. I think that's the thing that really caused me to join in and get in the community game. It's just I saw people who wanted to do it, but it was being executed so poorly across the board that I'm like, yeah. In my previous life, I used to run, like, stakeholder groups. So we would have a group of customers or a group of clients, or we'd have a group of union people, so people who were stakeholders. And there's a lot of work that goes into making sure that those groups are successful and defining why you're getting together in the first place is mission critical to having a successful outcome. So, yeah, I think for people who are juggling the groups, more power to them if they're doing it well. They are definitely spending a lot of time thinking about their why and how they're transforming their group members and making sure that the group members are getting out what they sought when they joined the community.
Petchy: So we've talked a lot about groups. We've talked about what's a good thing to do in your group, like how to make it a successful group, but we talked less about the downsides of things, like what happens, how do you prevent it from going tits up? Like, I've seen so many groups go tits up, like I said. So what are some typical challenges that someone will face when they start their community and how can they overcome those obstacles as well?
Jennifer: Oh, this is a fun question. The first thing I see a lot of is people not taking a long term view, right? They're like, I should get a group. I see this other person having a group. This looks really good. And they do the maths. They're like, oh, if I had a group of 100 people times 30 people who might convert to an offer, blah, blah, blah, they get really excited and they don't take the foundational steps like: do I want this? Am I going to invest the time? Is this a long term thing? Is it a short term thing? Am I going to try it for a year? Am I going to do that? Okay, so that's step one. So if you're thinking about starting a group, ask yourself, why do you want to start this group? How long are you going to invest? Is it going to be, I will try it for one year. And I very firmly believe that you should give these things at least a year. That might sound like forever in online business world land, but I think in one year you're going to learn a lot. The second thing I see is people considering a community or group one way. So it's like, okay, I'm going to have this group, I'm going to put out this information, I'm going to repurpose my content from my social media into my group and then it's going to be great. Everybody's going to be happy. That's really what I call one way thinking. Because you're not thinking about the other person's experience or listening or collecting feedback or their experience. You're just thinking about what you want from this member. A third thing is how do you ensure I think what I hear about the biggest complaint for many groups that I've been in, and even from people who've been group members, is that there's always like a bad apple. Like somebody's in the group and they're terrible or they're a bad fit, or they're the humping dog person who continues to do whatever or they're breaking the rules. You have to establish how you're going to create that super strong culture so that when someone is not a good fit, there is a course of action or set of things that you would do to either remove that person or give them the opportunity to opt out. So for example, in Success Revolution Society, I do my best to communicate the culture. I try to create experiences and invite people to things so that they can come and experience it firsthand. Every now and then though, someone joins and realises like, oh shit, this isn't for me. I was expecting this. I got something else. Or you know what, this is not exactly what I need at this stage in my business. I need something else. So we have that 1st 30 days where I'm like, hey, you can leave. No matter, you can leave. And I have a paid offer. So that's one of the ways I choose to do that. And I also try to make sure in that 1st 30 days that that person experiences almost everything that they have a very clear onboarding experience with the emails and when they have the welcome event and what they're completing. So that they are very much engaged that 1st 30 days so they can decide they have all the information to be like okay, this is good, or no, this is not a good fit. So you really have to make sure you have ways to not let bad culture stay. I don't want to call it bad culture, but bad fit because some of the people who have said, hey, this isn't for me, wonderful people, it's just for whatever reason, it just wasn't a good fit. And I don't want to ever hold someone in that group because then there's a lot of resentment or disengagement and then it's like the energy is bad. So I do think that that's something, and it can't just be your list of rules and then to have a big stick whacking people around like, oh, don't say that. I really do think that has a lot to do with the reinforcement of the values, norms, and culture. So what did I say? Long term two way communication and providing graceful exit opportunities for people who are not the right fit. I think that will go a long way into solving what I consider a lot of people's challenges. Most people will say, like, engagement is bad, but then when you're like, all right, well, why is it bad? And you start to diagnose the issue, it usually kind of comes back to those three things.
Petchy: So we all love a good success story, don't we? Oh, yeah. So I was wondering, I'm curious to know if you have any examples of entrepreneurs who have truly mastered this art of community building. I know there's you, obviously, but other than yourself.
Jennifer: Oh, gosh, I'm trying to think. I mean, I know there are a lot and I'm trying to think about who I want to talk about and why. All right, well, shout out to Erika Tebbens because although she doesn't necessarily have a dedicated community, she has community aspects to the stuff that she does. So I at least want to acknowledge her publicly because she does a fantastic job on this. Petchy: She really does. And we met through her so...
Jennifer: Yeah. But I'll point out somebody who's less connected, maybe to both of us, and is my friend Sophia Parra. Now, she has, I think, a unique membership called Coach Social, or I think now she's renamed it the Go to Coach Club. So it's more of a membership style. But there's definitely community events and whatever. I find that her community looks absolutely nothing like mine, but it's still so good because there is a lot of clarity in what you're getting from that community. She is very clear on how she shows up, and I think the actions and the way she shows up regularly for her clients really does help them move into that transition period. I know Sophia, I know her personality, I know her values, and it permeates throughout her entire program, her entire membership. So I've always loved engaging with her. I've been a member of that program, of her membership. I'm not a member, but I'd been a member in her membership for years. I've worked with her one on one. I've seen her in action in so many different areas and is such a clear extension of her brand and who she is and how she helps people. I just want to give her a high five. She's so good at that. So if you can check out Sophia Parra — S-O-P-H-I-A-P-A-R-R-A on instagram — and you can learn more about her Go-to Coach Club.
Petchy: I love how you said that it's an extension of her brand because that's what it should be like. If you want to utilise community as part of your brand, then it really needs to be an extension of yeah.
Jennifer: And she's a great example of someone who has lots of things because you'd asked a question before, it's like people have multiple groups. Now, she doesn't necessarily have multiple groups, but she also has a podcast, she also does emails, she also does text communication. And all of that very much feels like her brand, her message, her transformation. And remembered when I said, when you do something, ask yourself, what does a community add to that experience? And her community is a great example of how coming together and they do it again very differently than SRS, how coming together really adds to the experience of the members and the outcomes for the members. So, yeah, I think she's a really great example of a good community. Her community is paid. It's a membership offer, but does a really great job having an online backbone and a set of resources and bringing people together on a consistent basis where people are connecting with each other, helping each other. There's just a good vibe. I think she's good at that.
Petchy: Well, I'll definitely go and check that out, and I will link to that in the show notes as well for anyone who's listening and wants to check her out.
Jennifer: And I don't get paid for that either, so maybe I should have thought about that.
Petchy: I'll put a big disclaimer at the beginning of the episode.
Jennifer: Maybe I should get paid. I'm kidding.
Petchy: What a lovely way to round off the episode with a good old laugh, right? So I love a good giggle, but before we round off, I mean, we could chat for hours about this, but all good things must come to an end. Is that not so? But before we round off, I would love to ask you if you could pick just the one piece of actionable advice, the one key takeaway that you would like to leave our listeners with. What would that be?
Jennifer: Just one, you know, I like to talk, so let me think. I will say that the thing that will serve you best in creating community is being so clear on your real purpose, like why you're bringing people together. Because once you understand why it's so critically important for you to bring people together in community, I think the other questions, the other challenges that you might be having or the decisions you have to make really flow from there. Like, why is it so important? So that's my tip.
Petchy: Why is it so important? That's a really good question for a lot of things in life. So people who are listening are probably going to want to connect with you and learn more from you after hearing all these amazing insights about creating communities. So where can they find you? Where can they be in community with you?
Jennifer: Yes. I was going to say connect with me, be in community with me. The easiest way is to find me on Instagram and it's my first and last name, Jennifer Battle underscore. So that little line. So @jenniferbattle_. And I would say don't just hit follow, send me a DM. Because when I say my purpose and one of my values is deep connection, that really means that if you reach out to me, I'm going to want to talk to you. I'm going to want to know who you are, not in a crazy way. Don't worry, I'm not going to stalk you. But instagram at Jennifer battle underscore.
Petchy: Lovely. That link's going in the show notes as well. And I just want to say thank you so much for this wonderful conversation. It's been a joy.
Jennifer: Thank you. I really appreciate being able to talk about something that I'm extremely passionate about with a fellow scaredy cat, non extroverted person.
Petchy: Who would have thought someone so shy would sit here and have a podcast, right?
Jennifer: Yeah. I think the shy people are going to take over the world. So starting with your podcast, let's do it.
Petchy: Let's do it.
If you enjoyed this episode, remember to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one! I’d also be super grateful if you’d share my podcast with a biz friend or two, or leave me a review.
