For the Love of Online Community
Written by: Adrienne Yeardye; Creatively Hip
All the cool kids are doing it. Professional online membership community.
Is it the newest trend? Not even a little bit. It’s been an active business tool for over ten years, and like a program running in the back ground, it can be one of the greatest drivers for your business. More than that, it can be one of the easiest ways to streamline and accelerate your business.
That’s the door I want to open for you this week. That’s my expertise, and I’m excited to share it.
Essentially, your community becomes your co-workers, your staff, and your collective mentor. In an online community, you’re not a lone trailblazer. And especially here in Consciously Woman, we are a cherished and already well-cultivated network, aligned to the concept of “high vibrations” or like-mindedness. Think of it as mainlining your own self-confidence (anti-autoimmune disorder btw, but that’s another story).
Plus… No distractions. No ads. No fear mongering. Your jerky neighbour is not there, and no one is going to criticise you for doing what you do in the world. Your “competition” is not there either, triggering your fears or self doubt. You just get to be you, like the big you. In my line of work, that’s a critical base camp culture for advanced alternative health care.
In my work as a Homeopath and a small business coach, far too many of my follow-ups start with “so… this is silly, but last week on Facebook….” Or, “I didn’t do what you suggested because I read the opposite on Facebook, my friend posted it.” Or worse than that, at social engagements, I’m the seller of lies; I’m a hypocrite if I drink a beer.
People make people sick, and I’m willing to wager public online community is one of the greatest risks to our health and happiness, next to Herr Google himself. Then we bring it home to our loved ones. The concept is simple, but the solution takes commitment to cultivating positive experience, positive interactions – on all levels.
But…
How on your game, supported and inspired do you feel after a live meeting with a colleague? This now includes, professional network meetings that have moved into your new Zoom office.
How much clarity and energy do you have to fulfill your purpose? How many ideas and solutions are cultivated between us? In an online community like what we are building here, that is the energy you can access any time – and on your own time.
Professional online community stands to give you full-time access to that feeling, that version of you.
Professional online membership communities are about focus – the kind of focus you need to fulfill your purpose. And in my heart’s experience, boundaried communities provide the personal support people like us need to strengthen our greatest gift to the world – our sensitivity. When this is normalised and honoured, it becomes powerful and balanced. It becomes easy. Effectively, your “co-workers” also become a battery. You can plug into us any time – even if it’s just for some stoke! You’ll find as we go along here, growing and developing this space, you’ll naturally experience a lot of celebration. We all start doing better individually, because we are doing it together, and we are immersed in culture of positivity and validation.
How many times a day does your regular engagement on Facebook or other social feeds spark feelings of outrage, division, or not good enough?
My personal and professional goal is to create online environments that, instead, fuel happiness, true connection, and confidence. The work you do matters. Your energy matters. People follow you, emulate you, and look to you for how they create their own lives.
Protecting your energy and immersing yourself in like-energied, purposed, and clearly-intentioned relationships is the best tool you can have. It’s how you build strong foundations for all the aspects of your life – especially your business.
Professional online membership community is how you create and nurture those aspirational “world wide” connections.
A little about my history; I’m a walking testimonial. Online membership community is exactly how I have maintained my own lifestyle, grown my businesses, and mentored many others into successful businesses and practices as well.
In 2008, after 3 years of struggling in private practice, I knew my Homeopathy business wasn’t going to be successful where I was living, but I didn’t want to give it up. I planned to close my practice, and move to a larger Homeopathic centre… but alas, it was the beginning of the winter! I committed the winter to one last rip of a ski season. I met my patients in the mornings, skied in the afternoons, and took an online coaching course to “stay learny.” Part of why people come to me for Homeopathy is for the psychology, so it also counted as ongoing training (read business expense and something I could write off). The company used a membership site platform for their program and the students were from all over there world. It blew my mind. I was suddenly connected to a huge network of savvy alternative business owners, and better, it showed me how I could take my patients with me. They loved it.
I loved it too. Eventually I started working for that school as a coach and a program manager, and it became the side-hustle that taught me how to do everything I do now. Today, I still see clients from home, I mentor a well-connected group of colleagues, and I am developing this community platform for the express purpose of supporting, hosting, connecting, and promoting other alternative wellness professionals. I think it’s more important than ever, and I know from experience that online services will be the exact way information like ours serves the next generation. Heck – I think COVID created the opportunity for it to be achieved in this generation. The demand is there because it’s a need. You supply the services and solutions.
These are the results you can expect from participating in here this week – and beyond.
Consciously Woman is not an ephemeral Facebook post, a business card you lose, a free course you forgot to take, or a coffee date that stood you up. We’re right here, 24/7 and we’re growing.
How do we do it?
It’s bone simple: engage; share; read.
Inspire.
Co-mentor.
Bonus: go back and read one of your responses a few weeks later. YOU will witness your own (freaking) genius. You will blow your own socks off – not just ours.
Bonus-bonus? Your replies to the discussion content (aka resonant leaders of your caliber) can be repurposed as blog posts for your own websites. Up-level your own content with your own thought, the things YOU wrote.
In conclusion, let’s talk about the elephant in the room:
Am I selling you anything? What’s my offer? I mean, in normal cookie-cutter marketing or networking communites, there is always a sell. Online marketing gurus teach us that. It’s a template: connection; inspiration; free information; a product or service.
Welp, YES. Damn straight. I am absolutely selling you something here this week, so dig in. Here’s my list:
– co-mentorship; collectively, how many courses have we taken? How much collective information do we have together? Just ask us! Never take another course again, OR, which ones are the most valuable? OR – do them together as a team.
– trusted service; if one of us here does not have the service you need, one of us definitely “knows a guy”
– trusted referrals; YOUR business does better when you have a talented, reputable, and reliable team of colleagues (that increases the value of your service). When your client is not served well by your referral, it reflects on you. It registers as a “prescription” that failed; this breaks their trust.
– your time
– your energy
– 24/7 distraction-free and authentic connection to your most valuable connections
– confidence (yours and reflected); marinate in your own genius, see and feel it validated
– YOU are a rare bird in the company of rare birds; rare birds are valued and exceptional
– ZERO push back. None. It’s not in you to be or give that to your colleagues, and we won’t allow it
– proof of your genius; when you buy it and own it yourself, you’ll never have to sell it again
And finally, do I have a guarantee? Absolutely.
Since 2008, I have personally and professionally witnessed hundreds of business owners and practitioners launch into their “best case scenario” success stories. And better? They did it on their own terms, with less effort, and with significantly less time, money and energy spent. For real.
Online community is happening already, and it matters. Professionally filtered membership community give you direct connection to the people who support you where it matters the most – as the fullest expression of your purpose.
Why do I care so much about all this? Why have I dedicated 10 years of my amazing life to this? It’s simple:
Businesses like yours matter.
YOU are literally selling the future with your work. It is imperative that you succeed.
Is there a call to action this week too?!
Of course there is.
Here’s your professional group-coaching homework:
How do you feel after an hour of Facebook? How professionally satisfied are you?
Are you supported and inspired, or are you alone and inadequate?
Notice.
It matters.
YOU are a state of the art experience – and your energy is shaping the world.
24/7.
