273. Cultivating Community

The Global Retreat Adventure

Hello and welcome to Mentoring with Geraldine and the Bite-Size Podcast. How the devil are you? So there’s a lot going on for me right now. As you know, I recently got back from Europe. I’m finally only just over the jet lag, which killed me. I’ve got to say, it’s much harder coming this way than it is going that way.

That was pretty quick. But November is huge for me. And so I wanted to talk to you about cultivating your business, your people, and everything that’s going on with you to create that thriving community. So what’s going on for me in November? Well, on the second… In a couple of days time is the actual in-person retreat that I’m hosting here in Adelaide.

So I did one last year, and it was an amazing success. So I’ve planned another one for this year, which has been much more difficult to plan and organize because I was away in October. So last year I was doing all of the things in preparation. I had a good few weeks lead up. I haven’t had a good few weeks laid up.

I’ve had a good few days because of jet lag. I was looking at it and thinking, Oh yeah, it’s fine. I’ve got a week and a half. No, I didn’t because of jet lag. But anyway, so when we’re cultivating the community, I’ve had no problem selling the in-person retreat tickets at all. The house is full and then there are locals coming as well.

Because the house filled immediately, there’s a few locals coming, and it’s going to be amazing. But my academy also has a virtual retreat, and that isn’t for a fortnight. So there is still time, about 24 hours after you listen to this, to join the academy before it closes for the year, and come to the retreat.

And the only reason I close it is because I post everybody a gift, and I don’t want anyone to miss out. So, I close it, and then. It stays closed over Christmas when it’s mostly email support and lots of content that people can use over the summer rather than having to create their own. So I’m creating this community.

Crafting the Thriving Community Blueprint

How can you create a thriving community that means that if you turn around and say, yeah, okay, time for an in-person retreat, there’s really no selling involved because people are like, yes, I’m coming. I’ve created that community, that thriving community. I’ve created the group people want to be part of.

Retreat is here in Adelaide, which means there’s a lot of work for me to do. And I can totally understand now why people have retreats in Bali at a retreat center where everything’s done for you and you’re just planning with the company, with the retreat center itself, rather than having to, like I’m doing everything.

I had to find everything, do everything, organize the people, everybody that’s coming, they’re getting facials, photography, they’re, you know, the whole thing’s happening. But I have to organize. All of these things. Whereas if you do it at a retreat center, it’s all done for you. Yeah, not sure if I’ll do another one next year.

They are quite exhausting. But this is what I’m talking about when I create that thriving community. We have to engage with our clients to retain those clients. And how are you engaging with your clients? What is it that keeps them connected to you? Now, some people are just connectors. They’re communicators.

And you look at them and you’re like, wow, you know, they’re catching up with you. They’re checking in with you. They’re asking you how you are, and you’re like, wow, this person’s incredible, you know, so many, you go to a party and the place is packed, and it’s because they’re a connector. They are someone who creates community.

Establishing Boundaries in Community Building

But that’s not all of us. I’m okay at it. I’m pretty good at it. But I know, you know, people are way better at it than me. And is to do with, you know, if you’re that introvert, and my husband’s an introvert, so he doesn’t have a big community, he doesn’t want or need a thriving community, he’s employed by somebody else.

So. When we create that community for our business, it has to be structured, there has to be a why and where are we going for this, you know, why is it here? So that has to do with our niche when we create that thriving community. So I have the Academy as the community. I now, as you may or may not be aware, there’s the membership site here in the podcast.

So there is the clinical side. of the podcast available. So make sure that you’ve had a look at that. That’s um, rather than joining the academy, you can just do that podcast. So with this community, how do we create it and engage with them? And where are you engaging? Are you emailing your clients? Do you have an email list?

Mastering Email Engagement

Now MailerLite has a free component that is apparently very good. I pay for my email provider. But MailerLite is apparently the best free provider. So have a look at that if you haven’t already. Now, to email your clients, you have to ask them if it’s okay to do so. So that should be part of your intake form.

Are they ticking the box that says yes, you can email them? They need to tick the box about sharing their email address because you’re sharing it, if you’re not the distributor and you’re sharing it to a distributor, how is the distributor using that email? They might then be emailing that client and sending them information and offering them over-the-counter products that might not correspond with what you’re doing.

So, I mean, I use ARIA and. Oborn, as my two Australian providers, and neither of them email my clients, okay? They have their own email list for their own people, and they will email me as a practitioner, but they will not email my clients. And so we need to check. We don’t want distributors emailing our clients and offering them products, because it might not align with what we’re doing with that client.

Building Digital Spaces for Community

So how are we creating that thriving community? What are we doing? Do you have a Facebook group for them? If you’re doing weight loss, there’s no problem with having a Facebook group. You’ll have lots of other people join. You just need to make sure it’s really structured and really controlled so that people aren’t immediately offering, “Oh! Buy my essential oil and you’ll lose all the weight you need,” or whatever it is, the bandwagon that they’re on. You don’t want bandwagons in there; you know, you need to say specifically no multi-level marketing, no those things, so that the community feels supported and protected.

If you’re part of Strictly Practitioners or Strictly Education and Support, two Facebook groups that I run, then you know that you feel supported and protected. We don’t allow bullying; we’re really strict in there, that’s why it’s called Strictly. We don’t like misbehavior and we will stamp on it. We’ve actually backed away from all politics because people get so emotive and it can cause so much upset. So there’s lots of things you’re not allowed to post in there.

To create that thriving community, we’ve had to be very firm about what you’re allowed to do and not allowed to do. And that’s something you need to do within any community that you create. Community is fantastic. It really supports you as a business. It supports your mindset. People will reply to you.

People, I know, you email me now. It’s good. Reply to me. When we create that community, we create these memberships. If you have a paid membership or a free one. Um, we create that group, we create that sense of belonging for our clients. They know that they can come to us, they can share us with other people.

They can tell their friends about us. If you create a Facebook group for your practice and share it with all your clients, the ones who are on Facebook will join it. And then we’ve got the email that you send out. Once a fortnight, any leave it longer than once a fortnight and they’ll unsubscribe, have it.

Once a week is absolutely fine. Less than once a week will be too much for them. So even if you alternate Wednesdays or something, Wednesday lunchtime is a good time to post. A good time to send. Cause it’s midweek. People are looking at other things. I mean, my… Email goes out on a Friday, but that’s because I have my live and Strictly Education and Support.

My Hashtag Training Tuesday, which never happens on a Tuesday, might often happen on a Thursday. And I need to put that in the Friday email to say, Hey, it’s gone out. Here’s the link. Come and watch. So we’ve got to think about when are we going to connect with our people, with our followers, so that we do create that thriving community.

Where can they find us? How easy is it for them to find us? Where can they find our community to be with us, to connect with us, to communicate with us? So, really think about it. Where can you create your community and how are you going to create that community? Because it’s going to enhance your practice and it’s going to support you as a practitioner.

Conlcusion

So I hope this has helped, just a short one today. Look after yourself, and I’ll connect with you when I’m back. See ya. Thanks so much for joining me today. Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast for the weekly episodes. If you’d like even more support and learning, then the Academy is for you.

Here you’ll find part two of the herbal discussions, more clinical learning and case studies to support your clients in practice. Bye for now.