Build A Business Community That Sells

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We share how choosing the right people changed our results, from guarded solo work to open collaboration that drives sales and calmer launches. We talk about picking a small circle, learning from others’ mistakes, and why competitors can become partners.

• defining community as the circle that shapes decisions
• lessons from isolating as a young founder and woman in business
• shifting from competition to collaboration in marketing
• niching down to social media, SEO and ads to enable partnerships
• using peers to review offers, messaging and launch plans
• building a trusted group of two to five founders
• practical cadence for meetups and hot seats
• benefits of an online hub with daily touchpoints
• learning faster by studying others’ missteps

Join the Boss Marketing Club for $88/year. Your first 30 days are free. Add it to your phone and get daily access, office hours, and resources. Find it on my website or in my LinkTree on Facebook and Instagram.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:27):
Hey y'all, what's up?
It's Shelby.
Thanks for tuning in to anotherepisode of the Marketing Happy
Hour podcast.
I love to talk with you everysingle week about marketing for
your small business, whether itbe online or maybe in person,
networking, you just never knowwhat we're gonna chat about here
on the Marketing Happy Hourpodcast.
Today I want to talk about theimportance of community.

(00:49):
Um, you may be like me and youmay be a little bit of a loner
and you may not think communityis important as a business
owner, but let me tell you it iswhen it comes to sales.
Community is so, so important tohave around you.
I may, I mean, I'm not talkingexactly like oh, your community
that you live in, or maybe theone that's like your
neighborhood.
I'm talking about the communityof people that you have built

(01:11):
around yourself that you allowto influence you and your
decision making.
I've made a few rough decisionsand bad decisions in my day of
the community that I allowedaround me, and it did not help
me get to my goals.
In fact, it kind of distractedme and I didn't do as well as
what I thought I was, but it'sbecause I was surrounding myself

(01:32):
with the wrong people.
Once I found my little group offriends that I have now that are
all entrepreneurs and most ofthem are in marketing or some
kind of creative outlet, I havereally seen myself thrive in my
business and know that I can goto them with any ideas that I
have, or if I need some advice,I can go to them for that, or

(01:52):
ask them if they've experiencedit.
And if they haven't, then wejust kind of troubleshoot it
together.
And it's really nice andwelcoming to have those people
to be vulnerable with and tounderstand that they accept me
for any kind of failures that Ihave or any kind of things that
kind of come into play.
Because as a business owner, wekind of get stuck in our head,

(02:12):
right?
Like we have to be perfect,we've got to make sure that
we're showing people howsuccessful we are.
Um, we can't let our guard downbecause we don't know who's
trying to screw us over.
And I know I'm not the only onethat thinks that because when I
was a younger entrepreneur, Ialways had my guard up because I
was like, who's trying to screwme over this time?
Because being young and being inbusiness are two things that are

(02:34):
already against me, plus being awoman.
Um, all of that together, I wasjust always on guard and I never
really let a lot of people in.
And I regret that now, but itwas just a tough decision that I
learned the hard way.
And um this time or in thisseason, I should say, I'm really
grateful for the people that Ihave in my corner that have

(02:55):
helped me succeed, and I can sithere and go, you know what?
I'm not doing this on my own.
I'm not having to make thesedecisions on my own, I'm not
having to um do this launch onmy own.
This book launch has been a lot,and it's one of those things
that I had to pull in mymarketing people in my community
and be like, listen, I need yourhelp on this, I need your input
on this, let me pay you for yourtime.

(03:17):
I know I can do launches forother clients, but when it comes
to my stuff, I just didn't trustmyself enough to do it right.
I just wanted to make sureeverything was done right and
continues to be right.
And um, two women in mycommunity that have really
helped me out with that on themarketing side, especially, has
really relieved some of thosefears that I've had and has made

(03:39):
me realize that you know what,like collaborating together is
so much better than being umenemies with each other.
That was another thing I used tothink when I was younger and in
marketing is that everyone thatwas in the marketing industry
was my enemy.
I always thought everyone was acompetitor, and I'm very
competitive, anyways, and I didnot want them to be better than

(03:59):
me or get more than me, or andso I just always be like, uh, I
wouldn't even talk to them likeat networking events and stuff.
But now I have amazingconnections with some marketing
consultants, with strategists,um, people that do things that I
don't necessarily do becauseonce I niche down to my social
media management and my SEOstuff and ad management, um,

(04:20):
it's really helped me to be ableto partner with people that do
the strategy part of thingsbecause I hate that part.
Um, they do the strategy part,and then I'll do all the legwork
me and my team do.
And so that's been really fun tocollaborate with other marketing
people in my um like circle andin my industry, and I've
connected with them on LinkedInand stuff like that.

(04:40):
So if you don't have acommunity, I really recommend
that you just find like two tofive people that you can trust
and you get together once amonth or maybe once every
quarter and just really talkabout your goals and be
vulnerable.
I have started the BossMarketing Club, which is an
online community.
It's$88 a year, and you get tohear from me every single day,

(05:02):
whether it be through a video orthrough a post or through a QA.
I have office hours every monththat we can just have a live
together.
You can pop on, you can ask meany kind of questions that you
have.
It's all about marketing and allabout uniting the entrepreneurs
that do marketing on their own,or maybe they just started a

(05:22):
business and they don't reallyknow where to go.
Maybe they can connect withother people in their industry,
but it's really fun to seepeople talk to each other, um,
help each other out, and thenyou know it's this podcast, but
every single day.
So if you want that extra bit ofhelp with your marketing stuff,
I would love for you to join usover there.

(05:42):
Your first 30 days are alwaysfree, um, so you can kind of get
the groove of things.
Um, it's really easy.
You can add it to your phone,like to your home screen, and
you can just click on it andview it any day.
But I've got a bunch ofresources on there for people
that are trying to do marketingon their own, or if they're a
business owner, I like to throwin a couple of things about
business as well because after13 years, I know a lot of stuff,

(06:06):
but some people know even morestuff, and we've all learned the
hard lessons the hard way, andit's easier if we learn from
other people's mistakes, right?
That's another great thing aboutcommunity, is you can watch what
other people are doing and belike, okay, so I see that they
did this and it didn't reallywork out for them.
I think I'm not gonna do that.
Um, we think as you know, kidsor we think as parents that our

(06:30):
kids see like, oh hey, she didthat, I probably shouldn't do
that, but yet they still do thatanyways, you know.
Um, I know my parents probablythink that I chose the hard way
of life um for multiple years ina row, and I still think I
choose the hard way sometimes.
Um, but that's what community isalways about.
So if you are interested injoining the marketing uh boss

(06:51):
marketing club, I would love foryou to join us over there.
You can introduce yourself,share all your social media
stuff, give us some of yourideas that you've got going on.
We can kind of troubleshoot anykind of problems that you have.
Um, for 88 bucks a year, y'all,you cannot hate on that.
And then also getting access tome every single day is kind of a
big deal too.
So I would love for you to joinus.

(07:13):
You can find it on my website,you can also find it on my
LinkTree on social media onFacebook and Instagram, and I
hope you join us.
I'll talk to you next week.