Hey Sister ~

One of the questions I hear from my clients *a lot* is how to cultivate a heart centered community in FB groups and if it’s really an effective way to grow a thriving heart-centered practice. 

I LOVE community. Being around other heart-centered and soulful women who are learning, growing and creating impact in the world authentically has always inspired me. As a matter of fact, I have always been part of a “tribe” of sisters. 

When I was raising my kids, we had a group of friends who we loving called “sistermama’s”. We worked together to raise out kids, participate in a organic co-op and have “blessingways” for each new sweet soul that was born. We cried with each other, cooked for each other and just did life. Even though my kids are grown now, they are still in my heart and we meet when we can to now share about our adult children and growing older. (we went from nursing our babies to going through menopause together)

It’s special. It’s important. It’s connection. And It’s how I decided to build and run my coaching business too. 

We all need and long for connection. To be a part of something bigger than ourselves. That’s why groups are so impactful. 

And I want to share with you how I have served and nurtured people in my own community and in groups that allows people to reach out to me and ask to work with me. 

Just like any other client attraction strategy, you need to figure out which one feels in flow and aligned for you, so I’ve included some questions to help you decide if this approach is right for you! 

1. I love giving thoughtful teaching that’s relevant to the individual’s specific problem. I like helping someone with a real need and feeling like I’m connecting with a person rather than trying to book someone into a sales call or discovery session. Question: do you enjoy teaching and seeing the impact you can make with someone?

2. I am more of an expert in coaching and habit change than in sales. I love helping, sharing my knowledge and giving advice in my area of expertise more than I love having a sales conversation. Question: do you enjoy serving more than selling?

3. I am willing to put in the time to build relationships. You see, building relationships from FB groups is not a short term strategy – you won’t make or reply to one post and have people whipping out their credit cards to work with you. (It’s possible- but in reality, that will be an exception. Only 3% of your community is ready to invest now). The real power of community is that you build a reputation and know, like, trust over time. You establish yourself as the leader and authority in your field. When potential clients come to me, they’ve already had an experience of me in a free training or a nurture event, or we have connected in some other group and I’ve just been a real person.  Question: Are you willing to play the short and the long game of building relationships?

4. Do you like to collaborate with your peers and lift each other up. Yes, I build powerful connections from my personal facebook group. But, I also show up to serve in other communities and invite experts to share their zone of genius in my group and create win-wins for everyone. Collaborating with other peers an influencers that serve your ideal client in a different way than you do, opened you up to new communities and opportunities to serve and create visibility that just staying in your FB group. Question: Are you open to collaborating with others to create a Win-Win?

If your answer was *YES* to any the above questions, I’d love to share these 6 simple tips with you and help you get started. 

1. Start your own Facebook GROUP that serves your ONE ideal client is. When I say ideal client, I don’t mean 5 ideal clients, but that ONE ideal client you most want to serve. Your Facebook group is not for ALL your friends, your parents, cousins and siblings. It’s not even for all your coaching friends. It’s for the ONE ideal client that you can most help. 

2. Start sharing valuable and relevant content + tips that help your ideal client overcome a specific challenge or pain point.  This can be by doing a weekly Facebook live or sharing a free PDF or even a post that speaks into a single pain point and an action step for them to take. Be sure to ask them to comment, or let you know if this resonates for them. People want to engage, but they need to be invited and guided to do so.

3. Guide the engagement in your group. You’re the hostess of the party. It’s your job to create the engagement in your group. Show up consistently. Respond to people posts and questions. Share some fun stuff and get to know your community. The more you engage with them, the more they will engage with you. 

4. Be a real person, not a sales-y weirdo. When someone engages with my content or trainings and I can see there might be an opportunity for me to help them, I connect just to connect. I don’t instantly PM them ask them to jump on a call with me. Instead, I might offer some additional advice in a reply, or mention how one of my clients had a similar situation and how I helped them solve it. Or if I have a free training coming up, I ask them if they are interested in me sharing the link if they feel like it would serve them. Always ask permission. No one likes to be spammed with a link to join something that they don’t anything about. I delete anyone who does this to me from my friends list and I remover anyone from my group who just posts sales links. 

5. I don’t offer free coaching advice that pertains to someones business in private messages. People sometimes message me, and ask me for specific advise as to HOW to do something in their own business. I love helping. But what I found is that I don’t have enough information about someone’s business to truly guide them. And I reserve that type of guidance for my paying clients that I know their business, their clients and the history so I can guide them ethically and with integrity. I’m happy to give simple tips, but its easy to become drained giving free advise that might not actually help someone. Instead, If they ask me specific questions that are out of the realm of general information, I’ll offer to support them in a clarity call to see which one of my programs or offers would be the best fit for them, so I can carve out time for them and really help them in the best way possible. Your time is precious. It critical to have healthy boundaries here. 

6. Have fun. Seriously, let it be an easy thing. It’s doesn’t have to be wonky. Just have fun with it! See it as fun experiment that allows you to learn from your ideal client and see them in the way they most need to help them get their result. Connect to connect and before you know it, you will be attracting your next ready YES client and it will feel heart-centered, aligned and easy.

If you have any questions feel free to join me in my Facebook group and TAG me. I’m happy to answer any questions on how you can cultivate community and grow a highly engaged Facebook group that turns into paying clients.