In this episode, Suzi Hunn shares her community-building journey. She's the founder of Teach Your Thing, since 2017 Suzi has been helping small businesses amplify their impact. Her specialty is working with clients to distill their knowledge into engaging courses, workshops, and webinars. Now she’s working on building an online community on the Mighty Networks and we are going to chat all about that today! Here is the link to learn more about Suzi's communityShow notes:2:39: Suzi begins with her background, including instructional design at a museum. However, she hit a plateau and now brings together entrepreneurship and education. 6:54: Suzi recommends co-creating with your audience and distilling down content. Talk to them about what they needed and break down content into digestible pieces.14:30: “If you forced me to choose what’s more important: my content or my community-building skills, I put community-building skills first.”17:24: Giving yourself permission to call it a pilot, Suzi explains, takes the pressure off having to have everything perfect. She also advises to charge for a pilot but at a steep discount, to still hold value and motivation. 20:30: Suzi covers lessons she’s learned, including testing three different platforms: Thinkific, Kajabi, and Mighty Networks.30:15: Suzi gives tips for course creation. Allowing people to talk is key, as she uses a flipped-classroom approach where the homework is meetings to discuss the course work.Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.As a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose. She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform.  Join Us!

In today's episode, I’m excited to introduce Todd Nilson, President of Clocktower Advisers. He’s been working in online communities and digital workspaces for most of his professional career with his earliest experience facilitating discussion in forums for multi-player games. Since then he’s worked with dozens of companies helping them devise a successful strategy for the online communities they want to build. He helps clients focus on the alignment of community and business goals by helping leaders understand the factors that have the biggest influence on building a successful online platform. Todd’s led transformational community collaborative technology projects for brands such as Activision, Facebook, Truth Initiative, and many more. You can check out his free resources on his website. Show notes:5:03: Todd starts by giving a background on his various careers, with a commonality of making connections with people and building communities.13:03: Discussing the value of making connections, Todd says a key is being unafraid put himself out there to connect and reconnect with people. Part of it is also connecting other people outside of yourself and seeing ideas take fire. 20:45: “You have that moment where people catch fire with an idea, and that for me is the joy of doing this kind of work. Because when it happens, you’re on the top of the world.”23:52: Deb and Todd discuss balancing community and consulting work. He steps into his own community when needed but generally doesn’t do day-to-day tasks because of being project-based.30:14: Todd touches on a key to prioritization: you can’t do everything at once. Also, that the downside of automation removes some of the key personal connections.31:31: “We can’t master every channel at once. We can’t do everything at once. Go deep on one thing. Get really good at one thing and then expand from there.”43:57: Todd closes with the biggest lesson learned to help his career, that the more you connect to inner desires and beliefs, the better starting point of designing a community to get off the ground.Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.As a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose. She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform.  Join Us!

In today's episode, I’m excited to introduce today’s guest, Ray Green. With over 20 years in the sales industry, 15 years of leadership, and experience managing over $175M in revenue, Ray’s an industry leader.He’s the Founder of RJG Consulting, providing sales and marketing audits for B2B businesses and leaders. He’s the host of Repeatable Revenue, an online community, and podcast that helps entrepreneurs create repeatable sales, marketing systems, and processes.Inside his Mighty Network, he uses the same frameworks that have built, audited, and fixed more than 100 businesses. In addition, he leads Inner Circle Masterminds and an Accelerated Growth Coaching program.Ray says, “There is an infinite number of ways to "get more sales" in your business. But if you started your business to create more freedom, more wealth, and more control in your life, you'll want to create systems that drive growth reliably and predictably. That's what we teach.”Show notes:3:14: Ray begins with what he does now, including how his first community he started on Discourse, before pivoting after gaining a clear strategy.7:55: Deb and Ray discuss the benefits of having a clear, niche audience to target. Being too general makes it hard to resonate with such a large group.14:04: Ray touches on getting started in Mighty Networks, and the strategy of a slow launch by inviting existing clients first and using your community to guide your content creation.24:39: Ray explains three different pricing model strategies: significant investment upfront, nominal investment first and then additional afterwards, and finally a recurring monthly payment. 36:21: It’s just less stressful to know that you’re allowed to be imperfect, and that’s the benefit of the slow launch to me. 36:45: Sharing how he faced and overcame a challenge, Ray talks about really understanding what you want to do with your community and tech integration options to make your life easier on the front-end.Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.As a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose. She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform.  Join Us!

In this episode, Jackie Cote, a Leadership and Mindset Coach shares how she helps clients discover time, money, and adventure by freeing themselves and creating a life they desire. She helps her clients awaken, empower and own the leader within that is dying to come out. After 30 years as a leader in the restaurant industry, Jackie has learned firsthand that struggle does not have to be real. After 30 years of dedication to teams she’s led, she has helped staff members achieve promotions, get through a family crisis, get their first job out of college or when coming to the US from another country learn how to save money so that they can achieve a goal, learn English, get out of debt, and the "gift of belief" that they could do more than they ever thought possible. Jackie hosts a private group and shares tools and resources to help her community members transition from vision to reality. Show notes:3:51: Jackie starts with her background, including a teaching degree and being in the restaurant industry. She was able to create a time, location, money freedom business through her passion for helping other people achieve their desired adventures.12:27: Jackie explains the steps she took to building her ideal life and business, including working on herself first, then getting the support you need, and then fixing the money mindset.12:41: “So what I’m really passionate about is creating a life that I desire and fitting the business and career into it, which is so the opposite of what we were ever taught.”23:03: Deb and Jackie discuss the power of mindset. The thought model Jackie teaches is what you think becomes true, so bringing a vision to the present is what creates the actions and results you desire.30:08: Moving onto the community, Jackie shared her journey of starting on her personal Facebook page before moving into a private group.  42:32: Looking ahead to the future, Jackie discusses her plans to launch a new program next year, The Leader Within Academy in January. She also discusses how to find and further connect with her.47:25: “It’s about having that freedom to be able to do what you want-  when you want -  wherever you want - without having to ask permission from anyone, including yourself.”Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.As a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose. She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform.  Join Us!

In today’s episode of the Find Calm Here Podcast, I talk with Carol Aranos. She’s the founder of Essential Joy Wellness, a holistic coaching program to help people create the best health of their lives. She teaches people to shake off their sugar addiction, regain balance, and learn to love themselves again through natural solutions and a proven process of education, support, and accountability.She holds a Health Coaching Certification from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), an Essential Oil Expert Certification from doTERRA International, and a Masters of Business Administration from Eastern University.In addition to personal coaching, she teaches classes on Breaking Sugar Addiction, Women’s Wellness, and Deconstructing Cravings. Go to her website HERE to sign up! Show notes:3:27:  Discussing her background, Carol was in marketing and communications for 30 years, but found herself unemployed during COVID. With a passion for health and wellness, she is also a personal trainer and essential oil expert.13:02: When it came to niching down, she discussed her own personal struggle with weight and body image, and how she helped herself and now others. 14:15: And so what she would always tell us is that you have to work hard, tell the truth, and never, never quit26:23: Highlighting that everyone is different, Carol explains her coaching is more collaborative, with her wanting to help people through the impact of self-judgment according to world standards.27:37: Sometimes our journeys are a little bit circuitous and we don’t really always understand… but ultimately I just believe that everything works for our good…35:21: Carol talks about upcoming workshop offerings on conquering your cravings and sugar addiction, as well as strategies around navigating the holidays while staying true to your health goals.Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.Schedule a FREE Discovery Call with Deb  HEREAs a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose. She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform.  Join Us!Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Welcome to the Find Calm Here Podcast, today’s guest is Paul Bradley. He has over 10 years of experience in the community industry and has led community teams for the last 5 years. Paul is currently the Head of Global Community for Agorapulse a social media management tool to help organizations save time and easily manage posts, reporting, monitoring, and team collaboration. A community-leading expert and consultant with a background in the tech industry working for companies such as Higher Logic and ADP, in his current role he is creating a comprehensive education, recognition, and collaboration destination—and management team—for professionals with social media responsibilities. Show Notes: 2:36: Paul begins by explaining his background in the community, including being a community manager for Intel. He recommends a strategic services team for the accelerated growth of a community management career. 6:42: If anybody wants to get into something sort of like an accelerated growth of your community management career, work on a strategic services team.8:44: Paul gives his definition of community managers, that they create a number of offerings to appeal to a variety of users and solve day-to-day problems for people.23:23: With a background in communications and writing, Paul discusses being able to churn out content, naming it as smoke and mirrors to be able to use humor and create content for people to engage with.33:25: Paul talks about a challenge for community managers is finding ways to increase appeal to users through content they interact with. He recommends establishing an editorial calendar, having a beta group for a soft launch to have people in there to look around, and do not start as a paid community.42:28: Deb and Paul discuss two main features of building a community: Appealing to individuals' inner interests and earning their trust to want to pay for a community.48:25: The job is to earn trust, and that’s it.Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.Schedule a FREE Discovery Call with Deb  HEREAs a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose. She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform.  Join Us!Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

In this episode of the Find Calm Here Podcast, I speak with Ayelet Baron! She’s passionate about helping others become aware of and unleash their ability to create a fulfilling life by learning to trust in their hearts and tap into their imagination. Ayelet is a multi-award-winning author of the F*ck the Bucket List trilogy, and Our Journey to Corporate Sanity. Her dream is that the F*ck the Bucket List triplets, as she calls them, help unleash millions and millions of heart-centered people who are ready to do their own inner work and ultimately join us in the HeartPickings community as we work together as architects of humanity.Show notes:7:02: Ayelet starts with her early experiences of community throughout her life, both personal and professional.  This includes being a systems operator, running communities of interest, and launching an internal online community that was before its time.15:10: Ayelet explains what she’s doing currently, Heart Pickings, which is going to be about connection and dialogue, helping people find one other.  17:39: There are amazing people all around the world that are creating healthy systems that serve the vast majority of humanity, not the few. But we don’t know about them.22:44: Discussing the books she has written and how they are for anyone at any age, Ayelet talks about how she hopes that one day her books are not needed, and we live in a world where we are healthy and we know what community is.27:09: Moving on to launching, Ayelet highlights it’s taking more in architecture and building, but she’s hoping to launch in the next six months. There will be an application process and they’re essentially creating what they need, not creating for the end-user.33:50: The three biggest currencies of where we’re headed are trust, relationships, and community.38:34: Deb and Ayelet go deeper into starting and building valuable relationships if you’re considering an online community. Two technologies she recommends are conversation and connection or the spark.41:03: When you start looking at it, you start thinking about who do I want to connect with and why - not what community do I want to build.Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.Schedule a FREE Discovery Call with Deb  HEREAs a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose. She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform.  Join Us!

I’m happy to introduce Jeff Turner, founder of Fit2Play, he helps his coaching clients improve the way they move, look, and feel. He helps his clients with the continual improvement of health, performance, and longevity to live a stronger, longer life. He’s just launched his new community on Circle!  Show Notes:3:27: Jeff starts by explaining that he helps people live stronger longer, regardless of demographics like age or background. When it came to creating a community, he noted the difference between liking an idea and the emotions of actually executing it, and questioning how Mighty Networks would fit into his business model.12:01: Deb and Jeff touch on all the different features of community building and how it can be overwhelming at first when trying to do too much. Jeff found that Circle was a better option for his business based on both end-user and personal experience. 20:56: Jeff explains the significance behind the name of his podcast and community, The Dose, as well as the onboarding processes and the ability to connect on a deeper level with individual community members. 21:08: It comes down to doing the right amount of the right stuff at the right time, and I’ve coined that it’s ‘The Dose’.32:53: With the upcoming launch of his community, one week from the recording of this episode, Jeff admits to wanting to make a community that his members want to be a part of, yet not knowing what that will look like right now. Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.Schedule a FREE Discovery Call with Deb HEREAs a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose.She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform. Join Us!

On this episode of the Find Calm Here Podcast, I chat with Dale Wilkinson! Dale's mission is to help people do work that matters. He's the founder of Goodgigs, a platform for purpose-driven professionals to access career opportunities, courses on social issues and ethical business practices, and a community of change-makers. Goodgigs is building an ethical and empathetic workforce to help companies lead with purpose and create social impact. Dale also hosts the GoodMakers podcast, where he interviews Social Entrepreneurs and thought leaders to help listeners live a more purposeful life.Learn more about GoodGigs here. Show Notes3:57: Dale starts by introducing himself and how he built Good Gigs, a platform to champion mission-driven companies to address a number of social issue areas. He also interviews social entrepreneurs in his podcast, Good Makers.11:02: Using the platform Circle, Dale recommends spending a lot of time with which platform you’re going to use. Community builders using Circle stated it was continuously launching new features, listening to feedback, and also has its own community to troubleshoot and get support.19:41: I think if you’re a builder, if you’re a creator, if you’re a community builder, an entrepreneur, go to the forums. Go to Google, go to Youtube. Whatever you’re trying to learn, the answer is already there.22:14: Deb and Dale talk about the launch of Good Gigs. Dale had a part-time community manager with 30, 60, and 90-day plans, as well as a cohort entry system. He advises to continue showing up and not quitting too early, along with changing your features to fit the community needs.26:26: It is my favorite time of the week. I get to have these really awesome conversations with awesome people who are down with the mission with Good Gigs. It is my people. They want a meaningful career, they care about impact. And I’m able to have these conversations…Want to start your own podcast?Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.Schedule a FREE Discovery Call with Deb HEREAs a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose.She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform. Join Us!

In today’s episode of the Find Calm Here Podcast, I speak with Maria Tan, an amazing speaker, and entrepreneur who I met recently in a Clubhouse room alongside fellow community builders! She’s is a thought leader, international author, motivational speaker, and business coach who mentors “misfits” and “misunderstood geniuses.”Maria empowers entrepreneurs across the globe to leverage their individuality, create success tailored to their lifestyle, and build an ecosystem around their values, vision, and voice. Before coaching online, she was a cross-cultural business and communications consultant who worked with over 1000 professionals from all over the world.Maria’s 1000+ clients range from side-hustlers to new entrepreneurs to American Ivy-league graduates to diplomats. Whether you’re just starting to consider becoming your own boss or looking to scale an established business, it’s important to focus (and re-focus) on the crucial components that set you up for success. To find out how to ensure a solid foundation, get the free e-book Your Business Magic Checklist here!Show Notes:4:23: Maria shares her origins in business, starting by selling items in her room as a child, eventually moving on to retail, and then consulting. In 2017, she started coaching individuals looking to monetize their differences and unique abilities.12:52: Discussing her willingness to network and connect with people, Maria explains we all have our own insecurities and that perfection is subjective. Instead, we can focus on how our differences can help others.18:14: Maria talks about creating an ecosystem around values, vision, and voice. She dives into how goals can be limiting and includes a case study of a client.32:10: Maria shares a tip to make decisions in regards to facing failure, stating there are so many pieces we can’t control, only our commitment to our craft. She and Deb also discuss tips around finding your own uniqueness.Want to start your own podcast? Buzzsprout gets your show listed on every major podcast platform. You’ll get a great-looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes, and more. Sign up here!Learn more about Find Calm Here Deb Schell is the founder of Find Calm Here LLC, an online consulting agency supporting entrepreneurs, founders, creators, and speakers as they build, launch, and grow a paid online membership.Schedule a FREE Discovery Call with Deb HEREAs a community strategist, Deb helps clients find calm in the community-building process through the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion so that they can lead with energy, confidence, and purpose.She brings together entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed with building, launching, and growing their paid online membership and offers strategies that can be used on any online platform by offering a great member experience by helping others transform. Join Us!