BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 89.

Hey there, and thank you for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast. I'm your host, Bird Williams. And today we're talking all about the power of community, why it's so important as a business owner, and how to find it. 

Now, before we move on, I just want to keep it super real. Y'all, this past week has been insane. Monday was just all over the place, and so many surprises with my gym business. Then Tuesday, a tropical storm turned hurricane came to Houston. And so the schools were closed and my three kiddos were all home. Glory. Then Wednesday I started feeling so sick, and just like a truck had hit me. And I decided on Thursday morning to go get tested for COVID. Thank God, it was negative. But when I tell you, I had so many plans for how this week was supposed to look, so many things I wanted to get done. And everything had to just get pushed back because of all of the madness. But I'm still here, I'm still pushing forward. And I'm doing that while I'm also choosing to rest, okay? 

So I'm telling you all of that in case you need the motivation too. Sometimes our plans don't work out how we thought they would. We got to give ourselves the grace to both rest and also keep going, right? You want to do both at the same time. I know that kind of sounds maybe paradoxical, but I'll just say even in my gym business, one of our core values is "Keep Moving". It's one of our hashtags. We put it all over the gym. It's a super important part of our culture is to "Keep Moving". And we have that in the workouts. In the workouts, we're trying to move all through a set. Maybe it's a two-minute set of something that we're doing in terms of the exercise. But then in between the sets, what do we have? Rest periods. So there's both rest and movement that's important to sustaining whatever it is that you're trying to do in reaching your goals. 

So wherever you are in your business, whatever you're trying to do, or you might feel stuck, or like everything is just piling up or against you, or you're just super overwhelmed. This is your motivation to just keep going, to take whatever small step you can forward, and give yourself grace for the rest. Okay?

Now, before we jump into the episode, I want to mention this. We're in the middle of the "Prepare to Launch" challenge. Yes! Okay, so at the time of this recording, we have nearly 60 people signed up for the challenge. And if you're listening to this in real-time, it is still not too late for you to join. All you gotta do is pop over to birdwilliams.com/challenge. It's super easy to join. It's completely free. And you'll pick up just right where we are. So you're going to be getting a practical task to launch your business tomorrow morning. I believe tomorrow is all about creating a name and a logo. And then every day of the 10-day challenge, you'll get another email with a practical task. The point is to just help you build up some momentum, so that you can actually finally launch this business, whether that's a month from now or a year from now. I just want to help you get prepared. 

I'll also show up live in our Facebook group, which you'll get access to once you join the challenge. And now if you're not listening to this in real-time, and the challenge has ended, I still have something for you. Just go to birdwilliams.com/challenge. Okay, let's jump into the episode. 

So after being in quarantine for well over a year, I believe that people are searching for community now more than ever. I think there was this real reckoning with this idea of, "Oh my goodness. we were not designed to live in isolation." Obviously, it is necessary for what we're going through with this global health pandemic. But also, it's like man, something feels off. There's more talks of mental health and more people investing in that, which is amazing. I know, we've talked so much about mental health here on the show. And I think I really just sat back and thought about how important it is for us to be around other human beings. 

Let's just talk a little bit about why community is important. Like I was saying, number one, we weren't designed to live or work in isolation. I know that as an entrepreneur, you really have to fight isolation in business because it will lead to burnout. And then number two, community is important because entrepreneurship is hard. And you're going to really need that extra support for the highs and the lows. 

So like I said, we're in the middle of this "Prepare to Launch" challenge and when I opened up the Facebook group as folks were pouring in to join the challenge, I asked questions like, hey, what do you really struggle with when it comes to launching your business? What is it you're really hoping to pull from this challenge? And it was really interesting to hear folks respond to those questions. 

One thing I heard was that, like, I need courage. And I really thought about how I don't think new entrepreneurs realize how much business owners are like all trying to just figure it out. None of us know with 100% certainty that what we're doing is going to work. We're trying things. We're testing things. We're being adaptable. And that takes a whole lot of courage. So what I'm saying is what you might see from the business owners you aspire to be, or just really motivate you or inspire you, you might look like, wow, they're so courageous. They're getting up there. And speaking, they're launching new products and all this really cool stuff. But they're having to do it afraid, too, right? 

As you grow your brand, there's gonna be new levels of fear. Like when he first started, it's just like, oh, gosh, I'm starting this thing. There's fear associated with that. But then what about when huge brands are trying to talk to you, or you're in the middle of a lawsuit? There are so many different types of fear that you're going to have to face. And so getting okay with that, in the beginning, is huge. Because you don't want it to stunt your growth and your potential for your business. 

So when I hear these questions like, man, I really want courage before I can launch my business, it's like, well, the act of courage will come. You'll become more courageous when you lean into the opportunity to become courageous, right? So a lot of times we talk about journaling and thinking through all these things. And that is great. It's important. It's a great start. But guess what, you don't get courage by journaling or thinking about it. You get courage by when an opportunity presents itself that's scary, and you say, "Yes, I'm going to do it. Yes, I'm going to lean into it." That is when you get to actually work that muscle, exercise that muscle, and become more courageous. 

And let me tell you, having community is going to be so huge for that. If you're by yourself, and you're super isolated, as a business owner, it's going to really be hard to pull or tap into courage at times. But let me tell you. When you have a group text of friends motivating you, and when there are other business owners who you can talk to who say, hey, I've gone through the same thing, you're not alone. There's not something distinctly wrong with you. No, that's just something that's normal that business owners face. That is what's going to give you so much courage. So again, having that community is just super vital.

Now, what does it mean to say there's power in community? I've talked through a few examples, but I want to give some more just from my life. So the first example is this. Terry and I, when we first got married, we joined a marriage life group with my church. If you don't know Terry's my husband. He's also my business partner. We own a gym here in Houston together. And I'll never forget those first meetings when we had his marriage life group. It's a group of married couples meeting, I think it was every week that we would meet. And, or was it every month? I don't remember. But we would meet regularly. And we would talk through what's going on in our marriage and try to get tools and resources to improve our marriage, which was amazing. This was the general sentiment. I can't tell you how many times I heard this. "Oh, y'all deal with that, too? Oh, wow. It's not just us." So because we were in a community of people who were wanting to improve their marriage, everyone was there because they wanted to invest in their marriage, we were able to be like, oh, wow, the challenges we face as married people is not just unique to us. Meaning there's not something wrong with Ashley and Terry or our marriage. This is something that other people face, too. And it's one thing to read it in a book. It's another thing to really look around the room and see faces of people who are going through the same thing, right? 

Yo, there's power in community, how powerful is it for you to realize there's not something wrong with your unique situation? It's just like communication is a problem that all of us are facing. So you're okay, you're going to be okay because we're going to get these tools to kind of work through it. Another is whenever I was pregnant, recently, I was going to see a prenatal chiropractor, called Ommabe. I know she tunes into that podcast, too. So, Dr. Julia, you are amazing. I think it's because of you that I had such quick labor. Y'all. It was like 30 minutes. The midwife did not even make it in time. I don't know if I've shared that on the podcast. Baby Rhys, my little girl, came so quick. I think a lot of it had to do with the many prenatal adjustments that I had. Anyway, shout out to Ommabe Chiropractic in the Spring, Texas area. Well, I was there getting my adjustment once and there were a few other women in the room. And I overheard one sharing her story. And she was talking about how she had a natural birth and how it went a long time. She actually had a really long labor, but she was like I got through it. I was super strong. I'm so glad I was able to have these assessments to really help. 

Y'all, hearing that story, in that moment, I was really struggling because I knew that my labor, Rhys, baby girl was getting ready to come. And hearing her talk about, even though there were some difficulties in her labor process, how she was like, "But I'm strong. I've done this before. I can do this." Y'all, that was so encouraging for me in that moment to just keep going. And I told Dr. Julia about that after it happened. Lady at the last minute, I said, I'm so glad I heard her say that, because I was really trying to work through like, can I do this again? I've had two natural births before. But man, I'm having to do this again. And I'm older and I'm tired. It's so helpful to hear her story. And Dr. Julia said, "I love so much that y'all were all here at the same time to be able to share your stories because I want to create a culture of community. And I know how important community is." And I thought, yes, that is so key. Creating community in your business is huge. We do that in our gym business as well. 

And then the third example is Prove It Plan. So if you don't know I have an online course called Prove It Plan. It's all about developing a strategic business plan. And every month, we have these live coaching sessions. And that's where I work through the questions that folks have that they have about their business plan development process, or as they're reviewing their business plan each quarter, which is something I teach in the program. If they have any questions, we address them there in the live coaching session. And also, we have a theme every month. And one month, that was all about how to show up authentically in your business. And we had two young ladies who were talking in this session, and one was explaining her business idea. She's like, I haven't been able to launch my business because I've had these challenges. But I am getting ready to launch. And this is what I'm doing. This is my business idea and what I'm trying to accomplish. And the other young lady in the group was like, oh, my goodness, that's amazing. And long story short, it was a business that addressed an issue in corporate America that folks face and I'm not going to give too much of her business information away. But this was something I didn't have much experience with because I didn't have a corporate experience. So I couldn't relate because I was only in the corporate world for two years. I worked in investment banking on Wall Street. That was my corporate experience. It was real quick. But the solution her business provided was for these corporate working people. And the other young lady in the group had had issues and understood the value of this lady's business that she was launching. And it was such a beautiful moment, because the lady's like, "I just love that you're doing this, this is so needed. When I was in corporate America, I saw the need for that. And I think it's gonna be great." And I mean, this lady had like tears in her eyes, just so happy to kind of get that reassurance and to hear someone say, yes, that's good. That's important. And it was great because again, community. Because she was in that moment, in that live coaching session with this other woman who had that same experience, that moment was able to happen and able to give her the courage, right, able to motivate her to keep going. 

So I could go on and on about all the examples of why community is so important. But I'll just leave you with those. I think I've convinced you about how important community is. 

Alright, so let's talk a little bit about how to find community as a business owner. Number one, I think you should take the first step. I think a lot of times when it comes to community, it's a little vulnerable to say, "Hey, I'm a little isolated. I need some support." But sometimes it takes you taking the first step, saying, I'm going to reach out to someone. I'm going to ask about this group to get in. We'll talk a little bit about some more examples in just a second. But just don't wait for someone else to invite you all the time. They might be waiting for you. Right? So you take the first step. 

Some other examples are things like business masterminds. If you've never heard of that, you can Google it. But there are groups where you come together and you kind of hash through things. You talk through things as you're going throughout a journey. There are tons of business Facebook groups. Like I said, it's been really fun going through the challenge together in our Facebook group. It's the Bird Williams Online Community. And it's just great to hear other people's stories and to see other people encouraging each other. So there's tons of business Facebook groups out there. You could find one that's specific to your niche, your client, your industry. That would be a really great way to find community. 

And if you have a physical business, one thing you can do is connect with neighboring businesses if you have a brick and mortar. So in our gym business, we have like,  gosh, an environmental supplies company. We have like a phone store company. We have a few neighboring businesses, so we have a relationship with them. And then hey, if one of their clients or one of their employees wants to come to a gym, hey, we're right next door. So we have this connection in this community there as well. 

There are also business associations as an example. Another thing is you could get a mentor or have a board of advisors. I'm going to have a whole episode about your board of advisors coming soon or even a business coach. So those are just some ways to just not try to do it all yourself. I think especially if you're a solopreneur, it is so important that you have someone else that you are going back and forth with that you can lean on for support when you need it. 

When I launched my first business, it was with my husband, so we had each other through the whole process. But then when I launched this strategy firm, it was just me. And so I had to really be intentional about having that community. Terry's involved in this business, too. He helps me a whole lot. But it was just different because I was more of a solopreneur in this business. So it's just important that you think of that. 

So in summary, I want to help equip you to build a better brand. I don't want you to just launch your business, and it's gone a year from now. Or it's just not something that's sustainable because you don't have these things in place. I want you to think about your business holistically. Yes, there's marketing. Yes, there's the numbers. Yes, there's operations. But there's also building a community. There's also all these different things that you really need to think about so that you could have a really strong foundation that your business can stand on. All right? 

So what I want you to do is go out and think of some ways that you can surround yourself with people, with organizations, a mentor, all the different examples we've talked about, to help give you that support that you need to build a better brand. Okay? 

Now, if you're looking for some community right now, and you're trying to prepare to launch your business, I have something that would be perfect for you. It's the Prepare to Launch challenge. Like I said, we started on Monday, so two days ago, but you can still jump in and right now. And you'll not only get the emails every day from now until the end of the challenge, but I'm also going to do a recap at the end. I meant to mention it at the beginning of the episode. I'm going to do a recap of all 10 days and so you'll be able to join in on that as well. 

As always, thank you so much for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast. Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts so that you can get a notification every time a new episode goes live. And you can also follow us on Spotify. Make sure you tell every entrepreneur you know about this episode so that they can learn some tools for building community too. 

Talk to y'all next week.