Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / Turning Online Groups into Real-World Friendships With Julie Marvel

Transcript

Turning Online Groups into Real-World Friendships With Julie Marvel · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

• 1:13
  Jennifer Johnson: Today we're diving into the world of community building and digital connections.
• 1:17
  Jennifer Johnson: I am thrilled to be joined by Julie Marvel, the founder of Fabulous Ladies of Naples.
• 1:22
  Jennifer Johnson: It's one of Facebook's most vibrant and engaged communities.
• 1:26
  Jennifer Johnson: What started out as a simple idea to connect like-minded people has grown into a powerful platform that's changing how people connect.
• 1:35
  Jennifer Johnson: We'll explore how she built this thriving space, the challenges of managing an online community, and her tips for anyone looking to create their own digital tribe.
• 1:45
  Jennifer Johnson: So, what are we waiting for?
• 1:46
  Jennifer Johnson: Let's just jump right in.
• 1:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Hi, Julie.
• 1:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Hi, thank you so much for having me.
• 1:51
  Jennifer Johnson: I am so excited to dive into this.
• 1:54
  Jennifer Johnson: We were just talking before the show.
• 1:56
  Jennifer Johnson: Just kind of scratching the surface about what you have created.
• 2:00
  Jennifer Johnson: And it is so amazing to see it go from zero to where it is now.
• 2:05
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 2:06
  Jennifer Johnson: It's grown pretty fast.
• 2:07
  Jennifer Johnson: It seems to have grown fast.
• 2:09
  Jennifer Johnson: When did you originally start it?
• 2:11
  Jennifer Johnson: And really, what was it that inspired you?
• 2:14
  Jennifer Johnson: Why did you start this?
• 2:16
  Julie Marvel: Yeah.
• 2:17
  Julie Marvel: So thank you so much.
• 2:18
  Julie Marvel: Um, I started the Facebook group about a year and a half ago.
• 2:21
  Julie Marvel: That's it?
• 2:22
  Julie Marvel: Yes.
• 2:23
  Julie Marvel: And so it was July of 2023.
• 2:26
  Julie Marvel: And um, but I started the group because I already had a community that I had built on a platform called Meetup.
• 2:34
  Julie Marvel: So um in 2018, I got a divorce.
• 2:37
  Julie Marvel: And at that time, I had two school age kids and I was working from home as a family photographer.
• 2:43
  Julie Marvel: And um, you know, we as women spend our whole lives taking care of other people.
• 2:48
  Julie Marvel: We've got our kids, we maybe go to college, we start our career, maybe we don't, but you know, whatever it is that we're doing keeps us extremely busy and focused on other people.
• 2:58
  Julie Marvel: And um, we reach a stage in our life when we sort of look around and even maybe we've taken care of our parents or our home and things like that.
• 3:06
  Julie Marvel: And once we get to this certain stage, which in our particular group, it tends to be between the ages of 45 and 75, is generally our age range.
• 3:15
  Julie Marvel: And so when women get to that stage in life, they realize that they aren't even sure who they are anymore.
• 3:22
  Julie Marvel: They're not sure what they like, they're not sure who they want to spend time with.
• 3:25
  Julie Marvel: Maybe they've been spending time with people out of circumstance, maybe it's their children's friends, parents, or their work friends and things like that.
• 3:33
  Julie Marvel: And so they realize even though they might be surrounded by people, they feel isolated and they feel very lonely, which is how I felt.
• 3:40
  Julie Marvel: So I decided, um, as part of my healing from my divorce, that I needed to make friends.
• 3:46
  Julie Marvel: That was my goal.
• 3:47
  Julie Marvel: So I joined a couple of meetup groups, I tried them out, they weren't the right fit for me.
• 3:51
  Julie Marvel: And so I decided to start my own group.
• 3:53
  Julie Marvel: And through that process, um, it started as a lunch group.
• 3:57
  Julie Marvel: We met on a weekday at noon um once a week for lunch, and that was it.
• 4:01
  Julie Marvel: And it started to grow.
• 4:03
  Julie Marvel: And um, so we did that for maybe four or five years.
• 4:06
  Julie Marvel: Oh, wow.
• 4:07
  Julie Marvel: I didn't know that.
• 4:08
  Julie Marvel: Yeah.
• 4:08
  Julie Marvel: And so we were just sort of doing it on Meetup.
• 4:11
  Julie Marvel: It didn't really grow big.
• 4:12
  Julie Marvel: Is Meetup a platform?
• 4:14
  Julie Marvel: Meetup's an app.
• 4:15
  Julie Marvel: Okay, it's also a website, but it is a platform, and it's designed for people to come together and meet in person most of the time.
• 4:22
  Julie Marvel: And so it has everything from chess to biking to jogging to women's groups to singles and all kinds of different things.
• 4:29
  Julie Marvel: Um, but the problem with Meetup is that it's a difficult platform to navigate and there's not a lot of support.
• 4:35
  Julie Marvel: And so when you run into technical issues or things that are happening, there's no one to turn to and you feel out of control like you can't run the group the way you wish you could run it.
• 4:44
  Julie Marvel: And so, um, but going back to the story is over the course of those years, I started to have people volunteer to help run the group and it started to grow.
• 4:53
  Julie Marvel: And so about a year and a half ago, I realized, you know, we need to sort of shift things and make it better.
• 4:59
  Julie Marvel: And so I started the Facebook group and that grew pretty quickly.
• 5:04
  Julie Marvel: And then um, about six months ago, we changed from meetup onto our own website.
• 5:09
  Julie Marvel: So now we have a website, we have an accompanying mobile app where we can check in for events and things like that.
• 5:15
  Julie Marvel: And so the Facebook group was designed to be a place where people could come together and talk about um the friendships that they were building and talk about the upcoming events and then show pictures after the events of what we were doing to kind of generate that discussion.
• 5:31
  Julie Marvel: And then, but the ultimate goal of our platform and our group and our organization is to meet in person.
• 5:37
  Julie Marvel: And so we design um carefully curated in-person events for women around town and we come together in person and instantly connections and friendships are built on the premise that people are not coming there to get anything from you.
• 5:51
  Julie Marvel: They just want friendship.
• 5:53
  Jennifer Johnson: That is so important because how many times are we invited to something?
• 5:56
  Jennifer Johnson: For example, you're invited, someone's like, Oh, I want you to go to this luncheon.
• 6:01
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes, and you know, yeah, at the end of the luncheon, how much can you donate?
• 6:07
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 6:08
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 6:08
  Jennifer Johnson: Or what can you buy, or they're all of a sudden you have someone's putting skincare on your face and you're not sure what's going on, right?
• 6:15
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 6:16
  Jennifer Johnson: So I had no idea that you created this with the precipice to make it in person.
• 6:24
  Jennifer Johnson: So you were basically taking taking the digital friendships and making them in real life.
• 6:31
  Jennifer Johnson: I R L.
• 6:32
  Julie Marvel: That's where the magic happens.
• 6:34
  Julie Marvel: I mean, that's it's such a shift from being in an online community to actual real friendships in person that you're talking to across the table from.
• 6:43
  Julie Marvel: It's a very big difference.
• 6:45
  Jennifer Johnson: But you knew that going in, that that's how you you were just using Facebook as a lever.
• 6:50
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 6:51
  Julie Marvel: That's right.
• 6:51
  Julie Marvel: So it's the intention of the group is to meet in person.
• 6:53
  Julie Marvel: And it doesn't mean that you can't do a Facebook group with meaning and purpose the way that I'm doing it, but that was the goal for me and my particular organization.
• 7:02
  Julie Marvel: So our organization is designed to make people um find help help people find the courage to step outside of their house and offline and in person.
• 7:11
  Julie Marvel: Um, but a lot of um amazing transformations happen in the online community because that's where people start.
• 7:19
  Julie Marvel: And so that's where they discover the group.
• 7:22
  Julie Marvel: And, you know, there are people that never make the leap into in-person, but they're still feeling that sense of connection and community and support.
• 7:29
  Julie Marvel: And so it still serves a purpose whether they're meeting in person or not.
• 7:33
  Jennifer Johnson: So it's it's like you're using uh in marketing lingo, you're using the Facebook page or Facebook group as the top of the funnel.
• 7:40
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 7:41
  Jennifer Johnson: That's how you're getting them in, and then you're bringing them from that to the in-person events, to the website.
• 7:46
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 7:46
  Jennifer Johnson: To all the other things that you do.
• 7:48
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 7:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Exactly.
• 7:50
  Jennifer Johnson: But you have to get them to Facebook first.
• 7:53
  Jennifer Johnson: So where you went from zero to what are you at now in members on Facebook?
• 7:58
  Jennifer Johnson: So our Facebook group has 7,200 women in it.
• 8:01
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, I'm I'm particular about who I let in the group, which is a key um piece of the puzzle to a successful Facebook group.
• 8:08
  Jennifer Johnson: So um, you know, there's a couple, I don't know if you want me to get into the specifics of building a group and creating a group.
• 8:15
  Jennifer Johnson: The more we can peel the onion back and that curtain, yeah, the better because I know that our listeners are really interested in, I want to do that.
• 8:25
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 8:26
  Jennifer Johnson: I want to have a Facebook group for my business.
• 8:29
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes, yes.
• 8:29
  Jennifer Johnson: So I yes.
• 8:30
  Jennifer Johnson: Okay, so I've run a lot of Facebook groups over the years.
• 8:33
  Jennifer Johnson: This is the one that's that's been the most successful for me.
• 8:35
  Jennifer Johnson: But um, the first thing you need to decide when you're creating a Facebook group is do you want it to be public or do you want it to be private?
• 8:41
  Jennifer Johnson: I think that's one of the most decisions that you make.
• 8:43
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, going into it, you need to know that if you create a private Facebook group, you cannot change it back to public.
• 8:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh, really?
• 8:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 8:49
  Jennifer Johnson: But if you make it public, you can make it private.
• 8:52
  Jennifer Johnson: Exactly.
• 8:52
  Jennifer Johnson: Can't go back.
• 8:53
  Jennifer Johnson: Exactly.
• 8:53
  Jennifer Johnson: And so the reason they do that is because anybody that joins a pub a private Facebook group is under the impression that all of their information is going to be private, including their posts.
• 9:02
  Jennifer Johnson: And so when you create a public Facebook group, um, people that are not in your group will still see your post.
• 9:09
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh, I see.
• 9:11
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, like, say you came into my group and you posted um in my group and it's a public group.
• 9:17
  Jennifer Johnson: Jimmy, your neighbor, who isn't a member of my group, might see it on your feed because you commented.
• 9:23
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, um, however, it it sometimes is a wise idea to start the group out as public to generate interest and to get your first couple of hundred members in there because there's gonna be more visibility.
• 9:38
  Jennifer Johnson: People are gonna stumble on it more easily, they're gonna see it, and you can change it from public to private.
• 9:44
  Jennifer Johnson: So once you do that, any of the stuff that happened while you're public still would not be shown to other people once you make it private.
• 9:51
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 9:52
  Jennifer Johnson: Then everything in the contents of the group is is now private, and you can't switch it back to public.
• 9:57
  Jennifer Johnson: But if you get traction, then it might be a good idea.
• 10:01
  Jennifer Johnson: I did that with this group.
• 10:03
  Jennifer Johnson: I kind of didn't mean to um because I didn't know that.
• 10:06
  Jennifer Johnson: Happy accidents.
• 10:08
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 10:08
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I started it as public and then um it started to grow.
• 10:12
  Jennifer Johnson: And then I had people saying, Why is my neighbor able to see my post if he's not in my group and it's a man?
• 10:18
  Jennifer Johnson: And so the red flags kind of started to come up for me because I just didn't know that that was going on.
• 10:23
  Jennifer Johnson: And so then I did switch it to private.
• 10:26
  Jennifer Johnson: But then in hindsight, I was kind of like, well, that actually was um, you know, in an accidental good idea because it did start the group go growing right from the get-go.
• 10:35
  Jennifer Johnson: So now whether you start it public or you start it private, if you start it public, does anybody that want in get in, or do you still have to be the gatekeeper to ask the questions and stuff like that?
• 10:47
  Jennifer Johnson: So that's a that's a choice.
• 10:49
  Jennifer Johnson: And so as the admin of a Facebook group, you have all kinds of options in terms of privacy and settings and things like that.
• 10:55
  Jennifer Johnson: And so the way that I have my Facebook set up right now is I approve every single person that comes into the group.
• 11:01
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, I Facebook has a default setting where if they have an account that's less than a year old, they don't get admitted.
• 11:07
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh, and so that oftentimes will help to filter out the bots and things like that.
• 11:12
  Jennifer Johnson: And so they might get rejected if they've had an account that was hacked.
• 11:16
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, I had someone just message me the other day that I'd met in person and she said, I can't get in because my Facebook was hacked.
• 11:22
  Jennifer Johnson: Can you?
• 11:22
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I went ahead and I could manually invite her in.
• 11:25
  Jennifer Johnson: You could.
• 11:25
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I was able to do the workaround on that.
• 11:28
  Jennifer Johnson: But um, I approve every single member.
• 11:31
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, you can design questions to screen to see if people are a good fit for the group.
• 11:36
  Jennifer Johnson: So my questions are, where do you live?
• 11:38
  Jennifer Johnson: Like our group is tailored for our area, and so it's do you live in the city?
• 11:42
  Jennifer Johnson: Are you a permanent or a seasonal resident?
• 11:44
  Jennifer Johnson: Because in Naples we have a lot of seasonal people.
• 11:46
  Jennifer Johnson: And then I actually do ask for people's email, and I give that a and that's not a requirement, but it is optional because our we do in-person events.
• 11:54
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I say, Would you like to me to email you when we have in-person events coming up?
• 11:58
  Jennifer Johnson: And so generally people will give their email.
• 12:00
  Jennifer Johnson: Because you're asking permission.
• 12:02
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 12:02
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 12:03
  Jennifer Johnson: That's right.
• 12:03
  Jennifer Johnson: And so there's the three questions, and then there's the option to approve all the posts or to not approve all the posts.
• 12:09
  Jennifer Johnson: I do approve every post that goes in the group.
• 12:12
  Jennifer Johnson: I feel like approving the members and approving the posts are one of two of the most important things to a successful group because the minute you take off those controls, yeah, it's a free-for-all, and it's everybody on their air duct and their car detailing.
• 12:25
  Jennifer Johnson: And that's really what the group ends up to be at the end of the day.
• 12:28
  Jennifer Johnson: And for me, yeah, nobody wants a group like that.
• 12:31
  Jennifer Johnson: It's just, it's not serving a purpose.
• 12:33
  Jennifer Johnson: And so um, I'm pretty tight on what I allow into the group.
• 12:39
  Jennifer Johnson: I also um try to look at every single person's profile.
• 12:42
  Jennifer Johnson: Uh so it is time consuming, but I have it dialed where it's maybe 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening, and that's all I spend on it.
• 12:50
  Jennifer Johnson: So um, you know, I might get 10 requests during the day or 20, and I check to see if they've answered the questions.
• 12:56
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, and then I look at their Facebook profile unless it's someone that I know.
• 13:00
  Jennifer Johnson: And then they need to have a tie to our local area, and um, they need to be a woman, you know, there's just certain things, and I can do it so fast now, but I do look at those things.
• 13:11
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, you know, what you you want to think, okay, that's gonna take me so much time, blah, blah, blah.
• 13:16
  Jennifer Johnson: But at the end of the day, if you're not curating your group, yeah, it's not gonna be successful.
• 13:20
  Jennifer Johnson: And it's so you're putting a little bit more work up front to make sure that you have the right people that are there for the right reasons in your group.
• 13:28
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I do take those extra steps and I have it dialed pretty, pretty well.
• 13:33
  Jennifer Johnson: And then what happens is you're setting the tone for the group.
• 13:35
  Jennifer Johnson: So now it starts to grow a little bit more organically and more naturally because you've already done the work up front.
• 13:42
  Jennifer Johnson: And so if someone that I know personally invites another woman into the group, then I probably will admit her without answering the questions because she didn't even see the questions because someone invited her.
• 13:55
  Jennifer Johnson: But if I see that she's, it will say, when they're getting to request to come in, it will say, Jennifer Johnson invited so-and-so.
• 14:03
  Jennifer Johnson: Then I know, okay, you've tapped into someone that might like this group.
• 14:07
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I just go ahead and let them in.
• 14:09
  Jennifer Johnson: That makes sense.
• 14:10
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 14:10
  Jennifer Johnson: So there's all kinds of little controls.
• 14:13
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, there's also something called admin assist in the back end of a Facebook group, which you can create automated posts, you can create automated responses.
• 14:22
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I do rely on that a little bit as well.
• 14:25
  Jennifer Johnson: So we have a daily recurring post.
• 14:28
  Jennifer Johnson: So, like every Monday, people can post their business information.
• 14:32
  Jennifer Johnson: Okay.
• 14:32
  Jennifer Johnson: Every Tuesday, we welcome our new members.
• 14:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Every Wednesday, we put in events that aren't created through our group that are external events.
• 14:39
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, but in order to make that also not take over the group, we require that those comments, that those people when people have responded, that they're responding in the comments of that post and not in a standalone post.
• 14:52
  Jennifer Johnson: Because then you can you can go in and deny those or delete them.
• 14:55
  Jennifer Johnson: Do you delete or deny?
• 14:57
  Jennifer Johnson: I usually, it's a decline of a post.
• 14:59
  Jennifer Johnson: And so if someone doesn't read the directions and they go and post their own business on a standalone, then I decline it and then you can give feedback.
• 15:06
  Jennifer Johnson: And so when you decline, you write them a little message.
• 15:09
  Jennifer Johnson: Please write this in the comments of the business post.
• 15:11
  Jennifer Johnson: And you know, it's important to be fair, it's important to keep the mission of your goal in mind.
• 15:17
  Jennifer Johnson: And so the mission of my goal isn't to provide an opportunity for everyone to promote their business, but it is a nice feature.
• 15:24
  Jennifer Johnson: And so if I was letting everybody do standalone posts, it would be you know, 50 to 100 scrolling, and that would be the entire group.
• 15:31
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 15:31
  Jennifer Johnson: And so it's not about excluding people's information, it's really just about creating the right experience for the members.
• 15:38
  Jennifer Johnson: And you know, I think your members appreciate that.
• 15:40
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 15:40
  Jennifer Johnson: Because how many other Facebook groups are we all, you're a part of them, I'm a part of them, where you're just like, seriously, enough with this multi remember when and it's not as big as it was, but multi-level marketing, how that took over everything.
• 15:54
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 15:54
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 15:55
  Jennifer Johnson: And we were and it's everywhere.
• 15:57
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, and it's not to say anything negative about anyone's particular business, but the experience, the intention of the group is always top of mind.
• 16:05
  Jennifer Johnson: And so if your intention for your group is to build community, then it can't be about someone else's business all the time.
• 16:12
  Jennifer Johnson: Even, you know, so before I did this, I was a professional photographer.
• 16:17
  Jennifer Johnson: And even when I had my photography group, it I didn't go in there every single day and say, it's a new special, we're running a headshot, blah, blah, blah.
• 16:23
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 16:23
  Jennifer Johnson: People don't really want to see that all the time because it's not giving them any value.
• 16:27
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 16:28
  Jennifer Johnson: They tune out.
• 16:29
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 16:29
  Jennifer Johnson: And so it doesn't give them a reason to come back.
• 16:31
  Jennifer Johnson: Like I could just go to your website if I want to see what special you're running.
• 16:35
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm not gonna intentionally choose to go into your Facebook group to see what specials you're offering unless I'm shopping for that particular thing right now.
• 16:42
  Jennifer Johnson: So there needs to be another reason for people to be there.
• 16:45
  Jennifer Johnson: And if it's friendship, it's if it's discussion, if it's something that's funny, um, those things will bring people back.
• 16:51
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 16:52
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, what was your biggest challenge with starting this Facebook group that you never really thought about?
• 17:00
  Jennifer Johnson: Or it it just didn't occur to you that that would be a challenge or, you know, what roadblock did you have?
• 17:07
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, gosh, that's a really good question.
• 17:09
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, there are, you know, there are things that come up with a Facebook group.
• 17:13
  Jennifer Johnson: I think at the beginning stages, um, I made the mistake of not asking for an email.
• 17:18
  Jennifer Johnson: And so it was probably the Facebook group was probably open for a whole year before I did that because I was struggling with, well, then how do I get those emails onto an email list?
• 17:28
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, and I I wish I would have started it sooner because now I have um about 3,000 emails on my email list that came from Facebook and I missed a year of that.
• 17:40
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, you know, um, I think one of the other things, so we, you know, our group intention is to create in-person events.
• 17:47
  Jennifer Johnson: And what I've learned is that Facebook is not a great place to post events.
• 17:52
  Jennifer Johnson: It's um, you know, you can create an event in Facebook and then it just kind of goes into the Facebook black hole.
• 17:57
  Jennifer Johnson: It does.
• 17:57
  Jennifer Johnson: And then people sign up and they don't know they signed up and they can't even find it.
• 18:01
  Jennifer Johnson: They don't even know where it went.
• 18:03
  Jennifer Johnson: And we can't even find it half the time looking for it ourselves.
• 18:05
  Jennifer Johnson: We can't find our own event, they can't find our event, and so then no one comes.
• 18:09
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I think that events in Facebook are not ideal.
• 18:13
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, you know, those are some of the challenges that I had.
• 18:16
  Jennifer Johnson: I think, you know, you've got to capture those emails.
• 18:19
  Jennifer Johnson: And I know a lot of times as business owners were like, who reads their emails?
• 18:22
  Jennifer Johnson: People read their emails.
• 18:24
  Jennifer Johnson: And for me in particular, my email open rate is like 80%.
• 18:27
  Jennifer Johnson: And the reason it's super, super high is because my my members are there for a reason.
• 18:34
  Jennifer Johnson: And the the reason that they're there is to see what's going on in person around town, and so they open the emails.
• 18:40
  Jennifer Johnson: And they know that they're not gonna get a spammy email, buy this, do this from you.
• 18:44
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 18:44
  Jennifer Johnson: The intention is clear.
• 18:45
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm glad that you said that about events because I have a business book club.
• 18:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 18:49
  Jennifer Johnson: That I have an event, you know, we have a Facebook page or a Facebook group.
• 18:53
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 18:53
  Jennifer Johnson: And then we also do, I always post the the event.
• 18:56
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, nobody ever sees it.
• 18:58
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, nobody's not, I'm like, what am I doing wrong?
• 19:00
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:01
  Jennifer Johnson: No, it's the it's it's really the the part that the way you fix that is not putting it on Facebook.
• 21:33
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 21:33
  Jennifer Johnson: Putting on your website and then sharing it to Facebook.
• 21:36
  Jennifer Johnson: You create the event and it goes away, even if it's in your group.
• 21:39
  Jennifer Johnson: And so the most important thing is to do it by email or do it on your website, or even, you know, to be honest, meetup is a decent place to post an event because you'll get people that will RSVP and you can communicate with them in that platform.
• 21:54
  Jennifer Johnson: There are other reasons why it didn't work out for me as my group grew.
• 21:58
  Jennifer Johnson: But for someone that's small and wants to do events, you know, it's fifty, I think it's like $15 a month to have a meetup group to be an organizer.
• 22:06
  Jennifer Johnson: And then you can put that in, insert that into your email platform, or you can just create the event.
• 24:23
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, the part of the problem with creating in-person events is you need to have some sort of a system or a platform that can handle RSVPs, cancellations, possibly wait lists, payment if you're doing a paid event.
• 24:35
  Jennifer Johnson: And so those things become a little bit more complicated, and you just need to sort of shop around for the right platform.
• 24:42
  Jennifer Johnson: But if you're doing something small, you can have people Venmo you and you know, but I don't recommend using Facebook events for that reason.
• 24:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, they get lost.
• 24:50
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, they go off into never never.
• 24:52
  Jennifer Johnson: They're somewhere.
• 24:53
  Jennifer Johnson: Who knows where?
• 24:54
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh my gosh.
• 24:56
  Jennifer Johnson: How about a memorable story?
• 24:58
  Jennifer Johnson: Something memorable that has come out of your Facebook group.
• 25:03
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh my gosh.
• 25:04
  Jennifer Johnson: You probably have a lot of them, I'm guessing.
• 25:06
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 25:07
  Jennifer Johnson: Well, you know, I mean, I think the most meaningful thing that I've learned just from this entire experience, but it really helps to have Facebook because um, you know, to me, the most important part about having a Facebook group is the um the promotional piece of it.
• 25:24
  Jennifer Johnson: And it's not about the selling, it's about talking about what we're gonna do.
• 25:28
  Jennifer Johnson: And then afterwards showing the photos and the videos about our experience.
• 25:32
  Jennifer Johnson: And so that to me is most important.
• 25:35
  Jennifer Johnson: But the most, one of the most memorable things, and this happens again and again, is that women join our group very quickly after they discover our area.
• 25:46
  Jennifer Johnson: And so we live in a unique area in Naples, Florida, where people are moving here all the time.
• 25:51
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, like I did a, we went to the beach last night and watched sunset with a bunch of the ladies, and that was an event.
• 25:56
  Jennifer Johnson: And one of the women that came said, you know, I joined your Facebook group months before we moved.
• 26:02
  Jennifer Johnson: And so that way she could start to see what we were doing, what places we were going.
• 26:08
  Jennifer Johnson: She learned about the area, and there she was at the beach next to me after learning so much about our area through the Facebook group and about, you know, she wasn't in town yet, so she couldn't start attending events, but she was able to get oriented with our group and our area, and she knew before she got here that she wanted to join.
• 26:24
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, I met one lady one time, and I think this is such a great story.
• 26:28
  Jennifer Johnson: She um was alone and she was wanting to move down.
• 26:31
  Jennifer Johnson: A lot of people moved to Naples from up north.
• 26:33
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 26:34
  Jennifer Johnson: She wanted to move to Florida.
• 26:35
  Jennifer Johnson: She didn't know where she wanted to land.
• 26:36
  Jennifer Johnson: She started in Jacksonville, Florida and drove the entire coast of Florida, and she discovered that Naples was where she wanted to live and she moved here.
• 26:45
  Jennifer Johnson: From top to bottom.
• 26:46
  Jennifer Johnson: From top to bottom and all the way to Tallahassee.
• 26:48
  Jennifer Johnson: And she picked Naples because, you know, but I think those stories are so great.
• 26:53
  Jennifer Johnson: You would not have heard those stories otherwise.
• 26:55
  Jennifer Johnson: But, you know, just the true um touching of lives is really the most valuable thing that I find from Facebook is when I tell my story about um being in a in a difficult marriage for 23, you know, we were married 17 years, together 23 years, feeling alone, feeling isolated.
• 27:15
  Jennifer Johnson: Uh, when I tell that story in a group of women, the the heads start nodding.
• 27:20
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 27:20
  Jennifer Johnson: They just do.
• 27:21
  Jennifer Johnson: And whether you were in a bad marriage or not, um, I think, you know, it resonates and it resonates with men as well.
• 27:28
  Jennifer Johnson: And when I tell the story, it's like people are so busy on the rat race their whole lives, and they settle down for a moment and go, gosh, what has happened?
• 27:38
  Jennifer Johnson: I I don't even really know who I am.
• 27:41
  Jennifer Johnson: And the group provides um it kind of enlightens you to that fact because a lot of our women don't even know that they feel that way until they hear me tell the story about how I was feeling so isolated, so lonely, and needing connection.
• 27:56
  Jennifer Johnson: And then people are starting to wake up to that fact that, you know, I think especially a few years ago with the pandemic, it drove the point home of we don't want to be isolated.
• 28:06
  Jennifer Johnson: We need to be in person with other people.
• 28:10
  Jennifer Johnson: And so the Facebook group provides that that first stepping stone to getting to in-person.
• 28:17
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, it's not the end-all be-all for me, but it is a very valuable tool to leading people in the right direction.
• 28:24
  Jennifer Johnson: And it sounds like there's a lot of bonding over commonalities and like you said, you're sitting down, you you've gone through, you know, you're you were a mom, or you I'm meaning you are a mom and you're going through the paces, just living day to day, doing what you got in the trenches in the trenches.
• 28:41
  Jennifer Johnson: And then you meet this group of women and you just you kind of take a back seat and you just sit and watch.
• 28:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 28:48
  Jennifer Johnson: And you hear them talking.
• 28:50
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 28:50
  Jennifer Johnson: And then you can identify yourself in them.
• 28:53
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 28:54
  Jennifer Johnson: And that's what gives you that wake-up call and that's such powerful bonding.
• 28:58
  Jennifer Johnson: And um it helps you, you know, find yourself, which is obviously you're almost like, and now how you had mentioned how women, uh, this one woman had joined the group even before she moved.
• 29:10
  Jennifer Johnson: It's kind of like, and I don't know if our audience will know this, but the modern day welcome wagon.
• 29:16
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 29:16
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, when you moved into a neighborhood when years ago, yeah, yeah.
• 29:20
  Jennifer Johnson: There'd be I mean, there's a name.
• 29:22
  Jennifer Johnson: There's a name for it, but I don't know what it is.
• 29:24
  Jennifer Johnson: I just call it the welcome wagon where somebody would bring you cookies and welcome you to the neighborhood, and here's all the stuff about the community.
• 29:30
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 29:31
  Jennifer Johnson: But you're kind of like that for women.
• 29:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 29:35
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 29:35
  Jennifer Johnson: And you know, interesting, interestingly enough, um, like we had a party the other night, um, and there were a couple of women that were there that didn't know each other, that lived in the same neighborhood, and two of them lived on the same street.
• 29:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh my gosh, they had never met.
• 29:50
  Jennifer Johnson: And that just speaks to we're in our houses.
• 29:55
  Jennifer Johnson: It's not like it was in the 40s and the 50s, where you did have the welcome wagon with the pie and the whole thing.
• 30:01
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, you know, people kind of keep their heads down.
• 30:04
  Jennifer Johnson: We're on our devices, we're doing our thing in the grocery store line, we're not chatting with the neighbors anymore, which, you know, it's just the nature of the evolution of our society and things like that, which is fine.
• 30:14
  Jennifer Johnson: But if you're feeling like that's not working for you, or if you're feeling like that's not enough for you, and you're not even sure how to start to break out of that, you know, it's just uncomfortable at the beginning.
• 30:26
  Jennifer Johnson: The Facebook group can give you that outlet to start to have a conversation, to give you it really is scary when these women come to their very first event.
• 30:34
  Jennifer Johnson: I can't even imagine terrified.
• 30:36
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 30:36
  Jennifer Johnson: You don't know anybody other than Yeah.
• 30:38
  Jennifer Johnson: And I think the biggest fear is that everyone else is already friends and I'm not.
• 30:42
  Jennifer Johnson: Of course.
• 30:42
  Jennifer Johnson: And so, you know, belonging.
• 30:44
  Jennifer Johnson: Our goal of every in-person event is that when they walk in, the hostesses, because I lead the group and then I have volunteers that help me to h to run the events, and then we have our members who are our staple members that have been doing this a long time.
• 30:58
  Jennifer Johnson: We ask them to go up to the new people and to start introducing them to others.
• 31:02
  Jennifer Johnson: And so our goal for every event is that the new person or the new people feel like they've been coming for a long time and they belong.
• 31:09
  Jennifer Johnson: And that breaks that down.
• 31:10
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 31:11
  Jennifer Johnson: And it just makes it so easy.
• 31:12
  Jennifer Johnson: And then they want to come back.
• 31:13
  Jennifer Johnson: And it's just that's that what crew what creates the success of the group, I believe.
• 31:17
  Jennifer Johnson: And I can see that.
• 31:18
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, it's really, it's really amazing.
• 31:21
  Jennifer Johnson: It's very meaningful to me.
• 31:23
  Jennifer Johnson: I think that's cool because I know, and you know how it is to be the new kid on the block walking into a room of you have no idea if you're gonna know anyone.
• 31:31
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 31:31
  Jennifer Johnson: And to be welcomed like that.
• 31:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 31:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 31:34
  Jennifer Johnson: That's a pretty cool thing.
• 31:35
  Jennifer Johnson: It is cool.
• 31:36
  Jennifer Johnson: It's pretty cool.
• 31:37
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 31:37
  Jennifer Johnson: So, how do you maintain that engagement with your Facebook group?
• 31:43
  Jennifer Johnson: Is it because of those personalized events that you do outside of Facebook, or do the members just kind of keep it going?
• 31:51
  Jennifer Johnson: I would say it's a combination for sure.
• 31:53
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, our group is unique because we do meet in person and not every Facebook group is going to be like that.
• 31:58
  Jennifer Johnson: But I do think it's very important to take an extra step to have personalized connection.
• 32:03
  Jennifer Johnson: So if you're going to do an online community and you're a business owner, you're an entrepreneur, and you have a worldwide community, um, one of the things that you can do that's not an in-person event is to private message people and not in a solicitory way or in a way that's asking them to buy something, in a way, you know, like if they are making a comment and they have a question, you know, you can answer the question publicly, but you can also private message them so that they feel that in-person touch.
• 32:28
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 32:29
  Jennifer Johnson: They people want to feel seen and heard.
• 32:31
  Jennifer Johnson: And so whether it's you're creating in-person events or not, I think that especially as the leader of a group, um, that it's important that you, you know, if you see people that are taking an interest, that you go ahead and message them in a very personal way, not in a copy and paste, you know, or I mean, and I know that sounds like it's it's gonna take a lot of time.
• 32:54
  Jennifer Johnson: And I actually um took this advice about private messaging people from someone, and I thought the same thing.
• 33:00
  Jennifer Johnson: I was like, well, gosh, private messaging, that just sounds like a lot of work.
• 33:04
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 33:04
  Jennifer Johnson: But when you really step back and think about it, you don't really, I have 7,200 women in my group.
• 33:10
  Jennifer Johnson: I have 600 that actively participate in person at our events.
• 33:13
  Jennifer Johnson: Wow.
• 33:14
  Jennifer Johnson: So there's a lot of women that aren't gonna do that.
• 33:17
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 33:18
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 33:18
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 33:18
  Jennifer Johnson: And so what I want to do is I want to hone in on who is actually participating and who is actually interested in taking that next step.
• 33:27
  Jennifer Johnson: And those are the people that as a business owner, I want to pay attention to because they are the ones that are hearing me the loudest.
• 33:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 33:34
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I think it's important for me as the owner of the group and the moderator of the group to be present.
• 33:39
  Jennifer Johnson: I think my face is in there all the time.
• 33:42
  Jennifer Johnson: I might be doing like a video that's just a live video that's just completely unedited and sloppy and all that, but it's me.
• 33:50
  Jennifer Johnson: And so I think that people want to be in a relationship with that owner of the group.
• 33:55
  Jennifer Johnson: And the more present you can be, I think it creates more of a personalized experience for members and they'll come back.
• 34:02
  Jennifer Johnson: I think that's fabulous.
• 34:03
  Jennifer Johnson: But I also uh what the other thing that I think is so great is yes, they want you, but they want the authentic you.
• 34:10
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 34:10
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 34:11
  Jennifer Johnson: They don't want you to be all photoshopped and you don't want you to do all the filters, they want you for sure.
• 34:16
  Jennifer Johnson: How you are.
• 34:17
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 34:17
  Jennifer Johnson: I I was just having this conversation with someone the other day because so many people pick up their phone and they do their selfie or their video and they go, Oh, no, that's not good enough.
• 34:28
  Jennifer Johnson: And they're there for 20 minutes trying to get it right to make it perfect.
• 34:31
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, that's not what your audience wants to see.
• 34:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 34:34
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, I I love nothing more than to turn on Facebook and see you in your closet, like digging around, sweating, you know, like, but that's awesome.
• 34:41
  Jennifer Johnson: I don't know.
• 34:41
  Jennifer Johnson: Because I'm like, yes, that's Jennifer, and she's the clothing queen and she's in the closet.
• 34:47
  Jennifer Johnson: Of course, where else would she be?
• 34:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 34:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Whispering because it's like at five in the morning, going, hey guys, I'm in my closet.
• 34:53
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 34:53
  Jennifer Johnson: But that's like that's the best.
• 34:55
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, nobody's perfect.
• 34:57
  Jennifer Johnson: No, it doesn't matter how you know what your image is online.
• 35:01
  Jennifer Johnson: And of course, you want those.
• 35:03
  Jennifer Johnson: There are, I think there's multiple layers.
• 35:06
  Jennifer Johnson: So I do think it's important to have professional photos done.
• 35:08
  Jennifer Johnson: I think it's important to dress nice and to do all the things that will create this ambiance of professionalism for whatever foot you're trying to put forward.
• 35:16
  Jennifer Johnson: But then on the flip side of it, when you're trying to make a connection with your audience, they want you to be vulnerable because they're feeling insecure at times.
• 35:25
  Jennifer Johnson: And they want their the thing that's gonna make them feel connected to you is your flaws.
• 35:30
  Jennifer Johnson: Exactly.
• 35:31
  Jennifer Johnson: And and you're successful and you're flawed, and they love that.
• 35:34
  Jennifer Johnson: And that's great.
• 35:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 35:37
  Jennifer Johnson: So you have plans for expansion.
• 35:40
  Jennifer Johnson: Let's talk about that.
• 35:40
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 35:41
  Jennifer Johnson: What's next?
• 35:42
  Jennifer Johnson: Okay.
• 35:43
  Jennifer Johnson: So um, our website is where we have our our VIP members, and so on our website.
• 35:49
  Jennifer Johnson: And we have a mobile app that attaches to the website.
• 35:52
  Jennifer Johnson: And so on our website, we have our online community that oversees um different chapters.
• 35:58
  Jennifer Johnson: And so we recently, just about a month ago, launched our second chapter.
• 36:02
  Jennifer Johnson: And so our group is called Fabulous or started as Fabulous Ladies of Naples.
• 36:06
  Jennifer Johnson: And now we've we're starting to revise that into Fabulous Ladies.
• 36:10
  Jennifer Johnson: And we have Fabulous Ladies of Naples and we have Fabulous Ladies of Carmel Westfield, Indiana.
• 36:15
  Jennifer Johnson: My husband's from Indiana, so we go there all the time.
• 36:17
  Jennifer Johnson: And so it was a natural four step to do our second chapter there.
• 36:21
  Jennifer Johnson: And so yeah.
• 36:22
  Jennifer Johnson: And so we're building community up there.
• 36:24
  Jennifer Johnson: We have already 600 members in her Facebook group.
• 36:27
  Jennifer Johnson: And then she's got 60, almost 60 paid members that are doing her VIP events with her now.
• 36:32
  Jennifer Johnson: Wow.
• 36:33
  Jennifer Johnson: So um, but the more I tell women about this, the more I see a need in in many cities.
• 36:39
  Jennifer Johnson: And so we're getting through the the beta launch of her chapter and working through all the growing pains of that before we do a third chapter.
• 36:46
  Jennifer Johnson: But once we get that going, then we'll be looking to expand into other cities around the country.
• 36:51
  Jennifer Johnson: And I've got someone in the UK and someone in Dubai that are kind of expressing some interest.
• 36:56
  Jennifer Johnson: And so we're we're starting to grow.
• 36:59
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, I find that there's a huge need for this no matter where you live.
• 37:02
  Jennifer Johnson: We were wondering about Indiana because Indiana, so Naples, Florida, is a place where people move too very often.
• 37:09
  Jennifer Johnson: Carmel, Indiana is not as much like that.
• 37:11
  Jennifer Johnson: And so it's more of a place where people grow up and stay.
• 37:14
  Jennifer Johnson: And so we were curious to see well, what is that going to look like?
• 37:17
  Jennifer Johnson: How is that going to be different?
• 37:19
  Jennifer Johnson: And what we've started to learn is that it doesn't matter if you move somewhere or not.
• 37:23
  Jennifer Johnson: Your kids have now grown up, you're an empty nester, or even if you're not a mom, your career is starting to become stay more stable and you have a little more time on your hands.
• 37:32
  Jennifer Johnson: Maybe you were recently divorced, maybe you're recently widowed.
• 37:35
  Jennifer Johnson: And it's a transitional phase, this between 50 and 70 years old.
• 37:40
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 37:40
  Jennifer Johnson: You're kind of moving into the next stage.
• 37:42
  Jennifer Johnson: You're not ready to like sit around the house and watch TV and retire.
• 37:46
  Jennifer Johnson: You want to go and do things and you need some people to do that with.
• 37:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 37:50
  Jennifer Johnson: And so that's been an interesting um thing that we've learned is that there is a need all around the world for this.
• 37:56
  Jennifer Johnson: Everyone wants connection.
• 37:57
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 37:57
  Jennifer Johnson: That's how it how it all boils down.
• 37:59
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 37:59
  Jennifer Johnson: I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together.
• 38:01
  Jennifer Johnson: And you gave us some really valuable thoughts and ideas around starting Facebook groups and kind of led us on a little path.
• 38:09
  Jennifer Johnson: So if our listeners would like to get in touch with you, Julie, how can they do so?
• 38:13
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 38:14
  Jennifer Johnson: So um the website is called fabulousladies.vip.
• 38:18
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, my email is info at fabulousladies.vip.
• 38:22
  Jennifer Johnson: And then um our Facebook group is fabulousladiesofnaples.com.
• 38:26
  Jennifer Johnson: There's also fabulousladiesofcarmel slashwestfield.com, or not dot com, but it's f the Facebook group.
• 38:32
  Jennifer Johnson: And so you can join if you're in the area.
• 38:34
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, we encourage you to only join the Facebook group if you live in the local area.
• 38:38
  Jennifer Johnson: And so the best way to follow, and then we are also on Instagram on Fabulous Ladies.
• 38:43
  Jennifer Johnson: So you can follow us on Instagram if you're not in one of the cities to kind of follow and see what we're up to.
• 38:48
  Jennifer Johnson: And then um, you know, if you're interested in starting a chapter, I'd encourage you to reach out to me as well because we're looking for new places to grow in the future.
• 38:56
  Jennifer Johnson: So that is so awesome.
• 38:58
  Jennifer Johnson: Congratulations on all of your success.
• 39:00
  Jennifer Johnson: Thank you so much.
• 39:01
  Jennifer Johnson: Thank you for having me.
• 39:01
  Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely so.