How to Create Community with Katie Krimitsos

00:00:23 - Amber Hawley
Hello, hello. Welcome to season two of the My Biz Bestie podcast. I'm Amber Hawley.

00:00:28 - Maelisa Hall
And I'm Melissa Hall.

00:00:30 - Amber Hawley
And today we are talking with the lovely, the incomparable Katie Kermetsos, who is the founder of Biz Women Rock, and it has a podcast at Biz Women Rock and all this amazingness.
So welcome, Katie. What's up, ladies? Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for being here. We are beyond excited about this because we met Katie in person. We've been following her and part of the biz women rock community, but we met her last year at podcast movement in August for the first time.
And so we've added her to our stocky list.

00:01:07 - Maelisa Hall
Yes. Yeah.

00:01:08 - Katie Krimitsos
I feel very honored. Very honored. And I must say you make it quite easy to stock you because you wear branded clothing when you're, when you're conferencing.

00:01:18 - Maelisa Hall
I have no desire to hide in the crowd. It's like, please notice me.

00:01:24 - Amber Hawley
Red boots, cape, amazingness.

00:01:27 - Katie Krimitsos
Absolutely love it.

00:01:28 - Maelisa Hall
Yes.

00:01:28 - Katie Krimitsos
And it was cool though, right? Because I was like, oh, I think that's Katie Kermisos. Let's go over and say hi.

00:01:34 - Maelisa Hall
And it was you. The very first time I ever went to podcasting, it was podcast movement, like their very first year. And I had just launched, I think it was like a six-month-old podcast. And I got a ton of branded shirts and clothes because when you're a podcaster, you don't always know the face on the other side of the podcast, right?
Unless your face is on the podcast art, but even mine was not, still is not. And so I was like, okay, I'm just going to put my brand everywhere. And then I did this thing very consciously where every single session I was in, I would force myself to ask a question.
And I would always say like, hi, Katie Kramitz is with Biz Women Rock. So I was wondering about that. And I Just that thing very quickly. I was like, okay, cool. Like it really like forced a lot of really amazing conversations just with that. It was like me saying like, no, I want, I need to make sure like I kind of get me and my brand out here.

So yeah, that has evolved into me wearing a cape apparently at all the conferences or my daughter wearing a cape, you know?

00:02:30 - Amber Hawley
But I love it because it's almost like you're our little mini version of Comic-Con at Podcast Movement, which I thoroughly enjoy. I was like, this woman is legit. I'm going to take that as a compliment. Oh, I mean it as a compliment. I'm sorry. I live in like tech world, Silicon Valley.

00:02:47 - Katie Krimitsos
That's a big deal.

00:02:48 - Amber Hawley
It is. It's a legit compliment.

00:02:51 - Katie Krimitsos
Sorry about that.

00:02:51 - Amber Hawley
I forget what other folks might think differently, but no, it's amazing. And then, yeah, yours was, you know, we've said how much there were a couple of key sessions that we went to that we felt were really good and yours was amazing. And it was so, the content was so valuable and it was all about monetizing your podcast.
So it was brilliant stuff. So we're so excited to have you on. Hey, thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here. And so for those of you who don't know, Katie has a huge Facebook community. It's like 10,000 people, right?

00:03:24 - Maelisa Hall
Not quite there. It's about 5,100 women. Yeah. But I appreciate you giving me that nice number, but no. It's like 10,000. I love it. think it's that super active where it really feels like women all over the world. No, it's about a little over 5,000 women and it's just super active.
Like really women who are really like actively in their businesses, actively growing their companies and they really want to connect with other like high performing women. So yeah, it's a pretty cool community. Awesome.

00:03:54 - Amber Hawley
So I would say though that you know, that you are excellent at creating community. And I think this is, like you said, it may feel like 10,000 because there's so much activity in there and I feel like a lot of good support. And so that's why we wanted you on today to talk all about creating community.

00:04:11 - Maelisa Hall
Sweet. Let's do it. I love community. I think it's, it has been something over the years that it was one of those things that I think most of us, when we have a superpower, we don't realize that it is a superpower until there becomes a moment where somebody sort of reflects that back to us.
And then we're like, we start looking back at our history and we're like, oh yeah, like that's kind of where I got that training. Oh yeah, that's kind of, I've become really good at that. And, you know, for me, the My training, if you will, sort of the core part of my training of building community really happened with our local community, Tampa Bay Business Owners, for so long.
So from 2009 to 2016, it was a company that I co-owned with my husband. In 2016, I stepped out to do Biz Women Rock full-time. And it was like what anyone on the outside would see as a... like a chamber of commerce for business owners locally.

And so it was anywhere from two to 15 events a month. It was a membership model and it was all about how can we make sure that these business owners feel like they are part of a family. And I got to be part of the running of that and the organization of that and how to actually engineer that.
community happening. Community is not something and relationship building is not something that happens just by accident. You can't just throw people in a room, whether it's live or virtual, and just expect community to happen. There are active things that you can really do to make it happen in a way that you want it to happen.
So it was really all that training that I brought into the online community for Biz Women Rock, and it's proven to be pretty awesome.

00:05:37 - Katie Krimitsos
Yeah, I love that because I think a lot of people assume, kind of like you assume with relationships, right? Like people assume if you get along with a partner, then everything's just going to work out. And it's like, no, you have to continue working on things.
And it's like that with networking, with creating a community. So how did you, it sounds like you do feel like that was your superpower, but how did you do that with the Tampa Bay group? Like, were you actually seeking out information? Was it something you did get formal training on?

00:06:07 - Maelisa Hall
What did you do? Yeah. So I would say that I got the formal training in the space of owning the company and needing it to flip and work. Like that was our secret sauce. That was our big distinguisher between why somebody would join our community versus joining yet another networking group or another chamber.
That's why they would put their dollars into us because we were able to give them that feeling of true family. And I don't, use that word lightly. Still to this day, I've been out of it for two years now, but those ladies, obviously, because those are the women who have transformed into my community now, but that community at large still remains part of our chosen family here in Tampa.
So it was a matter of that was a business model for us. We needed to make sure that people felt like they belonged to that they were getting value every single time that they showed up to an event, that they were getting value even when they didn't show up, that they felt connected so that they would want to maintain membership.

And so it was a lot of like trial and error. And it's worth noting too that my husband was the founder of the company and he was really like the lead of the company. My role there for so long was as chief operating officer. And so I was the one who was kind of taking all of his ideas and turning them around, organizing them and implementing them.
But, you know, he and I really co-led the company. So it was a matter of like, he was just really good at experimenting and he knew really well about like, what's our onboarding for a brand new member and how can we make them feel part of this movement?
So one example is when somebody joins the organization, like what's their orientation? And how are we making that different than any other orientation they would ever go to for any other general business community, right? And so what's that onboarding process to make sure that they are from the get-go sort of like taking on the flag of our organization?

How can we make every single member feel super special? And a lot of that was like, how can we connect them? We had, for a season in the business, we had like a welcoming committee, which is a general, I think we had a more beautiful and sexier name for it, but it was basically like the welcoming committee.
So you know, what I would consider like the biz women rock ambassador. So when somebody new comes in, like that's a way that I can scale the leadership, right? So how can somebody else make sure to connect with them, make them feel welcome, make sure they're sort of like, you know, helping them understand what the culture of the community really is and helping them, like getting them involved in all of the events locally.
What that meant is we had something that we used for a while called like a passport. So when you first came to Oregon, orientation, you kind of got this passport and you got some sort of a big prize at the end of going to one of these types of events, going to one of these types of events, having a one-on-one, you know, like kind of like checking off of a list that would, and the purpose of that going through that list would ensure that you're having touch points in the community right away so that you become like a lifelong lover of the organization.

So yeah, there were plenty of things that we engineered. And then that translated to actual live events. We would have live events where we had ambassadors, literally, we would have an ambassador meeting right before the event. And what that meant is we had half a dozen to a dozen people whose job it was to welcome people into the room when they came and immediately connect them to somebody that it would be a meaningful connection for them.
And how awesome is that? Because if you're not immediately the social butterfly at a networking event or a business event, you're going to feel so taken care of. And that was the comment that we got all the time. Like, I feel so welcome here. I feel so welcome here.
And generally I was one of the people like right at the, you know, check-in counter, like giving everyone hugs. Cause that's sort of what I do. And there were people like brand new that I'm like, Hey, what's up?

Giving hugs. And they're like, Oh God, I feel so welcome. Warm and welcome. Once Katie gave me, but it's like all of the, it's sort of like common sense stuff about how do you make people like individuals feel important. And, It's interesting because in the online space, we can kind of get into, and I'm speaking, I'll speak for me, and if you want to identify, you can, but like those of us who do online businesses, it's really for us to get in the headspace of a more of like a one-to-many model and how do we scale and we forget to take care of the one individual.
I really believe that that's been my secret sauce all these years is that... I'm constantly sharing about so-and-so's really great success. I'm constantly connecting to people in the group. I'm constantly giving shout-outs to great people. I'm welcoming people.
I really want to make sure that individuals are really recognized.

00:10:20 - Katie Krimitsos
Yeah, I think it's so valuable because that's what people are seeking out now. right? It's sort of like how getting snail mail is really exciting now and email is like what mail used to be. And it's when you have a personal connection, even if it's online, you're like, oh, wow, this person took the time out to do that because so many people aren't doing that.

00:10:41 - Amber Hawley
Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny, Melissa and I were just being interviewed about an hour ago by someone who's an introvert and has a hard time with networking. And that's what really stood out is Unless you're counting on the extroverts in your community to do the work, like there are a lot of people who fall through the cracks.
And so because they may be introverted or they're just nervous or they don't know anybody, but you have somebody initially taking them in and connecting them. It makes all the difference in the world, I think. Yeah.

00:11:11 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah, I think so. And look, I'm not perfect at it. I definitely can always be doing some work on how can I tighten up that process? How can I make sure that as few people as possible are really falling through the cracks? And there's a lot of different ways to practically do that, actually.
And a lot of that starts with how and who I'm even letting into the community. And we're talking specifically about the Facebook group here, like how I'm actually letting people in and am I, do I approve everyone? No, I do not. And am I asking them questions before they come in?
Yes, I am. And will I deny people if they're not answering according to what I think is going to be a real ideal space for them? Yeah, I am. And so it's a part of it starts with getting the right people in the room in the first place, establishing that culture.
And then, you know, I'm just constantly evolving on like how to tweak it, how to make it even better, how to make sure there's some sort of a an organized process to how I'm deepening those one-on-one relationships and how I'm able to make those relationships feel connected amongst all of the other members.

I'm not perfect at it, but it definitely continues to evolve. And I think it continues to get a little bit better every single day.

00:12:16 - Amber Hawley
Well, yeah. And I mean, I think realistically, that's a very large group to be managing. And there is a thoughtfulness there, which I think makes a difference because as somebody who's a member of a lot of Facebook groups, I will say it's a very positive group.
It's a very supportive group. And there are other groups that I've just recently had to just like close off and let go because the leaders themselves were kind of, even though I think they're really smart business people, I find them more and more, it's more like complaining or outing people or, you know, just like, oh, you know, here's another stupid customer, which we all have that moment, right?
But I don't know that sharing it on a Facebook group for everyone is necessarily the smart idea. So I just think it's being thoughtful about that. And, you know, from the top down is where the community tone gets set.

And so I think you do a really good job of that.

00:13:08 - Katie Krimitsos
Thank you.

00:13:08 - Amber Hawley
There's a lot of positivity there. So I think that's really great.

00:13:11 - Katie Krimitsos
Can you talk a little bit about how you have scaled that? Because I assume, you know, there was a point where there were like five members in the group. And how has that changed now? over time? Because you actually have grown it to be fairly big in a short amount of time.

00:13:26 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. So it's interesting. It's gone through a lot of phases. So I launched the group. I opened up the group about a month or two after I started the podcast. So we're going on like four years now. And I was really lucky that I had an immediate growth.
I had a lot of immediate growth, but I did it very deliberately. So I was like one-on-one. I was asking people one-on-one. Would you join my group? Would you join my group? And remember, what I did is I basically leveraged the hell out of my local community because they already knew me.
I had that relationship with them. And so, and I already knew that they were in that language already. They already knew business talk and they already knew kind of what I was about. And they already knew community culture. They already knew how I stood for community culture.
So what I did right away is I got, I think, about a dozen brand ambassadors.

And I just said, hey, would you be willing to be a brand ambassador for me? Here's what that means. It means being in a group. Can you post on the timeline so I'm not the only one posting there? Just questions that you might have, support that you need, an idea, anything like that that you want to share.
And can you be really active on other people's posts? Because I can't be there 24 hours a day. So You know, if somebody's posting something, would you be willing to be one of the first ones who can jump in and give some feedback? So somebody's post isn't sitting there for two days without an answer, right?
And so that immediately, those two things together, like me making personal asks to invite people into the group, got a good amount of people there. And then asking the brand ambassadors right alongside that got a lot of activity and a lot of people right at the same time.
I was also running Facebook ads to the group. So the value of like, join a group of fellow businesswomen. And back then in 2004, 2014, there were not a lot of... Facebook groups was not what it is now.

So there were not a lot of... I could sell the benefit of being around like-minded women. That was a big benefit back then. Now, thankfully, I mean, I'm happy to know that it exists in droves, but that was really enough to say like, hey, you want to be around other high-driving women entrepreneurs, come join this group and have real conversations.
So I got a lot of people in that way. I talked about it on the podcast. And how I've scaled that... truthfully not as well as I know that I can. It's really just, it's been leaning a lot on my leaders in the group who, you know, there's no formal brand ambassadors that I have right now.
That's something I know that I really need to implement for this coming year, but it kind of happens organically still. Like there's still sort of like about a dozen women who are sort of like the biggest cheerleaders are super active in there. They get so much value out of there.
And so they themselves are participating a lot.

So it happens very organically now. And I got to say this, I don't automate stuff in there. I mean, I'm realizing that I'm developing a pretty staunch opinion about this, that I don't like automating stuff in my group because, and you can do whatever you want to do.
There's no judgment. This is sort of like mommyhood, like no judgment on what you do. However, I automate one post in there and it's my promote your biz Thursday post because I found that when I did automate it, I would forget every once in a while to do it.
And that was not awesome. But every other post that I have in there is me showing up live. And the reason that I like doing that and the reason that I actually keep insisting on me doing that, and you might catch me next year totally eating my words right now, but for right now, I believe this because it shows that I'm there and I can spare five minutes every day.
Like that is the bread and butter of the core group of my women.

I think that they deserve five minutes of my time every day at the bare minimum and And sometimes literally it's like, oh my God, what is a question right now? Like, what do they need from me? What can I post? Sometimes it's something super simple that like I can get on, I can post and then boom, I'm done.
And I can't look at it again for the rest of the day, but at nighttime I'll come back to it and I'll be able to read everyone's comments. Sometimes I'm there multiple times because I have something to say. Sometimes it's very pointed and strategic posts that I'm making in order for me to promote a podcast episode or to talk about masterminds coming up or what have you.
But it's a weird thing because I do want to scale. But at the same point, that is really like I want to keep my finger on the pulse of what's going on. And that's my forced way for myself to do it.

00:17:25 - Katie Krimitsos
So you're doing this new agey thing called being involved.

00:17:29 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. That's like, oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, like I, again, like there are pros and cons to this. A con being that I definitely have people who will then side message me and want to have a long conversation with me. But at some point I need to, or email me like, hey, can you answer, you know, three hours worth of my questions in this email?
And so there are very real boundaries that I have to have about like, dude, I'm here and I give you a ton for free in this group. And if you want me, here's my, you know, here's a 90 minute strategy session rate that we can have. You know, I literally just said this to somebody the other day.
I was like, I love you. And I'm going to hope that you really understand that I cannot do this right now. But if you absolutely need me to answer and strategize with you, like you are more than welcome to purchase and invest in a 90 minute strategy session with me, you know?

00:18:20 - Amber Hawley
Well, that's just good business. So I think that's good modeling because you do have to have boundaries. But I do, I definitely, I feel like I do notice that, partially because I tend not to sleep at night. So like, I think it was even this morning or yesterday morning, it was like 6.
12 a.m. your time, which is 3.12 a.m. my time.

00:18:38 - Maelisa Hall
And you were posting something.

00:18:39 - Amber Hawley
And I knew, I was like, hey, that's a live post. You can tell.

00:18:42 - Maelisa Hall
Totally live.

00:18:42 - Amber Hawley
Yeah.

00:18:44 - Maelisa Hall
Totally live.

00:18:44 - Amber Hawley
Yeah. Unless you're strategically scheduling 3.12, 6.12.

00:18:49 - Maelisa Hall
No, no. That was me live this morning because I am an early riser. But once in a blue moon, I might, like, I think today I did post schedule, like the actual podcast episode for this week. So I did it at 6am, but I had it go out at like 1030. That's about as automated as you're going to get from me.

00:19:05 - Katie Krimitsos
But I love the idea behind it because from the beginning, your focus is all on if I'm going to have a group, it's going to be about like being involved and making it valuable. It's not just to have a group, right? Because otherwise you could just have a Facebook page if you didn't want people interacting with one another.

00:19:23 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah, exactly. And I'm really lucky that I've had a very engaged Facebook page for a long time too. And that actually was the building blocks for the group. I actually was doing advertisements in those early years to the people who liked my page to get them into the group.
But yeah, I mean, that's a big benefit of it, right? I want conversation. To me, connectivity is a big value of mine and relatability. And so I wanted a big push of mine in those early years was I want to get people who are listening to my podcast who I don't get to hear from.
I'm not guaranteed to hear back from them. I want to bring them in a room together and I want to talk and I want to give them access to each other because that's actually more valuable. You talk about scaling, you know, that's really my intention ultimately is like, I want to scale my message, not just me.
Like I want to scale my message. And how do I scale my message? Well, my message is that together we are better. Like together we rule this world.

Like together we rock it together, right? Like a rising tide lifts all boats. And I'm not ignorant enough to believe that I am the only one that anyone will ever get information from that can benefit them. So, there is so much strength in accessing each other's brilliance.
And so my gift, one of my gifts is bringing the right people in the room together, live or virtually, and allowing them to supply support and ideas and brilliance and wisdom to one another. And then I get to be a part of that. So it just embodies that.
And then the business benefit of that is that that then lends itself and the work... that I do there for free as a way to develop the no love and trust factor, then lends itself to open ears and people who are super ready to hear what I have to offer and are, oh yeah, I've been interested in a mastermind.

Oh yeah, you have the paid membership, which is the academy. Yeah, that sounds really interesting. Oh, you have a one day event coming up. Cool. Like I want to hear about that. Right. So, you know, strategically it just makes really good sense for me to put my energy there.

00:21:10 - Katie Krimitsos
That's true. Cause a lot of your paid offerings are also these you know, like community membership. Mastermind is like smaller community membership. How do you, because I am always fascinated because I will have days where like I don't go on Facebook at all because I've been better about that recently.
I know. And then Amber's like, I don't even understand you because she'll be like, oh, did you see this? And I'm like, oh no, I haven't been on Facebook since yesterday.

00:21:30 - Maelisa Hall
And she's like, what happened?

00:21:34 - Katie Krimitsos
Are you okay? Are you in a ditch somewhere? I know. But so I don't understand how some people like are so good at managing their time when they have these groups that are super active, like your group is active all the time. And that's your free group.
And you have these paid groups.

00:21:53 - Maelisa Hall
You must imagine what happens in my academy, right?

00:21:55 - Katie Krimitsos
Well, how are you managing those? And maybe like, do they look a little different?

00:21:59 - Maelisa Hall
Yes. That's a great question. So I am very aware of the time and energy and the depth that it takes for each of those groups. So for example, the academy... It's a paid membership, but that doesn't mean like, oh, you get more activity. That's not actually the big benefit.
The big benefit is that you're surrounded by the most active and the most engaged and the most fiery and high-performing women out of this community who want deeper access to me and they want specialized content. So I actually show up there less. But we have a once a week type of an event.
Sometimes it's a virtual happy hour so that we can actually get to know each other. Sometimes it's a masterclass. Sometimes it's a case study. Sometimes it's a direct teaching from me. But you're not going to find me in there trying to get engagement on a post.
That's not the culture of it. The culture is like, dude, I'm busy.

So when I see something's happening in the academy, I want to make sure that it's worth my time. So it's quality content. And that doesn't mean that my free group doesn't have quality content, but it means it is much more thought out for the community there, right?
For the members there. And then the same thing goes for my masterminds, for example, like they each have secret groups that are dedicated for each of those, but it's not about the quantity of information or posts that are happening in those groups. Those groups are each meant to be supportive of what's already happening in that weekly mastermind.
So somebody had a hot seat and they were talking about needing to build out the sales page. Well, that's where they go two days later when they got it done to show accountability. I got it done. And can you guys give me feedback? So it's all purposeful.
So how I manage it is I'm just, I'm constantly aware of the depth of energy each of those need.

And they don't all need, they have different variances of quality and quantity that they need from me.

00:23:42 - Katie Krimitsos
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, actually. And so... It also sounds like you were very strategic when you were starting each one and thinking ahead about like, okay, what's the purpose of this? What's my level of involvement going to be, et cetera.

00:23:57 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah, absolutely. Which is, you know, everything in business. Like, can I really, I'm in a business and I know you and Amber are in this business too. Like you give, like, your revenue comes from you giving and you giving support to a client or to somebody that you're talking to online or to a community at large, the folks listening to your podcast.
So I give a lot. So I'm constantly in the space of like, if there's any other thing that requires me giving energy, I need to make sure that that is purposeful, that it's doing something in line with what my business goals are and the goals for my message being out there really are.

00:24:34 - Katie Krimitsos
Yeah, and one of the things I've heard you talk about I think it was in a podcast episode. Who knows? You never know where you hear people talking now, if it's like in your Facebook group or what. But you were talking about how you will like strategically reach out to people individually too.
And since you are a systems type person, how do you do that? Because I assume you're not just like, oh, randomly looking through the list of members and like, here's this random person. Let me just talk to them.

00:24:59 - Maelisa Hall
I would like to tell you that yes, there is this very specific and very strategic process that I follow all the time. It's somewhere in between that and total chaos. It's not on the total chaos side, but it's organized, but it's not nearly as super systematic and perfect and never changes as possible.
I deliberately go through seasons in my business where I need to be in the weeds with my ladies. I need to hear what's going on. I need to have those conversations. And it's duly parted. Number one is because I need to get validation that the path that I'm on is the right path, i.
e. the things that I'm opening up or the things that I'm about to do or the strategic plans that I have are actually in line with what my ladies are asking for. And yes, can I do that through a survey?

Absolutely. Do I do that? Yes. But there's so much, like I can't hear emotion in a survey. And so I definitely go through those seasons. The second reason though is because, especially at a time where you know, the general business owner might know this as like launch season, right?
Especially at a time when I know that I'm having something come up. I'm having a mastermind open up. I'm having a live event happening in the near future. I'm having a retreat coming up. It's really important for me to talk to each of those ladies one-on-one because again, I kind of just want to make sure like, is there really, like, I think that there's a need.
It's like my triple check. I think that there's a need for this. I'm paying attention and I keep hearing that it is, but let me just talk to some folks one-on-one who are by the way, this is a strategic part of my end, who are actually my ideal woman.
I have a lot of women. I'm really, really grateful for that.

But even amongst all those women, there's really that ideal where my gifts pair perfectly with where this woman is in the season of her business and believes in that same heart-centered, equal parts emotion, equal parts strategy type of business journey.
And so I'm deliberately reaching out to the very purposeful woman that I really want to continue serving in a meaningful way. And so what it does is it just opens up the door to have those conversations. And sometimes that just parlays perfectly into like, hey, you mentioned this.
Did you know I have this thing coming up? I really, I have no intention of doing that. That's not why I intend the call, but I'm also, I don't shy away from that opportunity either because it's, If it's something that my community member has a pain point on and I'm like, oh, I happened to create this thing and it's launching next month.
Is that something that you would be interested in?

I don't shy away from that conversation because that's why I'm there, right? And I'm not shy about that. I'm not going to hide that. But I feel like I do it in a way that is 100% in line with my personality, which is like, dude, I've got this thing. And because I do the work to be really in tune with whatever my offerings are, like the emotion and the purpose behind it, I can like geek out and ooze out in love and passion about whatever this thing is.
For example, an upcoming mastermind or a live event. And so that emotion translates. It translates really easily. And so somebody who's like, oh my God, that's exactly what I've been craving. Oh, okay, cool. You know, I'll send you the information. Let's, you know, talk in a couple of days and see if you have any questions and let's get moving.

00:28:06 - Katie Krimitsos
You just made sales like not scary.

00:28:10 - Maelisa Hall
You know, I'm so glad that you mentioned that because it, I had somebody say to me one time a long time ago, and I'm sure this is not the first time that you guys have heard this, but sales is service. And I'm not going to lie. If you would have talked to me two years ago, I would have been terrified of sales and a price point that I'm giving.
And it's taken a lot of purposeful work to work through all of that stuff. And I'm not perfect at it by any means, but... when I hear somebody say to me, because I asked the question like, Hey, what do you need right now? Like, what do you need? How can I help you?
What's going on in your business right now? And I hear her say, God, I just really need to be around other like-minded women. I'm just crazy. I feel so lonely right now. I'm just craving other women because I believe I can do this, but I get, I feel like I don't have that support system.
And I get to say, huh, If I don't tell her about my mastermind, I am doing a ridiculous disservice to her and I've just wasted her time.

I mean, I've done a great job of listening to her and that's awesome. But if I don't tell her like, hey, I've got this awesome thing that would be ideal. And it happens to also hold you accountable for stuff, which is exactly what you mentioned right before that, that you can't like you're having problems following through with things like that.
But this goes back to, as a business owner, how you really need to know the ins and outs of what your offerings are and really believe in them so that when you have these conversations, it just fits. Somebody on a recent live coaching call that I did for the podcast, the woman that I was talking to really recognized by the end of it.
She's like, Katie, I need to do what you just did. And I go, what is that? This was after the call off the air. She goes, you literally... Just wanted to get to know where I was and you whittled down what was going on and got real clear about how you could help me.
And then you just like, that's the offering that you had for me, so you didn't need to, like, inundate me right up front with the 10 different offerings that you have.

You know, it just started with, who are you and what do you really need right now? And then now I can marry you with what resource that I have. That's going to be a benefit for you, and I don't need to inundate you with the 10 other things that I have right now.

00:30:08 - Amber Hawley
Well, so you had a conversation? And so maybe that's what it is. Maybe that's why it doesn't feel so scary because it's not like I'm going to sell this person. It's I'm going to have a conversation and see if I have something to offer.

00:30:21 - Maelisa Hall
Totally. Ultimately, I sort of have this concept that keeps coming into my verbiage, which is to be money conscious, but not money focused. Don't get me wrong. I am not ignorant to my money. I am very highly aware and I have a mindset about the revenues that I generate and what sort of prosperity that I want to experience.
And so I'm super aware of that stuff, but I'm not driven by that. I am driven by the life that I get to impact and the offering that I have that has a dollar amount attached to it that can be the solution. And I'm aware of that number.

00:30:54 - Katie Krimitsos
Yeah, I love it. Now, I know one other thing, because I'm being conscious of time here, that we did want to ask you about was your own community. So what kind of... support system do you have right now for yourself? Because you're creating this giant support network for a bunch of other business owners too.

00:31:13 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. That's such a great question. And actually, I'm so glad that we're talking about that on the BizBestie show because when I was preparing for this, I was like, oh God, I don't know if I have a typical BizBestie story. Because the brief of it is, is that when I was working in our local business, I don't think I knew this at the time, but I can now look back and really say, I was really lonely because I I distanced myself emotionally from a lot of the members that I served because I had this mentality back then, just I think out of ignorance, like how could I serve them and tell them about my problems at the same time, you know, or ask for feedback in a way that was like really opening and vulnerable.
Since then, one thing I definitely brought into Biz Women Rock is that I really, I have ended up using Biz Women Rock as a way to generate really great relationships and really great friendships.

So straight out of the gate, like podcasts, I will leverage the hell out of that podcast. If I'm like, ah, I like her. I feel like I need to be connected to her. I'm going to ask her to be on my show. And that becomes like such a great way for me to just start a relationship and just start a conversation.
People in my masterminds, just because the sheer format of the masterminds is ridiculously intimate. Um, The ladies who were part of my mastermind last year and even the ladies who were part of my masterminds this year, we were all on Voxer together, not in a group, but individually.
They have become very good friends of mine. And just women within the community, it's not like I'm going to sit here and share everything with every single person by any means, but it's given me a really great platform for me to invite women into my life who end up very organically becoming close to me.

And I will say that I actively seek it out. Like I'm very aware about what do I need right now? Like I feel like, oh, you know, mid last year, I was like, I feel like I need, I feel like I need to go have a drink. Like I was really heavy into the online space.
I'm like, I feel like I need to go have a happy hour with somebody. And so like I reached out, like I have such a great local community, but like I was in my four foot by four foot corner of my bedroom. So I'm like, oh my God. Okay. So I need to reach out to some ladies and being, I was very strategic about it.
Like who do I want to have conversations with? Who can I totally geek out about entrepreneurship at a happy hour when everyone else is looking at us thinking that we're crazy. And so it's, you know, my friend Lauren, who I get together with once a month and we go and have drinks.
And so I'm really purposeful about what kind of support I really need and how I need that level of support. And I'm, Kind of like dating, you know? Like, yes, right, use that analogy a lot, yeah.

And I'm not gonna lie, like, I still am in that sort of like dance of intimacy with a handful of people right now. And I love it and I just feel really blessed that like that.

00:33:49 - Amber Hawley
It's because of this business that I get, that that even opens up that door. You know, you also have the unique, I mean, one could say, advantage, disadvantage a. having an entrepreneurial husband and having worked with him. So I think that's part of, we talk about our husbands being our support system.
Well, ideally, right? So how has that been for you? Okay.

00:34:16 - Maelisa Hall
Should I reframe that? No, no, but I want to be real, real honest here. Like it's been amazing and hugely challenging at the same time. So there was, you know, like I transferred out of the business that we had very established roles. Like he was kind of the number one, I was the number two.
And all of a sudden I was transferring into a role where I was number one and he still needed me. And come on, Katie, come on, Katie. And that's why the first two and a half years of Biz Women Rock were really, I'm not going to call them stagnant by any means, but like they were like experimentation years for me, right?
So I didn't, because I was still working our local business and still very much needed there. So, you know, he... He's my biggest supporter in the sense that he's such a big dreamer, just like I am. And he's a big visionary, just like I am. And so when I will go through a down moment, for example, he gets frustrated because he's like, I just see how amazing you are.

And how could you even have that moment of self-doubt? Like, get past it. Like, there's just, it's amazing. Like, the world is your oyster kind of a thing, right? And that's a really great voice to hear. Yeah. You know, but also... As an entrepreneurial husband who was sort of the alpha in the relationship for the longest time, this is not so true anymore.
Thankfully, we've kind of had to process all this out. But mostly in the beginning, those first couple of years, he had very hardcore opinions about what Biz Women Rock should do. And I was starting to own my own confidence in making my own decisions for my own company.
And that was a new thing because that's not how we worked before. So the way that it would play out in the not so pretty way is I would... say, oh, here's what's going on. And I really, I have so much respect for him as an entrepreneur. He's so smart.
And so I would go to him wanting some advice and he would come back at me with his opinion and his strategy and I would absolutely ignore it.

And then he would get angry with me because I ignored it. And then what happened is probably in year three, I actually stopped talking to him about it. I made a conscious decision. I actually have to incubate myself from that conversation with him while I gain confidence to know that what I'm doing is best for my community.
Because at the end of the day, no matter how brilliant he is, he is not the leader of Biz Women Rock I am. And I know very intuitively who my ladies are. I know very intuitively not only who they are, but who I am in this community and what my goals really are.
So I actually had to kind of like cut off a lot of communication with him for a certain amount of time so that I could gain my own wings. And then, and it's only probably been in the past year or so that I can finally like have those conversations with him.
And we can leave in a very positive manner and leave like, okay, cool.

You get to state your opinion and then you need to let it go, whether I do it or not. And I need to take in your advice and give you kudos for the fact that you might actually know a little something and see something that I don't, right? And so we're constantly working on that.
So it does, it comes with lots of pros and lots of cons.

00:37:04 - Amber Hawley
Well, I think so many people are going to find that answer very valuable because for a lot of people, regardless of their partner being an entrepreneur or not, it's that struggle of finding your own voice and also like respecting the feedback from our partners, right?
So thank you for that honesty because I honestly think a lot of women are going to resonate with that.

00:37:25 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. It's a hard thing to do to kind of like not talk about what you're loving doing in life right now with your spouse. But that's really where it became really important for me to find other women that got it that I could be really intimate with about this journey because I needed other people to like...
He was always my most intimate business person. And so I needed... As I was making that shift, I really was actively seeking out other people who could be that for me, who could be like part of my secret sisterhood that I call it. And that was a huge, huge transition for me.

00:37:54 - Katie Krimitsos
Yeah. And I think that's the important thing is knowing what you need and seeking it out, right? And even if that's like transitioning a little bit, how you were relating with your husband and not talking about certain things because you're like, okay, this is actually not helpful.
This isn't what I need. So I'm going to go over here to find that and then keep this relationship focused on. However, it is that I'm sure you originally got together because you have other things that you have in common or enjoy about one another. That.
are not business.

00:38:23 - Amber Hawley
Yeah. Well, that's why we call it a business support system and not a business support person. Yeah.

00:38:29 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. You know how they say like in a romantic relationship, like if you dare to believe that that one person is going to fulfill all of your needs, like you're crazy. Like just stop now. Like you really need a whole, you need a little bit of everyone to help you fulfill all the different needs that you have because not one person can do that.
And the same holds true in business. Not one person can fulfill all of those needs. There's no way.

00:38:48 - Amber Hawley
Absolutely.

00:38:50 - Maelisa Hall
I fully agree. But Amber can.

00:38:52 - Amber Hawley
Well, I was actually thinking like, no, Melissa, you complete me.

00:38:58 - Katie Krimitsos
And that's why you guys are perfect to host this show. That's why. But we have our extended networks quite a bit, actually. Yeah, because you can't, you know, you have to have a whole system for sure.

00:39:12 - Amber Hawley
Sometimes Melissa's sleeping and I need other people to talk to.

00:39:16 - Maelisa Hall
At 3 a.m. while you're in my group, apparently. Exactly, exactly.

00:39:21 - Amber Hawley
That's the sick news. Actually, the odds of her being up at that time were good.

00:39:27 - Katie Krimitsos
Yeah, maybe 60-40.

00:39:28 - Amber Hawley
Yeah.

00:39:29 - Katie Krimitsos
Well, thank you so much, Katie, for sharing and being really open about the ups and the downs and the strategy and the not strategy and everything that has... But I think if I'm thinking about one thing to kind of take away from this, it's that you have been really intentional and been really true to yourself throughout the whole process.
Yeah.

00:39:50 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah, absolutely. Because when you're not, and I have had times when I'm not, you see it. You see it in your results. You don't feel very good. You're not excited about what you're doing and it just doesn't feel good in your gut. So yeah, that deliberate intention and staying true to me and letting me be what it is and letting that be okay, that's really been the game changer.
So thank you for having me. I really appreciate you guys letting me be here.

00:40:12 - Amber Hawley
Yes. Thank you so much. And you should head on over to the Biz Women Rock community. I mean, if you're approved, of course. You will get lots of authenticity and positivity. And I think another one of your superpowers is your strategic mind. So head on over there.
But where else can people reach you?

00:40:31 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. So my website is bizwomenrock.com. And there's lots of good stuff over there. You can see kind of where the podcast lives and Lots of really great stuff about masterminds and blogs and just great information.

00:40:43 - Katie Krimitsos
Awesome. So definitely head over there. Check out Katie's stuff. Check out the podcast, etc. It's amazing. You've had some amazing people on there. And the episodes where you teach are awesome, too.

00:40:55 - Maelisa Hall
Thank you.

00:40:56 - Katie Krimitsos
And yes, you've been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. So if you are like Amber and I and you like to stalk people and check out what everyone's doing...

00:41:05 - Maelisa Hall
I am fodder for that. Believe me, I'm constantly showing you what my closet looks like so you know how I really do work.

00:41:14 - Amber Hawley
And while you're over there on Facebook, pop on over to the My Biz Bestie page and like us so you don't miss any of our stuff too. All right. Well, thanks everyone. Thanks.