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Most coaches don’t struggle because they lack strategy. They struggle because they’re trying to do it alone.
In this episode, Jennifer Henczel joins Samantha Riley to break down what it really takes to build a thriving community around your message, without hustle, hype, or awkward selling.
You’ll learn why community isn’t about numbers or platforms, but about creating spaces where people feel connected, supported, and seen, especially in an online world filled with noise and mistrust. Jennifer shares a clear framework for turning community into sustainable growth, how to shift out of isolated hustle mode, and why community-first businesses are more resilient, profitable, and human.
This conversation is especially for coaches and service providers who want to grow with integrity, attract aligned clients naturally, and build income streams that don’t rely on constant one-to-one effort.
If you’ve been feeling isolated, stuck in hustle mode, or unsure how to grow without burning out, this episode will shift how you see business. Community isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s the structure that supports trust, ease, and sustainable income.
WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE:
- 01:26 – Why forcing outcomes creates burnout and how attraction replaces hustle
- 07:10 – How community becomes the foundation for clients, opportunities, and long-term momentum
- 10:06 – The difference between contribution-led connection and pitch-driven networking
- 15:38 – The three-part framework for influence, impact, and income
- 18:10 – How memberships create loyalty, engagement, and easier conversions over time
- 23:19 – How to grow without becoming ‘that’ salesy person
- 26:28 – Multiple ways to monetise community beyond one-to-one work
- 32:54 – Future-proofing your business with scalable models
RESOURCES
- Complimentary tools, templates, trainings, workbooks, journals and more to help you elevate your life and boost your business
CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
ABOUT JENNIFER HENCZEL
Jennifer Henczel is an award winning Podcaster, Author, and Founder of the Women Podcasters Network, Women Podcasters Awards, and Ai Innovators Alliance. She is known for building thriving, collaborative communities and teaching her members how to monetize their expertise. Jennifer’s mission is to elevate women’s voices globally and in the podcasting industry.
WHERE TO FIND JENNIFER HENCZEL
- Website: https://www.womenpodcasters.com
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@InspiringShow
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@womeninpodcasting
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@VestLady
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifer.henczel/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jenniferhenczel
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vestlady
- Award Winning: Women in Podcasting Show https://www.womenpodcasters.com/podcast
- Inspiring Innovators Show https://www.inspiringshow.com/podcast
TRANSCRIPTION
Samantha Riley 0:02
Welcome to today’s episode of Business Growth Lab. Today we’re going to talk about community, and I think that this is such a an important topic now more than ever, even though I’ve always been about building community, because I think right now, there’s a very big trust deficit with so many sharks. And someone explained it the other day, like 2020. Was like the wild, wild west of the internet. And I’ve been through a few of those versions that were like way before that as well. So I’ve asked Jennifer Hensel to come and speak about building a thriving community around your message, around your modality. So Jennifer, welcome to the show.
Jennifer Henczel 0:43
Oh, thank you so much for having me, Samantha, and you know thank you also. I wanted to thank you for being a sponsor of the women podcasters awards as well. Thank you such a pleasure.
Samantha Riley 0:54
You are huge in the podcasting space, and when I say huge, you’re really, really good at building that community around everything that you do, and that’s one of the reasons I asked you to come and talk about this topic. Why don’t you start off by telling us, was there something specific that happened in your life, or was there something or was it just sort of you got into it that made you realize how important it was to build community.
Jennifer Henczel 1:26
Yeah, you know, for so many years, my business was a side gig, and I was grinding away and hustling, and I was constantly trying to break through to making my side gig my full time income. And it always seemed like success was around the next corner, you know. And I was at my full time job one day, and I was just burning out. I was I was trying to force the outcome, instead of letting it magnetize towards me and attracting the outcome that I wanted, right? And I was at work one day, and I got the worst phone call nobody wants to receive, and it was my husband’s boss, and he said, You need to come to the hospital right away. Your husband’s been in a terrible accident. Oh, yes. And so it was this tragedy that really changed everything for us. I went to the hospital. I didn’t recognize him at first. He had been crushed by 12,000 pounds of wood. Oh my god. And thankfully, he survived. You know, he was left with multiple injuries, and it was really rough time for us. It really kind of blew up our lives, obviously. But, you know, it really opened up something. It reignited something in me that where I said, I don’t want to keep living this hustle kind of lifestyle that wasn’t serving me. It was just really my health was getting worse. It wasn’t helping us in any way. It wasn’t helping me. It wasn’t helping my family to burn out like that. And one of the things that really, really, really intrigued me and really impacted me at the time was the communities My husband was involved in at that time came around and rallied around him. For example, He was a volunteer football coach in our community and a football announcer, and the other coaches and players would come around and say, We’re here for you coach Paul, and I loved the camaraderie and the support and just everything about the community. And I thought I need that in the entrepreneur world. I really need to start fostering a community feel instead of this competitive you know, I was in competitive hustle mode, and I wanted this community feel in my entrepreneur life, I know a lot of us have experienced that, where we’ve transitioned from sort of that real, you know, hustle mentality to more of a, you know, rising tide lifts all boats kind of approach, yes, you know. And this is what, yeah. And this is what did it for me. And so what I did was, around that time as well. I was laid off from my job and so and and the economy was tough, and there was hard to find jobs. And so I gave myself 30 days before doing a our job search, and I gave myself 30 days just to bet on myself, because all those skills, you know, I was, I was helping businesses and nonprofits over the years, and all the skills I had worked for sure, and I just need, needed to take the brave leap to use those skills for myself. And so I finally decided to do that, and I gave myself 30 days. And the first thing I did was I invited a bunch of business owners to lunch one day, and I just put the invitation out there. I wasn’t very organized with it at that time. And to my surprise, 50 business owners showed up. And so it showed me I wasn’t the only one that was, you know, wanting to escape this isolating type of way of operating and to be become part of a community. And that one group turned into or that one meeting turned into a group, and that group turned into a network, and I had multiple chapters throughout my region, and so I had a thriving business network of different chapters and things like that. And then I was also able to use that platform to help my husband go from an injured mill worker to an international speaker, and he did a TED Talk and wrote a book about our story, and I helped him with those things. And then I was able to. To get a lot of speaking gigs, and you know that network opened all kinds of doors for me. Now, I sold that network in 2018 and since then, I’ve built several thriving communities. And so it’s really opened my world having a community focus and focusing on building a community around your message as the first step in everything I do,
Samantha Riley 5:24
amazing story, and I’m so glad that Paul’s okay at first, I didn’t even realize what you’re saying. I was listening. Then it just like, I I landed, and I was like, Oh my God. Like, doesn’t the universe play in weird and wonderful ways? Like, as awful as that is, and like, really, like, having you lose your job, like, they’re things that could, like, really, have someone go to their knees, but you use that story to rise up and say, Well, how can I do this differently? How can I do this better? And what you’re talking about in that community is not just around building trust, which is how I sort of led into this. But it’s really about creating a space for people to feel connected. It’s not just about trust. And let’s face it, we’re all, you know, sitting behind our computers in our home offices, most of us, and we don’t see other people, and it can feel very isolating. It can feel feel very lonely. I was just, I literally just came off a coaching call. We were where, you know, we were talking saying that sometimes when we’re in the depth of it, we can feel like we’re the only one that’s going through it, and then you realize, oh, everyone goes through that. You know, life isn’t just a highlight reel. We all have bad times. We all have times that bring us to our knees. Times that we’re frustrated and we don’t know, and sometimes we just want a friend to have a laugh with as well. Sometimes it’s not all deep, you know. So how did you and you know, how is a very big question, or what did you do to build that first community? So once you realize this is what I want to do, I want to build a community in this entrepreneur space. What were some of the things you considered and what are some of the things that you actually did to move that to the next to the next level?
Jennifer Henczel 7:10
Yeah, well, you know, I found out that for anything to work, you need to be part of a community. And so I put that at the center, at the core of everything I did. If I was going to do a conference or an event, I ended up managing and producing over 500 events within a six year period when I own that. So if that started in 2012 and I haven’t worked for anyone since that, I’ve been self employed since 2012 by putting community first at the core of everything I do, you know, because you need to build a circle of support around you, it’s not going to build itself. And so that’s really, really important to keep in mind, you know, for if you’re feeling lonely at home or isolated, to just get out there, go to if you don’t want to start your own group, that’s, you know, become part of somebody else’s group. And if there isn’t a group in your town, start a group, you know. And people
Samantha Riley 7:55
we’ve never met, you talk about being local, right? But you know, you’re in Canada, obviously. Whereabouts in Canada? Are you
Jennifer Henczel 8:02
BC on the West Coast?
Samantha Riley 8:04
Love it. Love it. Beautiful part of the world. We’ve never met in person, but boy, have we met in some rooms. And it’s not just through one person, it’s through so many different communities that you and I are in that we just keep bumping into each other. So you’re definitely living that you know what you’re talking about there. I’ve met you in so many different communities. Mm, hmm,
Jennifer Henczel 8:28
yeah, you’ve been such an inspiration to me in that regard too. Because I know you and I, you know, we really resonate on this topic, because we both are so community focused. And I love everything you do with your communities too. And and we, yeah, we’ve had a great time in some of the rooms, in our networking rooms. And so, you know, people will help if you show up to be helped. Yes, you need to take the brave leap and step out there and start showing up. Just start showing up. And I experienced the value of being connected and supported when you start to feel that and see that it works, then you’re going to be braver and braver to step out. Because, you know, hustling alone on your own island, on your own island only goes so far. Right? Yes, but walking the path with others makes it such a much more enriching experience, not only in your business, but your life. I have lifelong friends from the people like you and I have known each other for a number of years now. Yeah, a few years, yeah, yeah. And so you get to meet other like minded people to take the journey with, and it just makes it more enjoyable, you know, and then opportunities will flow towards you, because when you’re when you’re focused on building a community around your message, you become a magnet for opportunities from that audience, you know? Yeah. I had to change my Yeah. I had to change my mindset totally about community. And you really do need to be the solution that people are looking for, you know. So if you’re if you think there’s something missing, then create it. I had to flip the scripts in my mind, you know, the ones that say, yeah. Have to do everything alone. You don’t need people. You have to be polished before you show up.
Samantha Riley 10:06
Those days are gone. Yeah, we don’t trust that you said, you said there, that you need to show up and show up in other people’s communities. But you, you ever so quickly skipped over something. And I just want to bring people back to what you said, because you could easily have missed it. And it’s not just showing up, but it’s also asking, like, this is where I’m at. This is what I would like. You know, I’m looking to join more communities. How can you help? Who can you introduce me to? You said it so quickly that I wanted to make sure that people caught that little piece of gold there. Because if you’re not really clear on what it is that you want, then it’s it. You might get it, but you also probably won’t.
Jennifer Henczel 10:52
Yes, yes. It is important to do those, you know, if you’re feeling, you know, a little timid, or just, you know, what do I do? Where do I go? Pick one person that you trust, that’s a fellow business owner, and just go to a local event or meeting with that other person. And so that really helps as well. I did that way back in the beginning as well, and that that really opens the doors, you know, and then you realize it’s not that frightening, you know, you’re going to meet new people, and it’s actually going to be a very enjoyable experience. And it kind of reminds me when I when I turned 50, I went skydiving, and, you know, I had never been skydiving before. I don’t know if you’ve been skydiving, but
Samantha Riley 11:34
no, I have, no, I’m too chicken.
Jennifer Henczel 11:38
It was quite the experience. You go up in the plane, and I was doing great, you know, the views were amazing. The plane, the plane ride was great. There was a bunch of people in the plane. We got to 10,000 feet, and people The door opened on the plane. And so that’s a bit jarring, you know, they’ve all been on a plane, and you don’t expect the door to open. The door opened, of course, and people started rolling out, jumping out, you know, having fun with it. And I was last I was tethered to somebody, and we nudged towards the door, and I was doing fine all this time until we got to the outside of the plane. We had to stand on a step on the outside of the plane. Yeah, so I’m standing on a step on the outside of an airplane, and I could see everything. I could see, the horizon of the earth, and everything was and it was just in that moment, I felt some fear, and then we jumped, and for three to five seconds, I don’t know if you know this, but for three to five seconds you feel like you’re falling, but then after that, you don’t feel like you’re falling, you just feel like you’re floating and flying, okay? You take, yeah, you take the position, and then it just feels like you’re, you’re floating. It’s really interesting. And and then it just became an amazing experience. The views became spectacular. It was just so it revitalized every cell in my body. You know? It was just an incredible experience. Then I landed safely. And I always think of that experience, because it was only right before the leap that I was frightened, and then after the leap, it all came together in a beautiful way. And so I try to remember that every time I have a bit of fear, if I want to try something new, the opportunities are always on the other side.
Samantha Riley 13:21
Yeah, yeah. Totally. I love that you shared that story, although my hands, my hands are sweaty, my hands are sweaty, and I wasn’t even on the edge of the plane. Um, I want to take it back. You mentioned that you had to flip the script on your mindset around communities. What did you flip from and two.
Jennifer Henczel 13:42
Mm, hmm, yeah. Well, it was all that isolating, hustle grinding, you know, doing everything alone, having to do every piece of it myself. You know, I wasn’t outsourcing at that time. I was working full time, doing my business at night and every spare second, burning myself out. And I really had to flip that into, you know, my husband and I also look at manifestation a lot, and we study manifestation and talk about manifestation. And I really learned now, when I look back, I needed to let go more and just let opportunities flow towards me and magnetize what I wanted, instead of forcing, forcing, forcing, forcing. If you feel like you’re so exhausted, you’re so tired, I was, I was working 1214, 16 hours a day, and I work way less now and make much greater results, right? Yeah, because it all has to do with finding ease, so ease as opposed to effort. Now we all have to learn, and we have to, you know, work out our business and all of those kinds of things. It takes some work, but yes, to be comfortable and find some you have to at least spend part of the time finding ease and enjoyment instead of just forcing everything, because then you’re just going to get more forcing.
Samantha Riley 14:57
Yeah, totally right. Yeah. I. 100% talked. I know that you’ve got a framework around building communities. Let’s sort of get into the into the nitty gritty. For people that are like, this sounds great. Maybe they’re in communities already. Maybe they already understand that communities are a great place to be. But they’re like, I just, I don’t know what this could look like if I, if I did, you know, created a community around my message, some sort of call to arms, around what it is that I do. You know, where do they start?
Jennifer Henczel 15:38
That’s a really good question. And so. So I have a framework called The Rise reach results roadmap, and it’s a framework for more influence, impact and income. There’s three proven paths for increasing flow, focus and freedom. And most of the coaches and podcasters, authors, speakers and creators that find me usually have a lot of amazing pieces in place, right? So I don’t start from scratch. I don’t recommend they start from scratch usual, usually, you know, usually they have a lot of real gems that they could be using. And so I will walk them through. What I what I have is a three Apex system, and it’s like a checklist, and we’ll see where the gaps are, and we’ll fill those gaps and do tweaks rather than, you know, recreating everything. And so that really relieves a lot of people, because a lot of people have put a lot of work in, and they just don’t know what’s the disconnect. Why isn’t it working? And so my three I have three mountains, and the first mountain is Mount mindset, and that’s the flow apex. And so that’s where all the inner work happens, right? That’s all the inner getting to know your inner influencer and identifying, identifying the areas that you need to work on internally. It’s a map for ascending to your highest apex, to your highest self, igniting your inner influencer. And it’s about, you know, really finding out what’s holding you back, mentally and emotionally. And to be honest, this is the mountain that I needed to scale, because you need to scale each of these peaks in order to really find success in your business. Okay, and I’ll tell you the other two mountains in a second, but this mountain is the one that I really needed to work on scaling and going step by step up the path towards the summit in order to reach my other goals, you know. And so learning, what are your, what’s, what are your, you know, overcoming limiting beliefs. What are the beliefs that are holding you back? So all the beliefs we talked about before, where I was in hustle culture, and then I wanted to move to, you know, more, more of a letting go and attracting opportunities towards me. And what a relief to live in that mode than the other mode, right? Yeah, totally. I had a phrase that I developed called Drop the hustle and join the huddle. In other words,
Samantha Riley 18:06
that’s cute.
Jennifer Henczel 18:10
In other words, become part of a community, or create your own community, and use that as a basis for finding your clients and opportunities, you know? So it’s really about learning how to break through and experience prosperity and abundance with others and going along that journey together. And so mount mindset is all about filling in the gaps. What? What am I missing? Some people have a problem with wealth and actually making more money, right? You and I know you’ve seen this as well, where people have trouble breaking through because they have certain mindset, certain mindsets around money. Yeah, right. And so that’s that’s another one to break through as well. And and then the second Mountain is Mount message, and that’s the focus, Apex. And it’s about mastering your message and moving from invisible to impactful. So creating a captivating community that converts. And how you do that is you really need to look at your own message and your own story, and how does that attract your ideal audience, and who is your ideal audience? It’s also taking a look at who’s your ideal audience and what stories, what part of your journey is going to be able to help them and help them to come to New realizations for them, right? And getting your message out there in a way that that people, it will compel people to come and join your community. Yeah, right. And then the third Mountain is Mount monetize, and that’s the framework you really need to align your story and your audience in in on the second mountain in order to really create a framework that’s going to work for you on Mount monetize. And as I was saying before, I had the message in the monetize pretty much nailed. It was the mindset work for me. That was. Causing me to keeping me from reaching all the peaks of each of my mountains. Most of my clients, though, are struggling either with a little bit of message sometimes, but mostly the monetized so I mostly, I specialize in creating communities and monetizing them, and I show other people how to do the same. And so monetizing your message with a signature system, mini memberships and collaborations. My favorite way of monetizing, as you probably know, is is mini memberships. And the reason I love that so much is because it’s a low cost, low barrier way for people to come into your your orbit and your community in a way that’s completely painless. You know, it just nobody gives a second thought to paying five or seven or $10 a month, usually at this level, right? But they will and then, and then, of course, from there, I will upsell to my my other offers, so my mid range and my high ticket offers. Now, I have some clients that love one to one work, and they just, they want a discovery system in place, and they just want to be able to fill their one to one schedule, right? But I’m just, I did that for a couple years, and it didn’t work for me. I just, I do still have coaching clients, but I have, I cap it at a certain number. And I really love the one to many monetizing methods. So memberships, things that are passive and don’t normally require they’re evergreen, they don’t have an a start and end date, typically. And so that’s my favorite way of monetizing, and I find that it’s the best way to build a community is to have an entry level offer like that, where people can become part of your community, and you have a loyal fan base and people there that you can reach out to at any time with your other with your other offers. So because we all we’re always learning new things and building new things that we want to introduce to our communities. And so this is a great way when you have that community, that community in place, to be able to just introduce something new in such a painless way, because you already have that whole infrastructure in place, yeah, for people totally attracted to it, yeah.
Samantha Riley 22:13
I think just on the back of that, it’s really important to know what you’re the way that you work best, or the way that you communicate with the world, you know what your energetic blueprint is, because what works for you, and having those like low priced offers may not work for other people. Like, I personally like energetically that I get caught up in them, and I, you know, like they don’t work for me. So I love that there’s lots of different options, and we don’t need to choose just one before we go into the monetize framework. I want to ask a question around clients and opportunities. How do you balance or how do you explain to people the difference between going into a community to be around the right people so that you can make sales and being that person that walks in and just pitches everyone, because we there’s a lot of people that hold themselves back from networking or being in communities because they just don’t want to be around those people.
Jennifer Henczel 23:19
Yeah, it’s true. That’s so true. You know, running the networking group for so many years, the business network that I had, I saw probably 1000s of pitches and, you know, intros, elevator speeches that people would do, and the people who had more of a mindset of giving to the community, serving the community got way further and lasted way longer than the people that just tried to come in and sell. People are looking for community. And you know, when we look at what’s happening today with AI and all of the new technological advances, the only thing AI can’t replace, really, is community, yeah, human connection, you and I meeting in person, you know, and people gathering together. And so having that community focus really, really makes a big difference. And so people that don’t have that, especially when I had my community, I focused. I made sure that was part of the culture. I made sure that that was part I fostered that in people to have a community focus. And so when someone showed up that wasn’t like that, it, it really, they really stood out and didn’t get very far,
Samantha Riley 24:28
yeah, yeah, totally. Because, I think, you know, a lot of people say, oh, like, I’ll go to this, let’s just call it a networking event for, for the want of a better word, you know, they’re like, I’m going to go to this networking event because I want to sell. But if every single person goes there with the same outcome, no one’s buying because they’re all thinking like, what can I sell? Like, every single person’s thinking that where I prefer to go, like, Oh, I wonder what interesting people I’ll meet today. Or, you know, I wonder what everyone’s. Doing, and I go in there more with, like, a curiosity mindset around getting to know people, because also they might be nervous, and that gives them a mirror to maybe, like, just go, Okay, well, maybe I’m not here to sell today, like, let’s just have a conversation. So I think that’s really important too.
Jennifer Henczel 25:18
Totally, totally, yeah, I would have to model that so that people would understand. And so when you show up as a leader, like you said, and you model those values, then people start to get it, and then the people that just aren’t into that will leave. That’s what I found. And so you really Yeah, and then you find your people, and then it just becomes a beautiful experience. Like the podcasting community is such a beautiful community, where everybody is brought together by podcasting, and, you know, they just get along based on that, and everybody supports each other and lifts each other up and helps each other. And it’s just such a beautiful community. There’s lots of communities I’m in, and there’s, I’ve created a number of communities, and I just find it’s a better way to do business, to have that feeling of really connecting with people, wanting to connect with people, and being available for others to connect with
Samantha Riley 26:12
love that. So let’s go back to the the monetize piece you mentioned, low cost communities, which is your favorite way to build a community? What are some of the other ways that you’ve seen people build or monetize communities?
Jennifer Henczel 26:28
Well, I also have free Facebook and LinkedIn groups, and so that’s a lead generator. Basically, people can go into those, and then they’ll usually join my list, and then they’ll usually join the membership from there. The other way is affiliate marketing. I love affiliate marketing. A chunk of my income is from affiliate marketing as well. Well where I’ll share other people’s offers to my community that I’ve either used or I know the person I’ve worked with, the person and I know that what they have to offer will help the community. So affiliate offers, which are a great way to collaborate with other leaders of other communities and bring in their offers into your community. And then also just one off digital products. Sometimes I’ll do and then, if I find us, if there’s a solution that I find my community needs, I’ll create or, you know, offer them a digital product. So those are just one time sales, as opposed to the reoccurring monthly memberships. Yep. And then there’s also a book. Now, a book doesn’t make a lot of money, but it opens a lot of doors. And so I, Paul and I both have books, and we just find it just helps to to open the doors and to have another, pardon me, another topic to talk about, you know. And so books are another great way. Now, we’ve never lost money on the books, but it’s not a huge money generator. It’s, you know, we’ll buy a case of 100 and they go quickly if we take some to events or give them as gifts and things like that. But, and then they sell online through KDP, print on demand through Amazon. That’s how we do it. We self publish, yeah. And then there’s the mid range stuff. Is retreats, masterminds, and so I’ll often have a mastermind going as well that people can upgrade into. So people can upgrade into the mastermind or retreats are something I know a lot of people do events so larger conference events and things like that. And then, of course, the higher things are, the higher ticket things are the one to one in the and the larger, higher ticket masterminds and things like that.
Samantha Riley 28:40
Yeah, love that. And do you have a mixture of all of those in your business?
Jennifer Henczel 28:46
Yes, absolutely, yes. I have everything from the lead magnets and free groups all the way through the book, and then the low ticket community building. And I just do that for community building. And then, because I used to do all that stuff that I, you know, I used to do that complimentary, basically building all these free communities. And then I thought, well, I’m going to monetize it. And it actually works out better because people are more loyal, and they actually will participate more. And so it actually brings them, and then I’m able to offer more value at that level, yeah. And so, yeah. So the the low cost membership, and then the mid range. I always have some kind of mid range offer going, offer going, and then the the high ticket. Yes, I still have one on one, but most of them come from my community, and most of them are inbound. So I’m not having to do discovery calls and do a lot of marketing for those. Most of those are inbound from my existing community.
Samantha Riley 29:40
Love that when you were sort of just getting started, did you what’s the word experiment with different topics, or did you always know like this is where I’m going to go. I’m going to go straight to podcasting, and I guess off the back of that are all your communities are in. In and around the podcasting niche. Or do you have different sort of offers?
Jennifer Henczel 30:07
Yeah, I have different communities. I also have an AI community. I have the AI innovators Alliance. And then I also have some local communities that I’m involved with. And so, you know, they all have their different purposes. And you know, when I was starting out, I really what I did. So here’s one of the other strategies I did that really worked. Well, I would have the same workshop every month. Now, at the time, from about 2010 to about 2018 I had a workshop called Social Smart Start, where I would teach social media stuff, how businesses can use social media. Now that’s not as needed as much. Now, everybody’s on social media, and so that’s great. In 2010 it wasn’t as much. You know, people were still looking for that information. But I would have this workshop every month, month in and month out, and that would bring most of the people into my business network, and then we and so I was able to vet people too, you know, like, are they a good fit or not, and then invite them to the business network, and I would also upsell to my medium range things. I still think workshops and online workshops now, of course, are a good way of drawing people and vetting people into your business and attracting the right people that are going to be a fit for your memberships or for your other events and your high ticket offers.
Samantha Riley 31:29
Yeah, I love that. What I’m hearing is, you’re very much a Oh, I see a gap, and I’ll fill that, or I’ll build a I’ll build the plane on the way down, kind of mentality, which always works well, because if there’s a problem and you can see it, that’s better than, you know, just having a random idea and not knowing whether that’s a problem or not. So it’s a really cool way to to build everything, I guess. Yeah. Generally, I like
Jennifer Henczel 31:59
having multiple streams of income, right?
Samantha Riley 32:04
I and I think as we get further and further into this AI world, it’s probably a smarter place to be, more than ever, because things are moving so quickly, and we don’t really, most of us don’t really know where they’re heading, like we have an idea. We have, you know, a pretty good guess, but we don’t really know. I mean, we don’t know if there’s going to be another pandemic, or, you know, or if I don’t even want to speculate anymore, what could happen. So multiple streams of income is a much safer place to build a business, that’s for sure.
Jennifer Henczel 32:42
Yes, vibe coding, too, is on the table right now in my business.
Samantha Riley 32:47
Hang on. Which is building, hang on. Tell me more. I have never heard of that.
Jennifer Henczel 32:54
So vibe coding is building apps, basically. So in the past, it would have cost, say, 100 grand to get your own app, you know, created platform, a whole platform, created for you, and set up and coded right and now you can go in with a prompt, basically, and build those platforms. And so you can create solutions for clients. I’m building some right now that I can use with my clients, and people can join, like a membership. And so that’s just a different type of membership. I like monthly recurring income, and so I look at all the options for doing that. And so I’m building a number of apps right now that people can join on a monthly basis, and all of them solve a very specific problem. So when you’re vibe coding, you need to think of a very specific problem, for example, you know, generating social posts or editing photos or whatever very specific task that you want your app to do, and then provide that. And yeah, so that’s another way of building community and another way of generating income. Nice.
Samantha Riley 34:03
Love it. Love it. Love it. Jennifer, for people that are listening and they want to stay connected, how do they stay connected with you?
Jennifer Henczel 34:10
Well, I’d love to give your audience some gifts. I have some gifts where I show them how to create a membership and how to create an offer and build a community around your message, and you can go to innovators.fm, forward slash gifts, and I’ve got those there for them that they can download complimentary.
Samantha Riley 34:28
Love it. Of course, as always, that link will be in the show notes. So if you’re running on the treadmill and you just want to keep concentrating on your running and not fall over, just head to the show notes later on, click that link and get access to Jennifer’s free gifts. It’s been a pleasure Jennifer to have you on the show like, like we’ve both mentioned, we’ve been connected for a very long time. I’ve seen the amazing communities that you do have, and the the way that you think and the way that you are people first. Just, I think you were the perfect person to come and talk about this topic today. So thank you.
Jennifer Henczel 35:05
Oh, thank you so much for having me. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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