March 20, 2024 • 23 mins
It's a reality that many professionals will face when it comes to online marketing: the desire to engage more with their audience by building a group but not having the tools, skills, or knowledge on how to do it.
In today's episode of 10 Minute Marketing, Veronica Broomes shares her story of taking on the challenge to build a Facebook Group from scratch, starting with 50 members and growing to 600+ today.
Sonja and Veronica start their conversation by talking about Veronica's background as a sustainability expert and as the founder of Your Small Business Coach. Deeper into the episode, Veronica shares how another business coach sparked the idea for her to launch a Facebook Group and how she shifted from excitement to overcoming several mental roadblocks as she built the group.
Veronica recounts her apprehension while building the group and how she overcame her concerns to realize the growth in her community would rely on her persistence, consistent actions, and establishing a community that fostered engagement.
She shares some lessons learned, ranging from guidance she received from other business coaches to the need to participate in other Facebook Groups and allot time each day to nurture the group's growth and progress.
After listening to this episode, download a copy of Veronica's ebook, "Common Pricing Mistakes and How To Avoid Them," for founders of small and medium businesses.
About Veronica Broomes and Your Small Business Coach
Veronica Broomes is a Business Growth Coach and Mentor, specializing in Pricing Strategies, Accelerating Business Growth and Sustainability. With over a decade of experience, Veronica has been described as a trailblazer with a passion for helping entrepreneurs to navigate pitfalls, set prices strategically and achieve sustained growth without burnout.
Since 2010, Veronica's wealth of experience, coupled with her dedication to the small business community makes her a trusted contributor. Through leveraging her business coaching, training and startup experiences, she sparks transformative 'light bulb' moments for business owners.
As the driving force behind the 'Gold Star Business Membership Program,' Veronica is relatable. She draws on her experience as an entrepreneur, her academic qualifications and 'hands on' approach to impart actionable tips and insights for business founders along with the vital principles of planning, productivity, pricing, and profitability to accelerate business growth.
Her commitment to creating value for entrepreneurs is evident in her mission to help them avoid costly mistakes, garner leads, amplify sales and enable long-lasting business success.
Learn more about Your Small Business Coach and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonja Crystal Williams (00:05):
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode of 10 minute marketing.
I'm your host, Sonja CrystalWilliams, and joining me today I
have Veronica Broomes.
Veronica is a business growthcoach as well as a mentor to
many business owners over acrossthe pond in the UK.
Thanks for being here, Veronica.
Veronica Broomes (00:27):
Well, thank you very much, Sonja, for that
warm welcome and brilliantopportunity to speak with you
and your listeners or viewers.
Sonja Crystal Willia (00:36):
Absolutely so.
How do I jump right in?
Because, Veronica, over thepast few episodes, we've been
having conversations withdifferent business owners, and
one of the overlapping themesthat I've noticed is business
owners who have groups or onlinecommunities in some way, shape
or form, and they've beenfinding ways to nurture them,
(00:59):
and that's, of course, for thoseof you listening, one of the
reasons why I asked Veronica tobe here today.
But let's start out first,Veronica, by just kind of
sharing a little bit about yourbackground and what you do.
Veronica Broomes (01:10):
Okay, so happy to do that.
So my name is Veronica Broomsand, yes, I'm on the opposite
side of the pond.
I'm in the UK and what I do as abusiness growth coach and
mentor is help business ownersto be able to strategize in
terms of their pricing so theycan get that right price to
ensure profitability, to be ableto grow and scale their
(01:31):
business using what I describeas the 4P1S system, which is
about productivity planning.
It's also about yourprofitability and pricing and
sustainability, because that'sone of my areas of expertise and
it's not everyone who needs theS at this stage, but I'm happy
to also do that as appropriate,and what I do is to help
(01:52):
business owners to grow andscale their businesses, to set
the right price and to do sowithout burnout.
So I do this by way ofinitially it was one to one
sessions, but over the yearsI've worked into delivering
talks and group sessions throughbusiness enterprise support
organizations and, more recently, to launch a business
(02:14):
accelerator membership.
If there's time, of course, wecan explore those, but you
mentioned groups and one of theaspects that I reluctantly came
to presently to set up aFacebook group.
So happy to explore that withyou.
Sonja Crystal Willia (02:31):
Absolutely .
And also just I want to hit onjust for a moment the fact that
you work with the businessesthat you are partnering with and
that become clients, yours, orgo through your accelerator on
pricing, which is and I heardthe word burnout, because
pricing is very stressful for alot of business owners.
So just curious out ofcuriosity, your business
(02:54):
accelerator, is it a set amountof time that people go through
this?
Is it ongoing?
Veronica Broomes (03:01):
It is ongoing, so it's called a goal star
accelerator.
I thought goal is anaspirational and looking for
excellence and you want to beable to star in what you do.
It is ongoing from theperspective that people can tap
in and out as they need to,because from my experience of
being a coachee or a mentee ongrowth programs is that you can
(03:23):
be overwhelmed with lots ofinformation and pillars to go
through and sometimes what yousimply need is someone that you
can ask questions of, somewherethat you can go and get the
specific information that youneed.
So pricing is one where peoplecan do a one to one session, but
in terms of the accelerator, wetalk about what not to do, as
(03:47):
in terms of mistakes to avoid,as well as what to do.
But it's not only pricing inthe accelerator.
It covers all aspects of yourbusiness.
But pricing is one area thatI've niched in over the years,
and way back in 2010, I hadtrained up as a small business
coach, and when you train as acoach, you're told oh, you
(04:08):
should have your niches.
I didn't have a clue as to whatniche I should be at that point
, because I came as a businessowner.
I wasn't new to business, but Iwas new to coaching and
previously I'd done moretraining rather than coaching.
But I realized soon enough thatpricing was an area that people
struggled with, and even in oneof my businesses, which was a
(04:32):
training business, I thought ifyou sell cheap and I use cheap
deliberately rather than lowprice you'll find people who
think you're offering greatvalue when they've learned about
what you're offering andtherefore they'll stay with you.
No, no, no, they don't.
And so I realized that forpricing it's so important that
(04:53):
we step back.
So I go through a pricingstrategy approach to what I do
and, depending on where thebusiness is at, we can also have
what I describe as a revenuemodel, so we can look at which
are the items in your pricingmenu, your pricing list, how to
(05:14):
position and prepare and plan toachieve those, and then what
that would look like if you'reable to have those different
segments of your menu bought byyour clients or your customers.
And so that model gives you asense as to what maybe you want
to put greater emphasis on andwhich are the areas that are
(05:36):
higher priced but you need fewerclients or customers for.
Sonja Crystal Williams (05:42):
Okay, got it.
So you used a phrase Ireluctantly started a Facebook
group.
As I'm growing my business,let's talk about that word
reluctance.
What made you reluctant to starta Facebook group to begin with?
Veronica Broomes (05:58):
Because I'm not a digital native.
I didn't grow up in the erawhere Facebook was the place to
be, and certainly not forbusiness, and so when I think of
Facebook, I think of Facebookas the place that people
communicate for family orfriendships, which I don't do
much of.
I have some of that, and so myreluctance was the fact that,
(06:23):
yes, I had a Facebook accountfor many years.
I had doubled in some aspectsof Facebook and joined many
groups for different reasons,and then I learned to be in and
out of groups, because you don'tkeep adding them to your list.
You need to review that list tosee which ones are still
relevant and then to exit.
(06:44):
I didn't know at the start, andthen, when I was in a sales
mentoring program, it wassuggested that one way in which
you can grow your group ordevelop your links is actually
Developing a Facebook group, andI thought I don't know, because
the idea having to be onFacebook and connecting with
(07:06):
people and Doing the work tokeep a group lively didn't
appeal to me.
I was focused on setting up themodules for the 4p 1s system
and getting the training inthere and recording the videos,
and I had started, or restarteda mailing list, because I've had
different mailing lists overtime.
And then I thought, okay,because you focus and you've
(07:29):
invested in this sales strategyand if this sales mentee saying
it's one of the approaches,veronica, you should do, it Does
she'd also said I should haveDo Instagram lives, which I also
did Reluctantly, but I probablyenjoyed doing those more until
I decided they were it wasn'tHelpful to be speaking to myself
(07:51):
so often and lives.
Coming back to the face group,so I started and I invited the
mentor and then the person whowas developing my, the modules
of doing the background work interms of creating that program
that was going into the training, and then I invited a few of
the people who were in the groupas we are relatively small
(08:14):
cohort on the sales mentoringprogram and and so it started
gradually.
Oh, and then I my social mediaassistant yes, she was in the
group and we had plans as to howwe'll grow this group and, yeah
, and it was just a slow.
So, like the first year or so ofthis group, I had less than 50
members.
I probably had like 30something people in the group
(08:36):
for time, but I knew I thoughtthat, yeah, maybe I still need
to do this group.
But how to do?
It wasn't and they?
I didn't have the answer,because what didn't appeal to me
was to be on Facebook Justmessaging people inviting them
to the group, because I stillhave to do the work after.
And then we, with my socialmedia assistant, we planned a
(08:59):
strategy that, yes, we'll reachout to influences I had some
other support with that We'llreach out to invite people into
the group.
So we started doing some ofthat.
The rules were a bit lapsed atthe start because I thought,
rather than insisting thateveryone give, answer the
questions or Share informationabout what they do, I should
(09:21):
just allow people to accept aninvitation.
But then, for some reason, Istarted thinking this is an
inefficient way of working and Icame across someone who had a
group who said that you canlearn how to grow your group
within her group, and it was amonthly subscription.
(09:42):
So I thought, okay, magic wouldhappen, that I just need to pay
the subscription and thensuddenly I'll be flooded with
lots of people in my group.
So you know the post that yougo through which would say, yes,
I'm looking for whatever it is,or I help Whatever it is, or
you join other people's promosand then you can put Asterix VIP
(10:02):
or whatever the program is.
So I did that for a few monthsand then I realized it's not
magical.
It doesn't happen that peoplejust start coming to your group.
You need to do the work, and soyou actually need to be in
groups, posting, making comments, responding to others.
And so I was with thatsubscription for about three
(10:24):
months and I realized, if I'mdoing all this hard work and I'm
still paying a subscription andI didn't get this magical
number of hundreds of peoplecoming into the group
immediately, but then it meansthat this learning has to be
used in a different way.
So it's about being consistent.
It's about posting in othergroups.
(10:44):
But I did have a period where,over within less than a month, I
actually had like 300 people inthe group.
It took maybe about six monthsto get to the first hundreds.
I continued doing this slow, butthen I got the stage where,
yeah, I could see the results.
I could see how you can getlots of people joining your
(11:06):
group.
You can get lots of people 10,15 people signing up daily in
your group.
And because I went through thataccelerated period and Convince
now that it is possible to growyour group, but you do have to
put in the hard work.
At present I'm not doing any ofthose subscriptions within
other people's groups, but thatdoesn't mean I will not do it in
(11:29):
future, because I could see howa Focus period of promoting as
a VIP in another group can allowyou to grow your members.
So we've just crossed sixhundred.
So we know, at the stage whereI have six hundred and eight or
six hundred and ten, but as ahuge change From where I was
(11:52):
Right musical Well, and to startfrom zero.
Sonja Crystal Williams (11:56):
So I want to break your story down in
a few ways Because, yeah, youstarted a group with no base,
right?
Some people will launch into thecreation of an online community
because they have a big emaillist or they already have an
audience that exists somewhere,so it is definitely to your
(12:17):
point.
It can be and feel verychallenging when you're in a
position where I am startingthis completely from scratch.
So growing to a few hundred ofstrangers who are now a part of
your group and engaged is a hugeaccomplishment.
I also want to back up to thatgroup that you were in so you
(12:38):
mentioned you were in like asales mentorship group that you
were a part of and first justsaying and I hope everyone's
listening to this, particularlythose of you that are new
business owners that thelearning doesn't stop and that,
even if you are a coach yourself, like joining other people's
coaching programs, mentorships,things like that create huge
opportunities to meet for bothcollaboration and learning and
(13:02):
the fact, Veronica, that youactually applied what you
learned in the group, Because alot of times we can get into
some of these groups and thesetraining opportunities and not
apply anything at all.
So it sounds like you took tworoutes, which was the Instagram
live route, the Facebook groupsroute.
Veronica Broomes (13:21):
Yeah, now let me clarify a piece on you that
it was a sales mentoring thatgot me the Instagram and
Facebook, but not the growth.
Yeah, I can go elsewhere to getthe group recognizing that it's
not one size that fits all.
And if it's a coaching mentoryou're not willing to invest in
(13:41):
yourself, it's hardly likelythat you'll have as much
information and support andoptions that you can offer your
clients, so it's so important.
Yeah, so I interrupted there,but I just wanted to clarify
that it wasn't that salesmentoring that gave me all the
answers.
It gave me some insights and,yes, the idea is the word.
(14:03):
But I had to then find otherways because I thought, if this
is the objective, like anycoaching scenario once I didn't
have a smart goal around that,but like any coaching scenario,
you begin with the end in mind,as Stephen Covey said.
So my objective was to growFacebook group.
How I broke that down and gotthere were the options I needed
(14:28):
to pursue, because it wasn't acase to say, oh well, I will
guarantee I'll get my firsthundred and a hundred days.
No, because at that time,especially since I was reluctant
, I couldn't say the point ofhaving an objective like that.
No, I don't want to be spendingfour hours a week or four hours
a day sending putting messageson Facebook in the hope that
(14:49):
I'll have people joining mygroup.
So, yeah, I'd say that I wantedto clarify that.
So the sales mentoring programopened my eyes to some
possibilities, but then I neededto take further action in order
to actually actively grow thegroup.
Sonja Crystal Williams (15:07):
So once you to a place where you know,
hey, I've got several hundred,or you went through that period
where you had that nice bump andgrowth, how much time would you
say you were spending?
Were you on Facebook on a dailybasis?
How did your you mentioned youhad a little bit of assistance.
How did they play a role?
So what did that picture looklike from a time commitment
(15:28):
standpoint?
Veronica Broomes (15:30):
I would say, generally I wouldn't spend more
than two hours a day on Facebook, and it's not every day, like
over this weekend, for example.
I actually spent Maybe aroundtwo hours in a block.
But the reason I spend thattime is that I wanted to be able
(15:50):
to respond to some posts ingroups.
I also wanted to add my detailsto some larger groups which
I've been part of for a numberof years and occasionally I go
in and post.
So this weekend in particular,I wanted to be able to post
about the Facebook group so thatpeople are saying promote your
(16:11):
business.
It's always good to promoteyour business every time.
So I joined those lists, I likeand then I comment and if
they're people from my group, sothe business growth coach
online.
If they're people from my group, I'd like some of their posts
because they're not exclusive tome, they're part of other
(16:32):
Facebook groups but but it meanswhat I'm doing is investing my
time strategically.
So others are creating theseopportunities to pose, and this
weekend in particular, lastweekend in particular what I did
was to post an invitation to myFacebook group as well as post
(16:53):
a link to the Gold Starmembership, because I'm saying
here my call to actions.
And then, in addition to that,what I did in my group, my
Facebook group, was to like andcomment on a few posts that
other members of the group hadmade, as well as posting some
events for the rest of thismonth.
(17:13):
So there was there's actuallyan event that I'm doing through
one of the enterprise supportorganizations that I don't
usually post in the Facebookgroup.
So what I decided this yearI'll do is to keep that event
section more active.
So, whether it's related tobusiness growth coaching,
(17:34):
whether it's related to the dayin the month when we're having
that Q&A for the Gold Starprogram, whether it relates to
sustainability talk that I maybe doing, I'll put those events
in the group.
And so that's where I spent mytime, and I saw that that was
time well spent, because, whilstI'm not seeing immediate
(17:56):
results, I know that informationis there.
But you've seen someone who'salready or a couple of people
who've already done maybe forone of the events.
If I hadn't posted, it wouldnot have been.
No one would have responded.
So you also need to be able tothink strategically when you're
seeking to grow your Facebookgroup or any other presence
(18:16):
you're looking to have on socialmedia.
Sonja Crystal Willia (18:20):
Absolutely , and so for this group, it's
not because there are so manyforms of how people can launch a
group or an online community,and I know for me personally.
One common form I've seen isyou're already the user of a
product or service and then theyhave a group attached to it.
That's one way, but yours isn'tthat way.
Yours, it sounds like, andcorrect me if I'm wrong it
(18:42):
sounds like this is a group ofpeople who have an interest in
business, growth and coaching.
They're not necessarily usingyour product or service yet, so
this is your opportunity to takesomeone who was a cold contact
and get them familiar with you,your service, your systems,
through that group.
Is that right?
Veronica Broomes (19:03):
Indeed, and that is spot on, because when I
started the group or theintention from initially was
people who signed up to buy thegroup coaching program which
emerged from my sales mentoringprogram People who bought that
will then be part of anewsletter subscription and then
(19:24):
will be invited to the group.
But because that didn't workthat way, I still needed to have
a group to say to peoplewhether I'm sharing or
partnering with another coach aspart of, maybe, their campaign
to grow my list, I'm offeringthree beers.
We describe it in the businessor for some other reason.
(19:44):
I needed to be able to havesomething happening in the group
that I can then get people tosay, ah, this is time well spent
.
So now, yes, it's about theengagement, but it's also about
me posting about events so thatpeople can see ah, here's what
Veronica is doing and here's howshe may be able to help us, and
(20:06):
they're encouraged to askquestions.
So when I do what I describe asa warm welcome, so when people
come into the group, we do awarm welcome to the group and I
put a note, say remember to tellus about you and your business.
So there's no issue aboutwhether you can post in the
group or not, you're encouragedto do that, yeah wow, good stuff
(20:28):
, veronica.
Sonja Crystal Williams (20:29):
Thank you so much for sharing this
intriguing journey of Launchingthe Facebook groups and really
just getting into some of thenitty-gritty details of what it
looks like to build one fromZero to 600 plus today.
So again, congratulations onthat.
Where can people get in touchif they'd like to see more about
(20:50):
your Facebook group or evensome of your particular Services
and tracks that you offer as abusiness coach?
Veronica Broomes (20:57):
Well, thank you for asking that question.
So, on your hand, yourinvitation to share my details.
So, of course, I'd love to havemore people in my Facebook
group because, I've explained,it's about business growth.
It's about helping people to beable to grow and scale without
burnout, and pricing is one ofthose areas I can certainly help
you with to be more profitable.
(21:17):
So I'll share the link for myFacebook group, but I also have
an Instagram account.
So if you're on Instagram or youwould like to reach out to me
in any other way, I'd say mylink tree is the best, because
the link tree not only has thesocial media information, but it
also has a downloadable ebookwhich is about a common pricing
(21:42):
mistakes to avoid.
I think it's still it and sothis is just a start as to what
you should not do when you'resetting your prices.
So I'll share those details sothat, when the Recording of this
podcast goes out, it means thatyour listeners and your viewers
will also have the opportunityto connect with me, and I'm
(22:04):
always open to that connectionand Collaboration and working in
partnership, similar to whatwe're doing here today.
Sonia, absolutely.
Sonja Crystal Williams (22:15):
Okay, so what's the link?
The Instagram link.
For anyone that wants it willdrop that in the comments.
And then the Facebook group.
What's the name of the group?
Veronica Broomes (22:24):
Veronica, it's business, business growth club
online.
Sonja Crystal Williams (22:29):
Perfect, all right, wonderful All right
on Instagram.
Veronica Broomes (22:34):
The handle is is biz, the.
I said coach and UK, so thiscoach UK.
But I share the information inthe chat so I know you'll be
able to retrieve that and add it.
But there's also the link treethat will give you all the other
parts of my or make most of theother aspects of my social
(22:58):
media presence.
Sonja Crystal Willia (23:02):
Absolutely so, everyone.
Once you go to Instagram, youcan go to link tree from there,
get access to that guide and oralso check out the Facebook
group.
Well, thank you so much again,Veronica.
Thanks everyone today forlistening or watching, and until
next time have a good one.
Veronica Broomes (23:19):
Thank you again, Sonja, and all the best
to your listeners and viewers.
You Welcome, welcome.
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode of 10 minute marketing.
I'm your host, Sonja CrystalWilliams, and joining me today I
have Veronica Broomes.
Veronica is a business growthcoach as well as a mentor to
many business owners over acrossthe pond in the UK.
Thanks for being here, Veronica.
Veronica Broomes (00:27):
Well, thank you very much, Sonja, for that
warm welcome and brilliantopportunity to speak with you
and your listeners or viewers.
Sonja Crystal Willia (00:36):
Absolutely so.
How do I jump right in?
Because, Veronica, over thepast few episodes, we've been
having conversations withdifferent business owners, and
one of the overlapping themesthat I've noticed is business
owners who have groups or onlinecommunities in some way, shape
or form, and they've beenfinding ways to nurture them,
(00:59):
and that's, of course, for thoseof you listening, one of the
reasons why I asked Veronica tobe here today.
But let's start out first,Veronica, by just kind of
sharing a little bit about yourbackground and what you do.
Veronica Broomes (01:10):
Okay, so happy to do that.
So my name is Veronica Broomsand, yes, I'm on the opposite
side of the pond.
I'm in the UK and what I do as abusiness growth coach and
mentor is help business ownersto be able to strategize in
terms of their pricing so theycan get that right price to
ensure profitability, to be ableto grow and scale their
(01:31):
business using what I describeas the 4P1S system, which is
about productivity planning.
It's also about yourprofitability and pricing and
sustainability, because that'sone of my areas of expertise and
it's not everyone who needs theS at this stage, but I'm happy
to also do that as appropriate,and what I do is to help
(01:52):
business owners to grow andscale their businesses, to set
the right price and to do sowithout burnout.
So I do this by way ofinitially it was one to one
sessions, but over the yearsI've worked into delivering
talks and group sessions throughbusiness enterprise support
organizations and, more recently, to launch a business
(02:14):
accelerator membership.
If there's time, of course, wecan explore those, but you
mentioned groups and one of theaspects that I reluctantly came
to presently to set up aFacebook group.
So happy to explore that withyou.
Sonja Crystal Willia (02:31):
Absolutely .
And also just I want to hit onjust for a moment the fact that
you work with the businessesthat you are partnering with and
that become clients, yours, orgo through your accelerator on
pricing, which is and I heardthe word burnout, because
pricing is very stressful for alot of business owners.
So just curious out ofcuriosity, your business
(02:54):
accelerator, is it a set amountof time that people go through
this?
Is it ongoing?
Veronica Broomes (03:01):
It is ongoing, so it's called a goal star
accelerator.
I thought goal is anaspirational and looking for
excellence and you want to beable to star in what you do.
It is ongoing from theperspective that people can tap
in and out as they need to,because from my experience of
being a coachee or a mentee ongrowth programs is that you can
(03:23):
be overwhelmed with lots ofinformation and pillars to go
through and sometimes what yousimply need is someone that you
can ask questions of, somewherethat you can go and get the
specific information that youneed.
So pricing is one where peoplecan do a one to one session, but
in terms of the accelerator, wetalk about what not to do, as
(03:47):
in terms of mistakes to avoid,as well as what to do.
But it's not only pricing inthe accelerator.
It covers all aspects of yourbusiness.
But pricing is one area thatI've niched in over the years,
and way back in 2010, I hadtrained up as a small business
coach, and when you train as acoach, you're told oh, you
(04:08):
should have your niches.
I didn't have a clue as to whatniche I should be at that point
, because I came as a businessowner.
I wasn't new to business, but Iwas new to coaching and
previously I'd done moretraining rather than coaching.
But I realized soon enough thatpricing was an area that people
struggled with, and even in oneof my businesses, which was a
(04:32):
training business, I thought ifyou sell cheap and I use cheap
deliberately rather than lowprice you'll find people who
think you're offering greatvalue when they've learned about
what you're offering andtherefore they'll stay with you.
No, no, no, they don't.
And so I realized that forpricing it's so important that
(04:53):
we step back.
So I go through a pricingstrategy approach to what I do
and, depending on where thebusiness is at, we can also have
what I describe as a revenuemodel, so we can look at which
are the items in your pricingmenu, your pricing list, how to
(05:14):
position and prepare and plan toachieve those, and then what
that would look like if you'reable to have those different
segments of your menu bought byyour clients or your customers.
And so that model gives you asense as to what maybe you want
to put greater emphasis on andwhich are the areas that are
(05:36):
higher priced but you need fewerclients or customers for.
Sonja Crystal Williams (05:42):
Okay, got it.
So you used a phrase Ireluctantly started a Facebook
group.
As I'm growing my business,let's talk about that word
reluctance.
What made you reluctant to starta Facebook group to begin with?
Veronica Broomes (05:58):
Because I'm not a digital native.
I didn't grow up in the erawhere Facebook was the place to
be, and certainly not forbusiness, and so when I think of
Facebook, I think of Facebookas the place that people
communicate for family orfriendships, which I don't do
much of.
I have some of that, and so myreluctance was the fact that,
(06:23):
yes, I had a Facebook accountfor many years.
I had doubled in some aspectsof Facebook and joined many
groups for different reasons,and then I learned to be in and
out of groups, because you don'tkeep adding them to your list.
You need to review that list tosee which ones are still
relevant and then to exit.
(06:44):
I didn't know at the start, andthen, when I was in a sales
mentoring program, it wassuggested that one way in which
you can grow your group ordevelop your links is actually
Developing a Facebook group, andI thought I don't know, because
the idea having to be onFacebook and connecting with
(07:06):
people and Doing the work tokeep a group lively didn't
appeal to me.
I was focused on setting up themodules for the 4p 1s system
and getting the training inthere and recording the videos,
and I had started, or restarteda mailing list, because I've had
different mailing lists overtime.
And then I thought, okay,because you focus and you've
(07:29):
invested in this sales strategyand if this sales mentee saying
it's one of the approaches,veronica, you should do, it Does
she'd also said I should haveDo Instagram lives, which I also
did Reluctantly, but I probablyenjoyed doing those more until
I decided they were it wasn'tHelpful to be speaking to myself
(07:51):
so often and lives.
Coming back to the face group,so I started and I invited the
mentor and then the person whowas developing my, the modules
of doing the background work interms of creating that program
that was going into the training, and then I invited a few of
the people who were in the groupas we are relatively small
(08:14):
cohort on the sales mentoringprogram and and so it started
gradually.
Oh, and then I my social mediaassistant yes, she was in the
group and we had plans as to howwe'll grow this group and, yeah
, and it was just a slow.
So, like the first year or so ofthis group, I had less than 50
members.
I probably had like 30something people in the group
(08:36):
for time, but I knew I thoughtthat, yeah, maybe I still need
to do this group.
But how to do?
It wasn't and they?
I didn't have the answer,because what didn't appeal to me
was to be on Facebook Justmessaging people inviting them
to the group, because I stillhave to do the work after.
And then we, with my socialmedia assistant, we planned a
(08:59):
strategy that, yes, we'll reachout to influences I had some
other support with that We'llreach out to invite people into
the group.
So we started doing some ofthat.
The rules were a bit lapsed atthe start because I thought,
rather than insisting thateveryone give, answer the
questions or Share informationabout what they do, I should
(09:21):
just allow people to accept aninvitation.
But then, for some reason, Istarted thinking this is an
inefficient way of working and Icame across someone who had a
group who said that you canlearn how to grow your group
within her group, and it was amonthly subscription.
(09:42):
So I thought, okay, magic wouldhappen, that I just need to pay
the subscription and thensuddenly I'll be flooded with
lots of people in my group.
So you know the post that yougo through which would say, yes,
I'm looking for whatever it is,or I help Whatever it is, or
you join other people's promosand then you can put Asterix VIP
(10:02):
or whatever the program is.
So I did that for a few monthsand then I realized it's not
magical.
It doesn't happen that peoplejust start coming to your group.
You need to do the work, and soyou actually need to be in
groups, posting, making comments, responding to others.
And so I was with thatsubscription for about three
(10:24):
months and I realized, if I'mdoing all this hard work and I'm
still paying a subscription andI didn't get this magical
number of hundreds of peoplecoming into the group
immediately, but then it meansthat this learning has to be
used in a different way.
So it's about being consistent.
It's about posting in othergroups.
(10:44):
But I did have a period where,over within less than a month, I
actually had like 300 people inthe group.
It took maybe about six monthsto get to the first hundreds.
I continued doing this slow, butthen I got the stage where,
yeah, I could see the results.
I could see how you can getlots of people joining your
(11:06):
group.
You can get lots of people 10,15 people signing up daily in
your group.
And because I went through thataccelerated period and Convince
now that it is possible to growyour group, but you do have to
put in the hard work.
At present I'm not doing any ofthose subscriptions within
other people's groups, but thatdoesn't mean I will not do it in
(11:29):
future, because I could see howa Focus period of promoting as
a VIP in another group can allowyou to grow your members.
So we've just crossed sixhundred.
So we know, at the stage whereI have six hundred and eight or
six hundred and ten, but as ahuge change From where I was
(11:52):
Right musical Well, and to startfrom zero.
Sonja Crystal Williams (11:56):
So I want to break your story down in
a few ways Because, yeah, youstarted a group with no base,
right?
Some people will launch into thecreation of an online community
because they have a big emaillist or they already have an
audience that exists somewhere,so it is definitely to your
(12:17):
point.
It can be and feel verychallenging when you're in a
position where I am startingthis completely from scratch.
So growing to a few hundred ofstrangers who are now a part of
your group and engaged is a hugeaccomplishment.
I also want to back up to thatgroup that you were in so you
(12:38):
mentioned you were in like asales mentorship group that you
were a part of and first justsaying and I hope everyone's
listening to this, particularlythose of you that are new
business owners that thelearning doesn't stop and that,
even if you are a coach yourself, like joining other people's
coaching programs, mentorships,things like that create huge
opportunities to meet for bothcollaboration and learning and
(13:02):
the fact, Veronica, that youactually applied what you
learned in the group, Because alot of times we can get into
some of these groups and thesetraining opportunities and not
apply anything at all.
So it sounds like you took tworoutes, which was the Instagram
live route, the Facebook groupsroute.
Veronica Broomes (13:21):
Yeah, now let me clarify a piece on you that
it was a sales mentoring thatgot me the Instagram and
Facebook, but not the growth.
Yeah, I can go elsewhere to getthe group recognizing that it's
not one size that fits all.
And if it's a coaching mentoryou're not willing to invest in
(13:41):
yourself, it's hardly likelythat you'll have as much
information and support andoptions that you can offer your
clients, so it's so important.
Yeah, so I interrupted there,but I just wanted to clarify
that it wasn't that salesmentoring that gave me all the
answers.
It gave me some insights and,yes, the idea is the word.
(14:03):
But I had to then find otherways because I thought, if this
is the objective, like anycoaching scenario once I didn't
have a smart goal around that,but like any coaching scenario,
you begin with the end in mind,as Stephen Covey said.
So my objective was to growFacebook group.
How I broke that down and gotthere were the options I needed
(14:28):
to pursue, because it wasn't acase to say, oh well, I will
guarantee I'll get my firsthundred and a hundred days.
No, because at that time,especially since I was reluctant
, I couldn't say the point ofhaving an objective like that.
No, I don't want to be spendingfour hours a week or four hours
a day sending putting messageson Facebook in the hope that
(14:49):
I'll have people joining mygroup.
So, yeah, I'd say that I wantedto clarify that.
So the sales mentoring programopened my eyes to some
possibilities, but then I neededto take further action in order
to actually actively grow thegroup.
Sonja Crystal Williams (15:07):
So once you to a place where you know,
hey, I've got several hundred,or you went through that period
where you had that nice bump andgrowth, how much time would you
say you were spending?
Were you on Facebook on a dailybasis?
How did your you mentioned youhad a little bit of assistance.
How did they play a role?
So what did that picture looklike from a time commitment
(15:28):
standpoint?
Veronica Broomes (15:30):
I would say, generally I wouldn't spend more
than two hours a day on Facebook, and it's not every day, like
over this weekend, for example.
I actually spent Maybe aroundtwo hours in a block.
But the reason I spend thattime is that I wanted to be able
(15:50):
to respond to some posts ingroups.
I also wanted to add my detailsto some larger groups which
I've been part of for a numberof years and occasionally I go
in and post.
So this weekend in particular,I wanted to be able to post
about the Facebook group so thatpeople are saying promote your
(16:11):
business.
It's always good to promoteyour business every time.
So I joined those lists, I likeand then I comment and if
they're people from my group, sothe business growth coach
online.
If they're people from my group, I'd like some of their posts
because they're not exclusive tome, they're part of other
(16:32):
Facebook groups but but it meanswhat I'm doing is investing my
time strategically.
So others are creating theseopportunities to pose, and this
weekend in particular, lastweekend in particular what I did
was to post an invitation to myFacebook group as well as post
(16:53):
a link to the Gold Starmembership, because I'm saying
here my call to actions.
And then, in addition to that,what I did in my group, my
Facebook group, was to like andcomment on a few posts that
other members of the group hadmade, as well as posting some
events for the rest of thismonth.
(17:13):
So there was there's actuallyan event that I'm doing through
one of the enterprise supportorganizations that I don't
usually post in the Facebookgroup.
So what I decided this yearI'll do is to keep that event
section more active.
So, whether it's related tobusiness growth coaching,
(17:34):
whether it's related to the dayin the month when we're having
that Q&A for the Gold Starprogram, whether it relates to
sustainability talk that I maybe doing, I'll put those events
in the group.
And so that's where I spent mytime, and I saw that that was
time well spent, because, whilstI'm not seeing immediate
(17:56):
results, I know that informationis there.
But you've seen someone who'salready or a couple of people
who've already done maybe forone of the events.
If I hadn't posted, it wouldnot have been.
No one would have responded.
So you also need to be able tothink strategically when you're
seeking to grow your Facebookgroup or any other presence
(18:16):
you're looking to have on socialmedia.
Sonja Crystal Willia (18:20):
Absolutely , and so for this group, it's
not because there are so manyforms of how people can launch a
group or an online community,and I know for me personally.
One common form I've seen isyou're already the user of a
product or service and then theyhave a group attached to it.
That's one way, but yours isn'tthat way.
Yours, it sounds like, andcorrect me if I'm wrong it
(18:42):
sounds like this is a group ofpeople who have an interest in
business, growth and coaching.
They're not necessarily usingyour product or service yet, so
this is your opportunity to takesomeone who was a cold contact
and get them familiar with you,your service, your systems,
through that group.
Is that right?
Veronica Broomes (19:03):
Indeed, and that is spot on, because when I
started the group or theintention from initially was
people who signed up to buy thegroup coaching program which
emerged from my sales mentoringprogram People who bought that
will then be part of anewsletter subscription and then
(19:24):
will be invited to the group.
But because that didn't workthat way, I still needed to have
a group to say to peoplewhether I'm sharing or
partnering with another coach aspart of, maybe, their campaign
to grow my list, I'm offeringthree beers.
We describe it in the businessor for some other reason.
(19:44):
I needed to be able to havesomething happening in the group
that I can then get people tosay, ah, this is time well spent
.
So now, yes, it's about theengagement, but it's also about
me posting about events so thatpeople can see ah, here's what
Veronica is doing and here's howshe may be able to help us, and
(20:06):
they're encouraged to askquestions.
So when I do what I describe asa warm welcome, so when people
come into the group, we do awarm welcome to the group and I
put a note, say remember to tellus about you and your business.
So there's no issue aboutwhether you can post in the
group or not, you're encouragedto do that, yeah wow, good stuff
(20:28):
, veronica.
Sonja Crystal Williams (20:29):
Thank you so much for sharing this
intriguing journey of Launchingthe Facebook groups and really
just getting into some of thenitty-gritty details of what it
looks like to build one fromZero to 600 plus today.
So again, congratulations onthat.
Where can people get in touchif they'd like to see more about
(20:50):
your Facebook group or evensome of your particular Services
and tracks that you offer as abusiness coach?
Veronica Broomes (20:57):
Well, thank you for asking that question.
So, on your hand, yourinvitation to share my details.
So, of course, I'd love to havemore people in my Facebook
group because, I've explained,it's about business growth.
It's about helping people to beable to grow and scale without
burnout, and pricing is one ofthose areas I can certainly help
you with to be more profitable.
(21:17):
So I'll share the link for myFacebook group, but I also have
an Instagram account.
So if you're on Instagram or youwould like to reach out to me
in any other way, I'd say mylink tree is the best, because
the link tree not only has thesocial media information, but it
also has a downloadable ebookwhich is about a common pricing
(21:42):
mistakes to avoid.
I think it's still it and sothis is just a start as to what
you should not do when you'resetting your prices.
So I'll share those details sothat, when the Recording of this
podcast goes out, it means thatyour listeners and your viewers
will also have the opportunityto connect with me, and I'm
(22:04):
always open to that connectionand Collaboration and working in
partnership, similar to whatwe're doing here today.
Sonia, absolutely.
Sonja Crystal Williams (22:15):
Okay, so what's the link?
The Instagram link.
For anyone that wants it willdrop that in the comments.
And then the Facebook group.
What's the name of the group?
Veronica Broomes (22:24):
Veronica, it's business, business growth club
online.
Sonja Crystal Williams (22:29):
Perfect, all right, wonderful All right
on Instagram.
Veronica Broomes (22:34):
The handle is is biz, the.
I said coach and UK, so thiscoach UK.
But I share the information inthe chat so I know you'll be
able to retrieve that and add it.
But there's also the link treethat will give you all the other
parts of my or make most of theother aspects of my social
(22:58):
media presence.
Sonja Crystal Willia (23:02):
Absolutely so, everyone.
Once you go to Instagram, youcan go to link tree from there,
get access to that guide and oralso check out the Facebook
group.
Well, thank you so much again,Veronica.
Thanks everyone today forlistening or watching, and until
next time have a good one.
Veronica Broomes (23:19):
Thank you again, Sonja, and all the best
to your listeners and viewers.
You Welcome, welcome.
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