Danielle Canty, Founder of Boss Babe Inc., discusses how to grow a community and provides her formula for a successful launch. This was the first episode of this podcast that I have listened to and was truly impressed. There was so much great content that it should be required listening for anyone looking to build or grow a community or about to launch their business.
Danielle discussed the importance of being authentic rather than trying to be someone else. She wasn’t a born entrepreneur but after an accident that injured a loved one, decided that she wanted more freedom in her life and moved into business. In just over 2 years, she and her partner grew Boss Babe into a community of over 2 million followers on Instagram.
Building a Community
First and foremost, you must understand what the values of that community are. For Boss Babe, it was to be “unapologetically ambitious”. You have to be able to say the things that other people aren’t saying or are afraid to say. She wanted to create a place where they could be unapologetic and say the things that others were too afraid to say.
The key foundations of understanding what your values are fall into what Danielle calls the 4 E’s:
- Emotion – what is the feeling that people are going to get from being in our community? Is it a feeling of empowerment, of motivation, of positivity? What is that key thing that you want people to go away feeling after coming in contact with you?
- Education – what do you want to educate people on? Is it to have a better understanding of self- development? Understand business? What are the educational pillars your community is built on?
- Entertainment – You can entertain people in whatever manner suits your personality. It can be in the questions you ask or the statements you put out.
- Enemy – What are you against? For Boss Babe, it was to combat the challenges of being a female entrepreneur. People struggle with polarizing other people, but when you learn to polarize people, you actually strengthen your community because the members of your community will bond over something that only they have to deal with.
Importance of Consistency – You have to show up in our community consistently and give an experience to your community in a consistent manner so that they know what to expect.
Another key takeaway was Danielle’s discussion on not allowing your perfectionisms to get in the way of your purpose. This was the biggest hurdle she had to overcome. Don’t get stuck on the notion that you have to be the face of your brand. Be willing to curate other voices and use graphic design to let your brand feel like something beyond you. Boss Babe exists beyond the people behind it because of the branding, the graphic design, the visual appeal and the sense of community. Those things can exist beyond your own insecurities.
Keys to a Successful Launching
The key with any launch is that you have to ask, listen and learn. Your first launch should always be your worst launch. Wherever you choose to launch, it’s important that you are learning from those things that you did the first time around to make it better the next time and every time after that
Boss Babe’s 4 Part Launch Formula
Step 1 – Build an audience of ideal clients or customers. They shouldn’t just be anybody. You have to have those E’s built into the foundations of the community and brand you’re building so you’re curating the right audience who are ultimately going to buy the products that you want them to when you launch. Don’t just write down your ideal customer avatar. You have to know that ideal customer so well that in everything you do, you are talking to him or her. Who is she? What is her name? Who are her friends? What does she do? What kind of clothes does she wear? You should be able to picture your ideal customer so well in your mind that when you’re speaking to your community, you are speaking to her. Bring that ideal customer to life.
Step 2 – Prelaunch – Engage with your community to build up to the launch. Ask questions. Use the words being used by your ideal customer in describing their pain points in your communications, copy, etc.
Step 3 – Launch – Consistently talk about your product or service from different angles. Be passionate about your product and don’t be afraid to sell it. If you’re proud of your product, would you not want people to buy it rather than someone else’s crappy product? Make sure your sales angle is coming from different sides and angles and address the different pain points. One of them will resonate with your customer. Cover your bases with your sales angles during your launch. Put out a different piece of content on social media that specifically and uniquely addresses one objection.
Step 4 – Post Launch – Look at your Instagram data and stats to see what people are responding to and use it to make informed decisions to understand what is resonating with your audience and what’s not. Speak to one thing at a time. Listen to your audience and tweak your message as needed.
Unofficial Show Notes 