Making the Most of the Affinity Community

First things first, come join the Facebook Community that I’m about to waffle on about here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/242552720247455

So, people often ask me what Affinity is all about so I thought I’d put together a quick guide on how it works, what I’d love you’d to get out of it and why I think it’s refreshingly different.

It doesn’t take more than three minutes to figure out that the purpose behind everything here is building a supportive community: and it’s about real people, not just an opportunity for selling.

Think of it as more of a hub designed to:

1. Help you overcome blocks and barriers

2. Nurture you as much as your business

3. Encourage you to become more authentically visible and show up as yourself with confidence

Everyone’s different and we’re all more comfortable doing some things than others. Now, whilst I am a bit of a pusher, I also deeply respect our need to move outside of our comfort zones gently. So there are a number of ways you can get involved, and when your confidence builds in one area, you’ll find it builds in others too

Go live

This is the most powerful tool in your arsenal. It’s available to everyone, it’s free and an incredible way for your potential clients to imagine working with you. They get a much better feel for your energy and who you are as a person. We do have designated ’Go lIve’ days but only because it’s great for boosting confidence if everyone else is doing it, so but please don’t wait for permission. You can go live any time! Just fire away if you feel like you’ve something to share.

Do you know what else is great about going live? You’re able to talk naturally, organically and fluidly about your business – and about yourself too. Believe it or not, it’s you that people will connect with. It’s not what you do it’s why you do it: the motivation behind the business is what people will warm to and feel inspired by. You never know who will be watching or listening in and how your enthusiasm will carry out into the world.

Run a poll

These are great for gathering information for your business, like if you’ve got a new offer coming out. Gather that market research!

A little tip for polls (and not just in this group) is to be very mindful to prequalify the people completing it to make sure they’re your ideal client. It’s easy for the results of a poll to be skewed by the people completing it if they’re not your ideal clients, so think about framing the question you ask.

For example, if you cater to busy working mums who run their own businesses, then start by saying ‘if you’re a busy working mum running your own business, then I’d love to hear from you’. Try to make it as clear but as inviting as possible.

Tell your story

Share the stuff that people really connect with – like the things you love, the challenges you face and the things you’ve overcome. If your ideal client is a busy mum who owns her own business, then think about a ‘business owning mum challenge’ that came up this week for you personally. I guarantee you’ll get engagement!

Talk about what you’ve learned, what great things have clients had to say about you and again, why do you do what you do? 

You know, it doesn’t have to be all about business, in fact, I think it’s better if it’s not. Enjoy telling us a little bit about your life and we’ll enjoy finding out about you.

Tag me on your posts

Whatever’s newsworthy: promos, launches, blogs – they’re all relevant and we’d love to hear about them. I’m so happy about the way the group has grown recently and the amount of posting and interaction, so please don’t forget to tag me so I can congratulate, comment and join in. I always want to support you guys and I do my best to comment on as many posts as possible, if not all of them. I can also help you to get the conversation started so please feel free to get me in on it.

Masterclasses

These are an incredible resource for everybody! They are run fairly frequently and are free for anyone to attend live (you don’t have to be a paid member).

Our guests are industry experts who are very willing to share their knowledge with our community. I always invite them to share any offers and the best way we can connect with them following the session but it’s always value, value, VALUE right up until that moment. I’m very careful to avoid them turning into an ambush style sales pitch, I got you, don’t worry!

As a member, however, you’ll get access to ALL of these classes on replay inside the toolkit so you can watch at your own pace. So, if you haven’t already signed up, what are you waiting for? We’ve had amazing feedback from those who’ve come along. For some, it has completely changed their outlook on something they’ve been struggling with or they’ve had a massive revelatory moment. Light bulbs have been going off all over the place! Or coming on? Whichever it is, it’s been magic!

So please come along to the free guest masterclasses with our wonderful speakers – we have 2-3 two a month, so you’ll find something just for you. And as I said, an extra perk of being a networking member is that you can watch these on replay, so the flexibility is there if you need it.

If you’d like to speak in one of the masterclasses, Check out the ‘Get Featured’ page https://affinitywomensnetworking.com/get-featured/

Toolkit

If you’re a networking member, this is where you’ll find all the Masterclasses replays but there’s more…so much more!. Packed with incredible resources; stuff like licence free photo downloads to use as you like, caption prompts, activities to do and tutorials with me, it’s all there for you to use whenever you need it. 

You can join us here www.affinitywomensnetworking.com/join and get a free peak inside the toolkit. Membership also gives you access to all the monthly networking sessions.

Featured blogs

We’re all specialists in the areas we work in, so why not share this expertise with the rest of the group? We feature blogs on the website to showcase the kind of know-how that us ‘women what business’ really need. Please get in touch if you have a blog you’d like everyone to see. It can be repurposed from an existing blog post.

If you’d like to submit a blog posts (paid members only), check out the ‘Get Featured’ page https://affinitywomensnetworking.com/get-featured/

Featured on Instagram

I have recently started offering a free feature to Affinity Members. We’d love to hear about why you started your business, what you do, who you help and how. Also chuck a bit of lovely personality stuff in there, so people can really connect with YOU.

If you’d like to tell your story and be featured on IG, LinkedIn and inside the facebook group, check out the ‘Get Featured’ page https://affinitywomensnetworking.com/get-featured/

Networking

This is networking but not as you know it. We don’t do 60 second pitches because nobody enjoys giving them and hardly anyone listens because they’re too busy worrying about what they’re going to say. There is no point of connection that happens there and that’s what this group is all about – genuine connections.

We’re all about quality of connection over quantity so instead, we have one-to-one breakout rooms which are great for relating to people and building your community and filling it with like-minded women, rather than trying to sell to the person in front of you. It’s a more relaxed, natural way of networking so that you can make real friendships with people – and their entire network suddenly becomes available to you too. They get to know and love you as a person, so recommending you to their friends, family and contacts becomes such a natural thing to do.

And doesn’t that feel great to you as an empathetic woman? No more icky feelings around ‘selling yourself’ because your community does it for you.

If you don’t already, come along to our networking – the first month is just £10 for access to the toolkit AND to a minimum of 8-10 networking sessions. It’s time to begin building your community, your support network and your business today!

You can join us here www.affinitywomensnetworking.com/join.

Our community

You don’t have to be a paying member to enjoy the magic of our online community. Please make the most of this group because I’m here and everyone else is here to support you. It’s what we’re about. It’s not about money-making or selling, it’s about connection, learning and growth, and a circle of people who have your back. The selling bit comes a little later and when it does it’s powered up by a community (aka best ever sales team) who will champion you and your business with genuine passion and enthusiasm.