Behind the Scenes of a Thriving Membership with Entreprenista’s Stephanie Cartin

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Influencer Podcast - Behind the Scenes of a Thriving Membership with Entreprenista’s Stephanie Cartin

Introduction In the episode titled "Behind the Scenes of a Thriving Membership with Entreprenista’s Stephanie Cartin," hosted by Julie Solomon, listeners are treated to an in-depth conversation with Stephanie Cartin from Entrepreneurista. This episode delves into the evolution of Entrepreneurista from a social media marketing agency to a robust membership community, offering valuable insights for coaches, service providers, and online educators aiming to elevate their messaging, visibility, and authority.

Origins of Entrepreneurista Stephanie Cartin begins by tracing the roots of Entrepreneurista back to its inception alongside her business partner Courtney. Initially, they launched Social Fly, a full-service social media marketing and influencer agency, while juggling full-time corporate jobs. Their dedication paid off as they organically grew the agency, securing top Google rankings and winning industry awards.

"We decided to launch our podcast as really a solve for this problem. So our podcast, Entrepreneurista, is how Entrepreneurista started." – Stephanie Cartin [03:16]

The overwhelming demand for guidance from other women founders led them to recognize the need for a scalable solution, culminating in the creation of the Entrepreneurista podcast and subsequently, the Entrepreneurista League—a comprehensive media company and membership community dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs at all stages.

Building a Sustainable Membership Community Julie Solomon emphasizes the importance of understanding that memberships are a long-term endeavor, often requiring 1.5 to 3 years to see substantial growth. Stephanie concurs, highlighting the necessity of genuine investment and involvement in the community.

"If you are already building a community or community-based business, or you are thinking about building a community as your business, you have to be someone who wants to be invested and involved in the community and you have to genuinely care and like people." – Stephanie Cartin [13:08]

Stephanie shares that launching the community was a learning adventure. They invested time in understanding the dynamics of online communities, sought guidance from coaches, and adapted based on member feedback. This approach enabled them to transition from managing an agency to nurturing a thriving membership platform.

Community Building and Relationships A significant portion of the discussion centers on the pivotal role of relationships within the Entrepreneurista community. Stephanie underscores that business success is inherently tied to the relationships entrepreneurs build.

"The key to success in business, and I would also argue in life, is your relationships and the people that you surround yourself with." – Stephanie Cartin [23:37]

Entrepreneurista fosters these relationships through monthly virtual meetups, networking events, and local in-person gatherings. This structure not only enhances member engagement but also facilitates meaningful collaborations, as exemplified by the story of Gwen Whiting, a member who successfully launched a new business with support from the community.

Membership Growth and Scaling Strategies Stephanie elaborates on their unique membership model, which differs from traditional yearly renewals. Instead, they offer a lifetime initiation with additional optional programs, allowing members to select resources tailored to their current business needs. This "choose your own adventure" approach enhances user experience and encourages sustained engagement.

"Our membership model is different than a typical membership model... we have a platform where we have this like, like lifetime initiation where you get into the community for this base level membership." – Stephanie Cartin [18:45]

She also highlights the importance of the right technology and member experience. Moving to platforms like Circle has streamlined their community management, ensuring a seamless and engaging environment for members.

Challenges and Lessons Learned Stephanie candidly discusses the challenges faced in creating and maintaining a membership community. From managing multiple roles during the initial podcast phase to ensuring continuous value delivery, the journey required resilience and adaptability. A key takeaway is the necessity of being genuinely invested in the community, as superficial efforts do not foster long-term retention.

"Communities function based on community and the people in it, and they can't run by themselves." – Stephanie Cartin [12:17]

Future Plans and Upcoming Initiatives Looking ahead, Entrepreneurista has several exciting initiatives planned for 2025 and beyond. These include:

1. Power Group Programs: Specialized groups focusing on areas like marketing and business development, led by industry experts.
2. Founders Weekend Wealth and Wellness Retreat: An exclusive event for members to network and rejuvenate.
3. Entrepreneurista 100 Awards: An annual program recognizing outstanding women-founded businesses, providing them with valuable recognition and opportunities.

"We've been able to build all of these additional products and solutions for our members that they can choose to then join or buy these additional programs inside the community." – Stephanie Cartin [20:12]

Conclusion Stephanie Cartin's journey with Entrepreneurista offers a compelling blueprint for building and sustaining a vibrant membership community. Her emphasis on genuine relationships, continuous value addition, and adaptability serves as an invaluable guide for entrepreneurs seeking to create impactful and enduring communities.

Notable Quotes

• "Memberships are a long game. You know, they're not a quick win. And you really have to be excited and intentional about really understanding that." – Julie Solomon [00:00]
• "You have to like people and like, you have to genuinely like people." – Stephanie Cartin [13:08]
• "The key to success in business, and I would also argue in life, is your relationships and the people that you surround yourself with." – Stephanie Cartin [23:37]
• "Communities function based on community and the people in it, and they can't run by themselves." – Stephanie Cartin [12:17]

Join the Entrepreneurista League For listeners inspired by Stephanie’s insights and eager to join a supportive community of over 2,500 founders, Entrepreneurista offers membership opportunities. To learn more and take advantage of special offers, visit the show notes for exclusive links and discount codes.

Connect with Stephanie Cartin Stephanie encourages listeners to reach out via Instagram (@staffjillcarton) and join the Entrepreneurista League through the provided links in the show notes. Additionally, a special discount code is available for new members joining the community.

Final Thoughts This episode of The Influencer Podcast not only highlights the strategic growth and operational nuances of building a membership community but also underscores the profound impact such communities can have on individual entrepreneurs' journeys. Stephanie Cartin's expertise and passion shine through, making this episode a must-listen for anyone looking to foster a thriving entrepreneurial network.

Transcript

[Julie Solomon]

And I think a lot of times what people don't realize is that memberships are a long game. You know, they're not a quick win. And you really have to be excited and intentional about really understanding that and knowing that a lot of times you're not going to see the compound effect of a membership until you're about 18 to two years to three years in. Welcome to the Influencer Podcast. I'm your host, Julie Solomon. If you found yourself here, it means you are ready to unleash the powerful visionary that lives inside you, turning you into an authentic leader who creates influence, impact and change. Let's get started.

[Stephanie]

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Influencer Podcast. I am so excited to have my friend Stephanie from Entrepreneursta here with us today. I believe that Stephanie came on the podcast years ago. I'm talking maybe 2018, kind of in the early years of the Influencer podcast. We were probably a year too old when she came on with her co founder to share about all the great work that they were doing back then. And man, have they evolved. And I'm so excited for today's conversation because we're not only going to walk through the entrepreneur business and brand, what it means to be an entrepreneur, but most importantly, how she has been able to build and scale and maintain this incredible community and membership. So if you are someone that is looking to further cultivate community, find community, learn how to really integrate community into your business and use that as a valuable revenue stream, you are not going to want to miss today's episode. So with that, let's get started.

[Julie Solomon]

Hello, Stephanie. It's so good to have you back on the Influencer Podcast. I think you were on this show like years ago.

[Courtney]

I feel like time just flies. So here we are years later. No, you've been on Entrepreneurista twice now, sharing all of your incredible journey and all of your. All of your business secrets. So I'm excited to share with your community.

[Julie Solomon]

I'm so excited to have you here and I love, like, we literally just spent the last 10 minutes just talking. Like, we, we are friends and I feel so, just lucky and honored to have you as a friend and just have you as someone in this industry because as you know, in this entrepreneur space, you know, all of us for the most part work either from home or we work from, you know, offices that are kind of siloed and this is a virtual world. And so for us to be able to cultivate these friendships and these partnerships and more importantly, just knowing that we have each other's back and just people that we can lean on is really, really important. And so I'm just honored that I've gotten to know you now for several years and that we get to just share so many good things today.

[Courtney]

I feel the same. I know. I was just saying, like, we would have just kept talking and talking and never recorded this episode.

[Julie Solomon]

So it's like, maybe we should hit record now.

[Courtney]

Yeah.

[Julie Solomon]

So, yeah, we're talking all the good things. And I first just want to dive into Entrepreneurista. For those that may not know what this incredible female driven community is and company is, I would love for you to kind of start with what it is and how it came about, sharing a little bit of your story, and then we'll. We'll go from there, of course.

[Courtney]

So Entrepreneista and the Entrepreneurista League is the most supportive community for women founders and leaders, where we have the best resources and community to really help founders at all stages of business have the support needed to grow, grow and scale a business. And we have incredible experts and founders from all different areas of businesses and industries that are in the community. And everyone's just in there just connecting, building incredible relationships like we have and doing business together and supporting each other. And the whole purpose of our community really is to collaborate and that there's just enough business out there for everyone and even people in the same industries, and I see it all the time, can connect and collaborate and I call it making lots of business magic happen. But it's been a long road to get here to create what we've created and happy to share the whole backstory of helpful of how it came to be.

[Julie Solomon]

I would love to hear that because I think that it's relatable and it's raw. And what I love about your story and the story of Entrepreneur is the evolution of it. You know, I think that a lot of times people think I launched this thing or I start this thing or I build this thing, and now it's this way. But, you know, you've. You've been around the block for a while and it truly is an evolution of growth and how you've been able to really scale it from, you know, the beginning days of that New York area to really being this global network now. And yeah, I would love to hear more about that.

[Courtney]

Yes. I'll take you back to the early days. So my business partner Courtney and I, we started our first business, Social Fly, which was a full service social media marketing and influencer agency. And that's how we initially Connected in person. What's so funny, Julie, is that most people now I feel like we've all, like, met online first and then in person. And it's like we actually met in person back before 2020, which is so awesome. So Courtney and I, we started this business, Social Fly, initially on the side of our full time job. So we were both working in the corporate world. We started taking on clients really at night and on the weekends for about 10 months, just like hustling and working full time trying to build this business on the side until we said, you know what, if this is going to be an actual business, we either have to go all in and do it or not do it at all. So Courtney and I actually in our mid-20s, decided to quit our corporate jobs. It was on the same day, it was May 4th of 2012. And we never look back. And we grew and scaled the agency really organically, doing great work for our clients, really practicing what we had preached with our own marketing strategies for our agency business. So we were quickly number one on Google for social media agency and influencer Agency. And we started winning awards for our work. And we were also focused on building our personal brands and our business brand. A lot of the things that you talk about with your clients and your community as well, we focused on that early on. So what started to happen was because of this quick growth and success of Social Fly, so many women founders and leaders were reaching out to us, like all the time. Julie, you know, can I go to coffee? Can I pick your brain? Can I hear how you did it? And Courtney and I like you. Like, we want to help literally everyone. But we were running our agency and we realized so quickly it was physically impossible and it was definitely not scalable to go out to coffee all day every day and actually run a business. So we started thinking, you know, how can we help as many incredible founders, you know, grow and scale a business and not just share our story over and over again over coffee? So we decided to launch our podcast as really a solve for this problem. So our podcast, Entrepreneurista is how Entrepreneurista started. So it was this side content project back in 2018 at the end of the year when we launched it. And then 2020, the pandemic happens, and now we're getting more messages. You probably got these two from founders back then. You know, I lost my job. I want to start a business. Can you help or I need to pivot? Can you? And now we're like, well, we're trying to figure out our own agency business during the pandemic. But we also felt this responsibility, like, we have to help everyone. We've created this platform and organic community through social and the podcast. Like, we have to help everyone. So we worked with our business coach because coaches are very important to work with no matter where you are in your business, no matter what stage of business, you need to work with a coach. So we worked with our coach and we made a whole plan to divide and conquer, where Courtney would focus on growing, scaling. And we actually just sold our agency business Social Fly last year, and then I would now start focusing on building everything out with Entrepreneurista. So five years later, like literally right now, exactly five years later from 2020, Entrepreneur now is a full media company and our membership, community, the Entrepreneur League, which I shared before, and it is my life's work and just the best. And I just feel so honored to be able to support women founders and leaders every single day by really providing everything that we wish we had when we were first starting our business and now everything that we've needed at all stages of our business and putting it all together under our one platform.

[Julie Solomon]

It's so good. And I think that is such a great example of just what can happen when you allow things to evolve and grow. I mean, what started as an agency and then had this great, you know, content platform and a podcast that then transformed into this incredible community and resources. And I'm a member of the community. It is such an incredible community. The women that you have brought together that are just like we are, you know, it's like they're. They're doing all of the things. Their moms, their partners, their sisters, their daughters, they're having their own businesses, they're primary breadwinners of their home. I mean, it's like there's so many of that, and having that community aspect is so key. So I would love to hear when you knew it was time to really make the shift from like, okay, I've built this podcast. There is a dialed in community here. How do I extend the value of what we're creating? And how can I be the conduit to really create that space for them that they're desperately looking for?

[Courtney]

The first thing that I did was I went on a. I call it a learning adventure. I had never built a membership community before. I had never built a media company before. What I had done over the past, you know, at that point, eight years prior, building SocialFly was I built a marketing agency. And that's what I knew how to do, was build an agency and then build marketing strategies for brands. But this was now going to be a completely different business and completely different business model. So one of the first things that I did was actually I was part of a community and I knew I was moving down to Florida and I posted in that community that I was moving down here. I met someone who's now a very close friend of mine, of course, because that's where we all meet and connect in communities. Nikki. And she was building an online business and she told me about a coach that specialized in digital products and building membership communities. I'm like, who is this coach you speak of? Because you just built this awesome business doing this, and can I work with her? So I got an introduction and a referral. I reached out to her and I started learning from this coach. How do you build in online business and how do you build a community in terms of like the infrastructure and the business model and the marketing? Because again, like, that wasn't my expertise, but what I did have was the experience building a business over the past eight years before that. So it put me one step ahead of, like, knowing what I had to do to build a business to be profitable and to be able to, you know, attract the right people to come to the community. But I had to learn. So I dove in for a few months, really learning everything, talking to a lot of experts, and then we literally just jumped in. We teased out that we were launching the community, people were asking us for it. So we share this community is launching. We weren't ready because who's ready when you launch everything and just jumped in and. And launched before we were ready. But we had that interest. Right. So one thing I call it, like in life and in business, it's like one little breadcrumb. It just needs to the next and then the next thing and the next thing. And it just evolved over the past couple of years.

[Julie Solomon]

Well, and we have to dive into kind of the membership growth piece for a moment because you have been able to do something that is really hard to do, which is sustain a membership. And I think a lot of times what people don't realize is that memberships are a long game. You know, they're not a quick win. And you really have to be excited and intentional about really understanding that and knowing that a lot of times you're not going to see the compound effect of a membership until you're about 18 to two years to three years in. And, you know, it's a retention game and it's also, you know, a leads game as well. And finding this perfect balance. So I would just love to hear from your journey of growing this. Give us some, some tips and some challenges and things to look out for. We have so many listeners that are either, you know, have memberships, but they're trying to scale it or they're thinking about starting one. Because I think it kind of sounds like easy when it's not. And it's like, from your perspective, what has really allowed you to create such a sustainable membership? How do you grow it? How do you scale it?

[Stephanie]

What do we need to look out.

[Julie Solomon]

For to really allow our memberships to grow and thrive over time?

[Courtney]

Okay, I have all the things to share with everyone right now, because I have and we have really been through it all. So the Entrepreneur League is turning four in May. So we actually, I told the story of how we quit our jobs on May 4 when we started social life full time. We launched and do everything now on May 4th. So I love that May, May 4th will be four years since we actually started and launched the entrepreneurly community. So, okay, the first thing, if you are already building a community or community based business, or you are thinking about building a community as your business, you have to be someone who wants to be invested and involved in the community and you have to genuinely care and like people. If that is not you, if that is not you, don't do it.

[Julie Solomon]

I'm cracking up because that was the best answer ever. Because, Stephanie, I cannot tell you how many times I have talked to clients when they're like, I think I want to launch a membership so I don't have to talk to so many people so I can kind of like let my business run without. And I'm like, that is the antithesis of like what a membership is. So I love that truth bomb. Okay?

[Courtney]

You have to like people and like, you have to genuinely like people. Actually, after this recording, today I have office hours Insider Entrepreneurs League community. I host them every single month. Like, I literally get the chills. I get so excited to get in there with the community, hear their challenges, what they're working on and share advice, make connections. Like, I love it. That lights me up. If you are building a community, people have to light you up. The connections, the authenticity that's happening in the community, that is what keeps it community sticky. It is you from the top leading it and then it is the members. So you as the leader of that community, especially when you're launching, you are attracting the members to come into the community and you're going to attract members that are like you or that are looking for the solutions that you have. So if you don't want to be out there as either the face of the community or you want to be connecting in the community, the only other way I can think of is you have to then have a community manager, like, as the face of the community. Who's going to be that face for you to bring people together. Because communities function based on community and the people in it, and they can't run by themselves. So, like, I think that's the misconception. It's like, oh, I can launch a community and put it in this platform and everyone's just gonna connect and things are just gonna run like, that's not the case. Are there incredible tools out there that, like, we both use? Like, we've been on Circle now and actually we didn't launch with Circle in the beginning because we didn't know about it. Like, I wish I had known about it. Right when we launched, we launched with another platform. And then the second we found out about Circle and went through all of their demos, we then worked to move over to Circle. But having the right technology for your community is extremely important, as well as the member experience in the community. So when I shared before Julie, I'm like, we weren't ready to launch. We just jumped in and launched like we did. Right? Because you should, right? You gotta just jump in. You gotta figure it out. But knowing what we know now, there are tons of things that now I advise people who are building communities on, like how to build that launch plan, how to build the strategy, how to maintain the momentum. So we actually launched a community builder power group inside our entrepreneur league because we have a lot of community builders that are building, you know, communities for people going through surrogacy, communities for people in the flower space, communities for people that are community builders. So, you know, all of those things have evolved in our community by listening to what our members need and then building more products and solutions based on what our members are sharing with us.

[Julie Solomon]

And that's the other key there is that what I've experienced with communities and memberships is that it's like a living, breathing document. It's not like a course where you kind of just create it once. And of course you're going to update courses over times, or you should and optimize it, but it's literally like every single month, you're probably adding something new in there, needing to create something new. Like, it is also a content creation engine as well, because that's what also Keeps the retention high and keeps the interest and engagement of of staying in there. It's the community meets the fact that every single month I am getting something that I need in order to reach my desired goal.

[Stephanie]

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[Courtney]

Absolutely. And I can share with you. You know, our membership model is different than a typical membership model and there's lots of membership models that are out. So when we first launched our community, we were on like the traditional, like yearly membership reoccurring dues every single year. And you know, that's great for business where you want to build that, like compounding, you know, people are renewing every single year for certain types of businesses and communities. You know, depending on the type of community that you have like, if you're not engaged in there, if you're not offering new things in there, people aren't going to renew. So it's like, then you can be like getting a member and then someone's leaving your community. What I realized, because we are such a mission driven business where we want to have the resources and tools for founders at all stages of business. So whether a member joins our community now when they're five years in business or they're just starting or they're about to sell their business for $100 million, like we have the connections and resources in there because we have founders at all stages of business. So what I realized was we should create a platform where we have this like, like lifetime initiation where like you get into the community for this base level membership. And then based on listening to our members and their needs, now we've been able to build all of these additional products and solutions for our members that they can choose to then join or buy these additional programs inside the community. But they have to get into the community first. But once they're in, they're in.

[Julie Solomon]

Oh, and that's our. I love that. And I think that's also so smart too on the business side. Right. Because if you don't watch it like you could start a membership at a really kind of entry level rate, but then you're adding all of this value cut to three years from now. It's. You could look back and be like, wow, okay, I'm only charging $49 a month, but it's honestly worth like $499 a month. Thousands. Right. But I've given them, you know, carte blanche, so to speak aspect. And so there's that side of it when I think about kind of the revenue side for the business, but then there's also a choose your own adventure bit to it as well that I think my assumption here is that it would actually make the user experience more transformative and less overwhelming because they're able to really pick and choose. This is what I need right now. And they're probably going to be more invested in that and they're probably going to engage more and consume it more and actually get a result, which then just leads to a stronger testimonial and overall experience for the community itself.

[Courtney]

Absolutely. And then that's exactly what we've done. But it was all because we were so invested in our members and listening to their needs and what was important to them. And that's what makes a successful community. It's like our members Share with us, they tell us what's going on. I mean, obviously we survey our members and they have onboarding forums, but we're always meeting with them and talking to them because we host these office hours, we host these events and they share because they joined, because they want to grow, they want to learn, and we want to provide that value. So I say this all the time. I'm like, it's just the best. Like, I wake up every day and I am just so excited because, you know, building an agency, it's a great business. Right. For anyone building an agency, service based business, it is a great business to build. Right. There's just something so special and so different when you're building this mission driven business where I know that every second of the day that I am spending building recording podcasts like this, connecting, like everything I'm doing I know is helping people. And it just, it's just the best. Love it.

[Julie Solomon]

And I, I love that. And I love that you've been able to kind of see both ends of the coin because I think that that probably makes your level of gratitude and appreciation just different.

[Courtney]

Yeah, for sure.

[Julie Solomon]

Okay, so let's talk more about the community aspect. So I have a lot of incredible women that listen to this podcast and one of the things that, as we talked about at the beginning of this is, is that feeling of isolation. And just, you know, in the town that I live in, no one else does what I do and no one quite understands what I'm trying to do. And my parents think that I'm a this because I'm online, but I'm actually a that. And you know, it's like, it's those kinds of conversations all of the time. And, and I don't care what level of business that you're in. Like, you have to have people that you can lean on, that you can call on that you can jump ideas off of, you know that that are really going to be there for you as a soundboard and as a, as a support system and really as a network. Because as you grow your business, it's not strategies and figuring out how to build this funnel out or doing this or doing that. It's really about who you know and who is going to go with you on your journey. And that is where relationships and network come in. So I would love to hear more about how the entrepreneista helps the entrepreneur build those relationships and what that network and community looks like inside of entrepreneista.

[Courtney]

Absolutely. Well, I'll share first, like the key to success in business, and I would also argue in life is your relationships and the people that you surround yourself with. And I don't know a single entrepreneista who has built a business alone, sitting in their house, without the help and support of other people, which is why we created this community. So what that actually looks like inside the Entrepreneurista League is we host these virtual meetup and networking events inside the community every single month. And what that has is expanded to now is our local member meetup program, where our members are hosting in person meetups locally as well. And that's been one of the ways that our community has just exponentially grown is because our members are having and have had like the best experience in the community that they're then telling their friends, and their friends are telling their founder friends. And then it's just attracting like all of the most ambitious, driven founders who all want to come together. And I call it, like just a community of business cheerleaders, because that's what it is inside. Like, everyone literally just wants to support each other. And if you get on a coffee chat, zoom with someone, if you're like meeting up with someone, virtually, the questions people ask are like, you know, this is a bit about me and my business, but how can I help you? Like, what are you looking for? Who can I introduce you to? And a lot of these things, like when our members come to my office hours, like, I share this with them. I share, you know, how Courtney and I built our network. And again, it's because we like humans and we like people and we like to connect and build relationships. So there are really, you know, if you like people, it is so easy to build a network. And even if you're introverted. So this is something I talk about all the time, Julie. No one believes me when I'm like, I'm actually really introverted.

[Julie Solomon]

I could see that.

[Courtney]

That's right.

[Julie Solomon]

Yeah.

[Courtney]

This, like, I love this, right? I love, like, connecting with you here. We're recording this podcast one on one. But now go put me in a room. I'm going to go speak at the Mom 2.0 summit in just a couple of weeks. There's going to be 700 women there, right? And I'm speaking there, moderating panels, and I'm going to be like. Like, that's just. I go into this, like, overdrive. But what I've learned how to do, and I like to share these tips, like, in our community as well, is, okay, who's going to be there? Who do I want to be sure that I meet and like, look up people ahead of time, send them a DM on Instagram, connect ahead of time, find a place to meet and like meet one on one or meet in small groups so you don't feel like you're walking in somewhere and feeling like there's, you know, hundreds of people there. You already have these connections first. And that's the same thing inside a community virtually too. You know, look for people that you want to meet and connect with. Share who you're looking to connect with. In the introduce yourself post. Like, I'm looking to connect with strategic agency partners and I would love to. Here's my calendly link. Like be really direct and specific and then you'll attract the right people to you. And even if you're introverted like me, again, no one believes it, but I'm telling you, I'm very introverted. You can connect and build these awesome relationships.

[Julie Solomon]

And, and that's the thing. Like, I like, because you're such a people person and truly, I mean you love people, you care so much, which is one of the just such a great quality about you, Stephanie. But you're also someone that you like to be home, you like to be with your daughter, you like to have, you know, you like to kind of have that incubation time. And, and because as entrepreneurs we have to be on so much, I actually find a lot of entrepreneurs are actually a little bit more introverted than what, like we would assume. Yeah, I, I feel that way as well. So I love that you, that you talked about that because I think that that's very, very common. If you wouldn't mind sharing, I would love to know, just kind of like roughly how many members do you have? Where are they located around the world? And I know that you mentioned some industries earlier, but like what industries are they in? Is it online corporate age? Like share all the things with us?

[Courtney]

Yes. Okay. So we now have over 2, 500 founders and members in our entrepreneurly community. It is pretty split. So we have about 50% of our members are service based businesses and 50% of our members have products, stores, nonprofits, tech companies, construction companies in real estate. It's like it is such a wide range and really, Julie, the greatest thing that I see in there because it is such a diverse, diverse set of, you know, industries, ages and stages of business that everyone's able to connect and collaborate. It has been the most beautiful thing to see. I'll share this story with you. So one of our members, I don't know if you know Gwen, Gwen Whiting, she was one of the original founders of the Laundress. You know the brand? The Laundress. Yes.

[Julie Solomon]

Yeah, yeah, I used it before.

[Courtney]

Yes. So Gwen, you know, started her first business, laundress, 20 plus years ago. Now she bootstrapped that business, she built that business to, to millions and millions of dollars in revenue, sold to Unilever for a reported $100 million. She then had a crazy exit story which actually she just talked about on. She finally was able to come out and share everything that happened on a recent episode of our entrepreneur podcast. You can listen to. You have to listen to this podcast. But she then decided, you know, she was done at Unilever after the acquisition and she's like, I need to start another business and I need to start another cleaning business because of everything that happened. You'll listen to it in that episode. So she started a new company called the Film. Well, Gwen hadn't started a company in 20 plus years. And guess what's happened over the past 20 years? Everything has changed.

[Julie Solomon]

The Internet, online, social media.

[Courtney]

Yes, everything. And that was not Gwen's background or expertise. So Gwen calls me, she's like, I want to start this business. Like, what do I do? I'm like, I'm going to introduce you to some of our members. And meet Janine. She runs a business helping with web development and email. You need to meet Amy. She can help with your PR story and your personal branding. And I made all of these connections and interest for her inside the community because she's in there. And here's Gwen, who sold her business to Unilever, who's hosting office hours in our community, but now was starting a brand new business and is also in there now connecting and building relationships and working with and hiring members to help launch her next business. So that has just been the most beautiful thing to see in the community. It's stories like these every single day where everyone's able to help each other in different ways. Because even if it's like we were talking about this before about sponsorships, you're like, oh, do you know Sarah? Let me, let me connect you to Sarah because she can help with this. It's like we all know people outside of our businesses and like in our lives and with, you know, friends that we have and we can all help make these introductions and connections based on where we all are in our business. So the support in there is just like, again, this is why, like, just this is me every day talking about this community and Just running this business because it's just magical what can happen when everyone is there to connect and help each other.

[Julie Solomon]

It's so good. And for those of you, if you're interested in learning more about it, I have a special link for you in our show notes that you can click that's going to give you more information about how to join again. I'm a member. I have so many friends that are a member. It truly is an incredible community and I know that so many of you would find so much value in what is there. Just from the relationships, the curriculum, you know, the trainings. I mean, it's really high value, high vibe stuff. So. So I, I'm excited to share that with you. I also want to talk about what's to come with Entrepreneista. I know you've got some things coming next year and things like that, but what, what else is kind of down the pipeline for your members and for your communities for the rest of 2025 and on into 2026?

[Courtney]

Yeah. So based on all of our members feedback, we're continuing to build out more Power Group programs. So these are specific programs where members can learn specific areas of business that they might need help in. So we're going to have, or we already do have, our agency owner, Power Group, a community builder, Power Group we're going to have focus on marketing, business development. So you can learn very specific things that you're looking for in your business that are led by industry experts. We also are announcing our next Founders Weekend wealth and Wellness retreat, which is going to be. Well, I think this episode will air by the time we've announced it. So it is going to be in April and May of 2020, 2026. So yes. And it's gonna be for members only. So you have to be in our Entrepreneur League community to be able to come. And then every year we do our Entrepreneista 100 awards. So the applications will be live next year for the Entrepreneista 100 Awards. And actually by the time this episode airs, the winners of this past year will probably be about to be announced. Yeah.

[Julie Solomon]

Which is so exciting.

[Courtney]

Lots of stuff going on.

[Julie Solomon]

And share a little bit more about the award because I. I have the privilege of being a judge in this year's 2025. So share more. I mean, I know I've posted about it and shared about it, so some of my community members may have seen that, may have even applied, but I would love to hear more about that too.

[Courtney]

Yes. So we created the Entrepreneurista 100 awards program. Because again, this was born out of the challenges that Courtney and I had and what we saw as we were building our first business. So Courtney and I got the advice early on when building Social Fly to start applying for industry awards and for business awards as it could help us with and getting clients. So we were always the people that sought out advice and took that advice. So we of course applied to and started winning many business awards. So we were featured on the Inc 5000 list twice. We won, you know, the Shorty Awards for our work and a bunch of other industry awards as well. And we saw the impact that that was making and helping us grow our agency, Social Fly. But what we also saw was most of the awards programs that were out there were not specifically for women founded businesses and they were only for businesses that were doing a certain amount in revenue. So like for the Inc Awards, we had to wait until we were doing $2 million in revenue for a certain number of years in a row to even apply. And we were like, wait a second. As we were building the entrepreneur community, founders need the opportunity to apply for awards even if they've started their business last year and are doing $150,000 in revenue. Because it is that level of recognition and that like stamp that says like you're an award winning business that can actually help women founders get to that next level in business and have that on their pitch decks or on their website or help to win more grants or get funding and have that approval that you're an winning business. So we said we need to create this program because that's what we do. We find the problem and we solve it. And three years ago, we launched the Entrepreneur 100 Awards program. So now for this will be the third year now that we are honoring our next class of 100 winners. And everyone is incredible. I will say that every single founder who applies and who has taken the time to apply, like everyone is absolutely incredible. So it is like the hardest thing ever. But what I've shared with so many founders is even just going through the application process is a win, right? Because you've put yourself out there, you've said, why not me? Because everyone has the opportunity to apply and win. And filling out that award application can be used now to apply for grants and other opportunities. And it's giving you that chance to write everything out, share how amazing you are and your business is. And we're all going to apply for things and sometimes we're going to win and sometimes we're not. But we're going to keep going and we're going to apply the next year and we're going to find other programs to apply to, too, and keep getting our businesses out there, because as women and as founders, like, that's what we have to do. We just have. Have to keep going and be resilient and find the right resources and connect with all the right people.

[Julie Solomon]

Oh, it's so good. Oh, I could do this all day. I just adore you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom, your insights, giving us the scoop on how you've built such an incredible community. I cannot stress enough, like, how rare that is. And so, I mean, just what Stephanie and Courtney do is, is truly a magical thing. And it's, again, an honor to know them, to be able to partner alongside them, to support them. And so I know that those that are listening today will also feel that the second that you come into their world. And so, again, if you want to learn more about the Incredible League, you can click that link in the show Notes. And then also, if people want to find you, listen to your podcast, dive into all the good content that you create online, where they. Where can they do that?

[Courtney]

Oh, gosh. First, thank you, Julie. I feel so honored to even be able to share with you and your community and value you and your friendship so much. For those that are listening and want to connect with me personally, you can personally send me a DM on Instagram. I'm @staffjillcarton. We're also over at Entrepreneistas with an S at the end on Instagram. And then tap the link in the show notes for Julie's special link to join the Entrepreneista League. And Julie, I'm going to give you a 500 option off code that you can share with your. Your community and audience as well. So, yes, tap that link and there'll be a special code in the show notes for you all to get in with that special 500 off your lifetime membership to the community. And yeah, send me a dm. I'm here. I'm happy to connect with anyone and everyone.

[Julie Solomon]

Ah, beautiful. Well, again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for that code. That's incredible. And for those of you who love today's conversation, we want to hear about it. So make sure to send. Send us a dm. You can screenshot today's episode, let us know what your biggest takeaway was. Just slide into our DMs let us know because we want to hear about the feedback. So with that, thank you again for being here. I so appreciate it. As always, thank you so much for joining me today and every week here on the Influencer Podcast. If you're wanting to dive deeper into the topics and discussions that that we have here, I would encourage you to head over to juliesolomon.net and sign up for my weekly newsletter. It is in our amazing newsletter community that we are able to really support you on a much larger scale. And I love to do a ton of amazing things that I send inside your inbox every single week. So just head over to juliesolomon.net you'll see a little spot there that you can add your information in and you.

[Stephanie]

Will get on the list and start.

[Julie Solomon]

Receiving all of that good stuff.