600: She Couldn’t Find Her Tribe So She Built One From Scratch. Here’s How With Toni Herrbach

Summary

Episode 600: She Couldn’t Find Her Tribe So She Built One From Scratch. Here’s How With Toni Herrbach

Release Date: July 28, 2025

In Episode 600 of The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast, host Steve Chou engages in an insightful conversation with Toni Herrbach about her latest venture: building a dedicated community for female entrepreneurs. This episode delves deep into Toni’s motivations, strategies, and the challenges she faces in creating a supportive mastermind group tailored specifically for women in the e-commerce space.

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1. Introduction to the Secret Project [00:00 - 02:03]

Steve Chou kicks off the episode by teasing a "secret project" that Toni has been diligently working on. He hints at unveiling the details of this initiative, building anticipation among listeners eager to learn about Toni’s latest endeavor.

Steve Chou (00:00): "In this episode, I share a secret project that Tony's been working on that you might all be interested in."

2. Unveiling the Women-Only Mastermind [02:03 - 05:09]

Toni reveals that the project is a mastermind community designed exclusively for female entrepreneurs. She emphasizes the need for a space where women can receive support, accountability, and foster meaningful connections without the male-dominated dynamics often prevalent in entrepreneurial settings.

Toni Herrbach (02:51): "We felt like there was a need for a female only based group for support, accountability, things like that."

Tony Herrbach (03:49): "There are a lot of spaces you go in as a female where you're not felt quite as welcomed."

3. The Gender Dynamics in Entrepreneurial Communities [05:09 - 14:25]

The conversation shifts to the challenges women face in existing communities. Toni highlights issues like imposter syndrome, additional societal pressures related to appearance and household responsibilities, and the struggle to balance business with personal life. She contrasts these with the often more streamlined responsibilities of their male counterparts.

Tony Herrbach (04:21): "For a lot of times as women, we're trying to do all the business stuff as well as manage the house, handle all these extra responsibilities..."

4. Utilizing AI to Shape the Community Strategy [14:25 - 18:58]

Toni and Liz Saunders collaborated with AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude to organize their ideas and develop a robust business strategy for the mastermind group. They sought AI assistance to define their brand, target audience, content pillars, and marketing strategies, resulting in a structured plan that included video content, newsletters, and webinars.

Tony Herrbach (14:33): "We dumped all of our ideas into Chat GPT and see what it says... It was so fantastic as far as like taking our ideas and putting them into like an actual business strategy."

5. Developing the Content and Marketing Plan [19:00 - 27:52]

The duo used AI to create a 30-day video content calendar and brainstorm effective lead magnets. They decided on a "Type A Quiz" as their primary lead magnet, designed to engage their target audience and integrate seamlessly with their email marketing system. This approach allowed them to categorize and target their audience more effectively.

Tony Herrbach (32:00): "Why you feel stuck even though your to-do list is full... That's why I built type a circle, a $9 a month community with weekly office hours for women like you."

6. Choosing the Right Platform for Community Building [28:00 - 31:18]

Toni discusses the selection process for the community platform, ultimately choosing Circle over alternatives like Slack and Discord. The decision was based on ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and better alignment with their technical expertise and community management needs.

Tony Herrbach (20:12): "Circle reminds me of like Teachable... you really don't have to know anything."

7. Addressing Community Management Challenges [31:18 - 30:57]

The conversation acknowledges the potential pitfalls of community management, such as spam and maintaining engagement. Toni shares her experiences with their beta mastermind group, emphasizing the importance of vetting members and establishing clear community guidelines to foster a positive and productive environment.

Tony Herrbach (29:45): "People have to agree to the community guidelines or we will remove you from the community."

8. Leveraging AI for Content Creation and Efficiency [32:00 - 38:37]

Toni elaborates on how AI has been instrumental in streamlining content creation, providing ready-to-use scripts for platforms like TikTok, and assisting in developing marketing materials. This automation allows her and Liz to focus more on strategic aspects rather than getting bogged down by the technicalities of content production.

Tony Herrbach (32:00): "I'm going to read you a script that ChatGPT came up with because I was like, okay, if we want to..."

9. Launch Plans and Future Goals [38:37 - 42:21]

Looking ahead, Toni shares the timeline for the community’s launch, including plans to film video content in a studio setting and further refine their offerings based on feedback from their beta group. Their goal is to create a sustainable and impactful community that not only supports its members but also generates revenue to sustain the initiative.

Tony Herrbach (39:32): "We're actually renting a studio in Austin and filming at the end of July."

10. Final Thoughts and Community Vision [42:21 - End]

The episode concludes with reflections on the importance of building a trust-based and engaged community. Toni and Liz envision a space where members can not only seek advice and accountability but also form lasting professional and personal relationships that drive collective success.

Tony Herrbach (27:26): "The community itself is the value. Finding the right people in the community to be able to help each other."

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Notable Quotes

• Steve Chou (03:07): "What is it about like men that will screw up such a community?"

• Toni Herrbach (14:35): "The lifestyle and the business come together... it is very important to have that balance."

• Toni Herrbach (32:56): "Why you feel stuck even though your to-do list is full. If you're a type A woman with 40 things on your to-do list and still feel stuck, here's why."

• Steve Chou (22:08): "I think this is the way to go in the future... People are going to be craving human connection."

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Conclusion

Episode 600 offers a comprehensive look into Toni Herrbach's initiative to create a women-only mastermind community aimed at empowering female entrepreneurs. Through strategic use of AI, careful platform selection, and a clear understanding of the unique challenges women face in business, Toni and her team are setting the foundation for a thriving and supportive community. Listeners gain valuable insights into the process of building a niche community from scratch, highlighting the importance of tailored support systems in the entrepreneurial journey.

If you're a female entrepreneur seeking a supportive tribe to help you achieve your business goals while maintaining a fulfilling personal life, Toni Herrbach's Type A Mastermind might just be the community you've been searching for.

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Additional Resources:

• Type A Mastermind: typeamastermind.com (Note: The quiz is available but not fully set up yet.)
• Seller Summit 2026: sellersummit.com
• Free 6-Day Mini Course: mywifequitherjob.com

Transcript

[Steve Chou]

You're listening to the My Wife Quitter Job podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to e commerce and online business. Now, in this episode, I share a secret project that Tony's been working on that you might all be interested in. And this episode will outline all the details. But before we begin, I want to let you know that tickets for Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale [e-mail] and if you sell physical products online, this is the event that you should all be at. Unlike most e commerce conferences that are filled with high level fluff and inspirational stories, Seller Summit is all about tactical, step by step strategies you can actually use in your business right away. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches. People who are running their own e commerce stores, managing inventory, dealing with suppliers and scaling real businesses. No corporate execs, no consultants, just real sellers. Also, I hate big events, so I intentionally keep it small and intimate. We cap attendance at around 200 people so you can actually have real conversations and connect with everyone in the room. We sold out every single year for the past nine years and I expect this year to be no different. It's happening April 21st to 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And if you're doing over 250k or $1 million in revenue, we also offer a private mastermind for higher level sellers. Right now, tickets are the cheapest they're ever going to be. So if you want to go, go. Go to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket. Once again, that's sellersummit.com welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job podcast. Today we're going to be talking about a project that Tony has been working on that is set to launch later this year.

[Tony]

Yeah, I'm very excited about it. So you don't actually don't know a whole lot about it?

[Steve Chou]

I don't. That's why we're having this episode. I can ask good questions because I don't know that much.

[Tony]

I've been keeping everybody in the dark. No, it's not really keeping everybody in the dark. We've been spending the last several months just trying to hone in our message and who our message is for.

[Steve Chou]

So I think you want to tell the audience what it is first.

[Tony]

Yes, yes, I will. So, as some of you guys know, Liz Saunders, a good friend of ours, founder of Fluencer Fruit. Her and I have been friends for a long, long time and, and we've attended a lot of events together. Uh, in fact, she helped Us run Seller Summit for the first, I don't know, five or six years. No, five or six? Yeah, yeah. Cause remember, once she started with Jungle Scout, we made her stay on at Seller Summit. We said, you can only, you can only work at Jungle Scout. We made Greg say that she could still work at Seller Summit. So anyway, her and I've done a lot of events over the years and really felt like there was a need for a female only based group for support, accountability, things like that. So that's what we're working on basically in a, in a very, very small.

[Steve Chou]

Nutshell, essentially a mastermind for women.

[Tony]

Right, Mastermind for women. But bigger than a mastermind, it's really more of a community with masterminds as a component of it.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, yeah. So ask a philosophical question that might get me into trouble.

[Tony]

Yes, of course.

[Steve Chou]

What is it about like men that will screw up such a community? Just curious.

[Tony]

Oh, that's, that's tough. It might get me into trouble. What are you talking about? Listen, we love men.

[Liz Saunders]

We.

[Tony]

There's nothing, there's nothing wrong with them. We're not, not men haters over here. We just felt like, especially in the entrepreneur space, the e commerce space, there are a lot of spaces that you go in as a female where you're not, you're, you don't feel quite as welcomed. And you know, Seller Summit is an exception to that. We've worked really hard over the past 10 years to make it an event where everybody feels welcome and we make sure our demographics are reflective of that.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

We, we're probably even a little more 50, 50 women putting women on the stage. A lot of times though, when you go to these events and you're in these communities, it's very male dominated and so. And there are unfortunately still men out there who think they know more than us. So we just wanted to create a space where women felt like they could share ideas, be held accountable, set goals and you know, usually. And this is where I'm gonna get in trouble. So I think, you know, you have a distinct advantage.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

In your business because you have Jen and you know, when you have to go to a conference, Jen books your flight. Sometimes Jen books.

[Steve Chou]

I'm sure that doesn't work like that in all households.

[Tony]

So most of the men that I have talked to are, have a very similar setup.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

And not that you are not, and I will say, like to give you a lot of credit, you are very involved with your kids. You're picking them up from school when they were younger. You were Taking them to tutoring. You know, you're not someone who just is like, Jen handles everything and you sit in your office all day. You're very, very involved parent and family member. But for a lot of times as women, we're trying to do all the business stuff as well as manage the house, handle all these extra responsibilities, and it just looks very different. Sometimes, not all the time, but I would say as a general rule.

[Steve Chou]

Interesting.

[Tony]

I don't anyone booking my flights. I don't have anyone booking my flights for my hotel.

[Steve Chou]

You met some of my friends here in the Bay Area. It's actually flipped here in at least my Asian community, it's flipped for the most part. Flip towel meaning like one of my buddies controls everything. And like if, if, if the wife like so much as spends a penny on the wrong credit card, like he gets an alert on his phone, he's like, what? And he books everything, all the vacations, everything. Yeah.

[Tony]

I mean, it's not to say that that's not, you know, not always the case, but for the most part and most of the people that I meet and I've interacted with, that is definitely the case.

[Steve Chou]

I see. Okay. Anyway, let's get into the guts since we got that. Quite. That was my main curiosity there.

[Tony]

Yes. We don't hate men.

[Steve Chou]

Because I would never start a mastermind for myself or community and just say, hey, this is only dudes. Sorry. Yeah, that's all.

[Tony]

But you're in a mastermind, that's only dudes.

[Steve Chou]

That's not true, actually. That's not true.

[Tony]

Yes, you are. You're a fincon mastermind.

[Steve Chou]

No. Well, okay, that one.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. But I have two others where I'm not. But.

[Tony]

Correct. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that either. I think that's fine. I mean, I think you have to be in a, in a mastermind or an accountability group with the people you click with. And so whether that's all one gender or another or another type of demographic, I think you just have to be with people that you feel safe to share, like really personal parts of your life and business, because you're not going to make any progress in an accountability group if you can't be honest.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, so what are you guys doing to do to, to launch this? Or what's different about it? What's the approach that you're taking?

[Tony]

Yeah, so this is what I'm, this is why I get excited about it, because I feel like in the process of doing this, we're also learning and experimenting with things that I can share on the podcast that we'll share in the course. And I think the, the biggest thing that I'm excited about when it comes to like building this is that Liz and I basically came up with this last year and. But didn't know what to do with it, right? Like, we kind of, we thought, actually at the very beginning of the year we thought of it. We were together in Vegas and we've kind of just bounced ideas back and forth, you know, for six months with each other. And a couple weeks ago when we were together at your house, we had like all Friday afternoon and we were like, hey, we need to like nail down what we're doing, right? We need to figure out how we're going to market it. We need to figure out how we're going to reach people. And we already have a very small mastermind that we're working with that we basically built for ourselves, right? Because we're like, if we're going to do this, we need accountability too. So we put together a very small mastermind that's basically our beta testers. And as we were chatting, I said, you know what, we should just dump all of our ideas into Chat GPT and see what it says. And this is where I think, you know, AI sometimes gets a bad reputation. Especially like, I see it a lot in the education, right, Because I still have a kid in school where kids are using AI to write papers and do all this stuff. But one thing I think it's really good at is taking a lot of information and organizing it for you. And so, you know, one of the things that we both did the next day is dumped all of our ideas. She used Claude, I use Chat GPT. I don't think it matters. Whatever you prefer. And basically we're like, hey, this is who we are. This is what we want to do. These are some of our ideas, like help, basically. And I was, I don't want to say shocked by how great ChatGPT was at organizing the information, but like I spent in six hour flight texting Liz the entire flight stuff that I was getting back from ChatGPT because I thought it was so fantastic as far as like taking our ideas and putting them into like an actual business strategy, which I don't know if people are actually doing that on ChatGPT. I don't know. So here's, here's, here was my initial prompt. It said, I'm starting a new business. It's called Type A. And the purpose is to help female founders Reach their goals and live a happier, more fulfilling life. We created a lead magnet to help them achieve their goals, but want to make video content long form and short form to build an audience. We are struggling to figure out what we should making what we should be making the videos about. Can you help? I will upload the workbook to make it easier on you. And then I uploaded our.

[Steve Chou]

Our what's a workbook?

[Tony]

So we have a 90 day goal setting workbook that we've created as a lead magnet. So, you know, we. I uploaded that.

[Steve Chou]

You lost me at 90 days. Good Lord.

[Tony]

What do you mean I lost you at 90 days?

[Steve Chou]

Every day has a goal for 90 days.

[Tony]

It's basically how to achieve a goal in 90 days.

[Steve Chou]

Oh, okay. Got it, got it.

[Tony]

Yes.

[Steve Chou]

I thought you'd have to have 90 goals.

[Tony]

Yes, 90 goals. Listen, this is why it's only females, because we know guys will trail off at day 22.

[Steve Chou]

I wouldn't even make it to day 22.

[Tony]

So. And this is what I love about chat, right? Is that it immediately goes your brand, gives you the brand, right? And then it says your audience. Ambitious female founders. That's exactly who our audience is.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So it nails it. The goal says exactly what I told them. And then the tone was empowering, strategic, and authentic. And I was like, yeah, that's definitely the tone we want. So from the get go, it was like, this is. This is how you should get started. And then it gave me five pillars, which I was the most excited about.

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

Cause I was like, we knew we wanted to create video content. We know we want to create, you know, TikToks and YouTube and. But we were like, okay, it's pretty like broad. Just like our demographic is female founders. That's a pretty big demographic, right? So how do you create that content in a way that is engaging and also like reaches the right people? So it basically gave us five pillars, I think. Five. Yeah. So mindset and personal growth pillar one makes total sense, right? Goal setting and productivity aligns with our lead magnet business strategy.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Specifically for female founders. Fulfillment, like life, which I think is really important. And then the fifth pillar, which I thought was a cool idea, was basically our own personal stories and behind the scenes. So basically how we're built, like, I think it's cool. To which we hadn't thought of this, is to show how we're building this to the audience as we're building it.

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

So sort of that, you know, kind of Scott Volker, watch me work sort.

[Steve Chou]

Of thing, look over my Shoulder type of thing.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

I got a question for you. Okay. I just want an example. So what is a strategy that is specific for a female entrepreneur as opposed to a male entrepreneur? I just want one example. I'm just curious.

[Tony]

Okay, hold on. Let me. Let me.

[Steve Chou]

How to deal with your husband when he's.

[Tony]

Okay. You're so. You're so difficult.

[Steve Chou]

Well, no, I'm just curious. Yeah.

[Tony]

Yeah. Okay. So let me. Hold on.

[Steve Chou]

Oh, you gotta bring out. She's bringing out the workbook.

[Tony]

I'm bringing out the workbook. Okay. So I think one. Okay. There's. There's so much I'm trying to like.

[Steve Chou]

Just one.

[Tony]

Just one. Yeah. So basically, one of the things I think females struggle with a lot is that they don't belong in the room, right? So I think. And I think everybody struggles with, like, imposter syndrome, right? But I think. I think females, because there's also this. It's not just your work, right? It's how you look, what you weigh, how you dress like. Men don't seem to deal with those issues, or at least not in the same way, Right. So I think addressing. And that's where I think the lifestyle and the business come together, right? Because it's like, I do think you need. It's very important to have that balance in your lifestyle, to not be at your computer 72 hours a week. So. So I think that's one thing that is a little bit different between males and females. You and I joke all the time. You hop on a podcast in your V neck T shirt every single week. I do that. I look like a slob, right? You do it. And it's like, well, that's just Steve. So there's just. So, you know, another thing is, like, I think in general, females feel like they are responsible for everything, right? You're responsible for everything in your business. If you have kids, you're responsible for your kids. How they do in school. Like, I think there's a lot of weight put on females and that. I mean, all the studies show that, like, even when in a. In a relationship, if a male and female both work, the. The primary household responsibilities fall on the female, right? So the division of labor is like 80, 20, even if the work is 50, 50 outside the home. So I think there's a lot of things like that where it's like, okay, how do you actually find. And I don't want. I don't like the work life balance thing, but how do you find kind of the harmony in your life where you can Because I do think you can be very successful and still have a family or have a very fulfilling life, you know, with your dogs, your pets, whatever. But I think as a female, it is just tougher.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Tony]

And the pressure is different.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, so, so Chat GPT helped you come up with this plan and the pillars?

[Tony]

Yes.

[Steve Chou]

And, and this is all for the positioning?

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Is this, did you ask ChatGPT how to help you with just running it and what is going to be all about?

[Tony]

Yes, so, so that, so once we kind of got the, like, we were so excited because we're like, oh, this is great. This is, this is exactly what we had been talking about. But we hadn't organized it well, so we were like, okay, nailed it. Like, we, we, you know, we went through iterations obviously, and, and got stuff. And then, you know, we were like, okay, you know, let's, let's talk about some strategies as far as like video content, you know, how much should we be creating? What's the cadence? What, you know, so it basically helped us come up with, you know, one long form, which is pretty standard, right? Three to five short form, a new weekly newsletter and then a monthly webinar.

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

Which is a pretty standard, like, I don't think chatgpt like knocked that out of the park. I think it was just like, okay, but hey, here's some more stuff to like add to the this, the arsenal, right? So then I said, can you give me a 30 day video content calendar?

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

Like, so then it worked on a content calendar. So as opposed to like me sitting there and trying to fill everything in, it's already got all my information, it's already got all my ideas. So then moving to that. But then I was like, okay, this is all great, but how do we make money from this?

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

Because like as much as Liz and I want to build this community and feel very passionate about it, we, we don't have, we're not independently wealthy to where we can just do this out of the goodness of our heart, right? And this is where I think, honestly, I feel like for our profitable audience, this would be such a valuable thing for people in the course to do. Because what I think we see a lot is that people have an idea for like a webinar or a course or a mini, you know, something like that. But it's like, okay, well what does that actually look like? How do you actually make money? What's the projections on that?

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

So I was like, hey, what if we created a paid community? So I put this into Chat I was like, paid community for females we hold once a week, like, you know, accountability, basically in a place where people can interact with each other. And I was like, what's a price point here? You know, because I'm like, do you want to. You don't want to price it too low because it doesn't seem valuable. You don't want to price it too high because then people won't pay for it, especially if you're not proven. So. So then it went through and gave me basically different price points and how you would position it at the different price points. So the $9 price point, the $27 price point, and I think the $47 price point.

[Steve Chou]

Well, that's really inexpensive, actually.

[Tony]

Well, yes, obviously. And here's the other thing. It's like when you're starting out, like, you start at inexpensive and then you raise the price. So I also went to chat and I said, hey, if I start it at, you know, nine bucks, but I don't want to keep it at nine bucks, how do I position that?

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

Which I also thought was interesting. And so first of all, you know, chat came up with, why is it worth $9? Right? Which of course, like, it's obviously worth $9, but it's like, because for less than a fancy coffee and a croissant, you'll get real time answers to your biggest questions, learn goal driven strategies, be surrounded by women just like you. So it gives you all these like, sales tactics, right, to do that. And then I was like, okay, you know, like so. And then it gives you like, really funny taglines, like less than a $10 bottle of wine, a hundred times more productive, right? So it kind of just continues to give you all those little marketing tips, which I was like, great. And so I went back and forth and was like, but I don't want to do this because it's saying like, oh, you're gonna do this in the community. I'm like, well, no, we're not. So, you know, you tweak all that stuff. And then it was like, hey, do you want us to write your sales page in your welcome email sequence? And I was like, well, yes, I do. And it's like, well, then it's like, where are you going to have your sales page live? Because we'll write it in code, right? We'll, we'll like mock it up. So what? That's another thing that I think people are like, probably not fully taking advantage of. It's like you basically like, I'm going back and forth with this is like two to three hours of me just going back and forth with ChatGPT and, and I was like okay, I think we've kind of nailed the sales page. Copy. I think we've nailed what we're offering. We've nailed some of the sales, you know, copy. Yeah. Can you put this so I can put it in a ConvertKit email or kit? Email.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So then it, you know, and it's. I think it gave me the options of ConvertKit, Squarespace, Kajabi or Notion Landing Page. So then, you know, now I've got.

[Steve Chou]

Which platform are you guys using? Just curious.

[Tony]

We're going to use Circle.

[Steve Chou]

Circle, okay.

[Tony]

For the community.

[Steve Chou]

How did you choose Circle and what did you. What were you considering?

[Tony]

So we were considering Slack, Discord and Circle.

[Steve Chou]

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store. I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in E commerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text based tutorials that. That go over the entire process of finding products to sell all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be [e-mail] free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I'll send you the course right away. Once again, that's mywifequitterjob.com free. Now back to the show. So I actually, I have questions in this. Okay, so you probably forgot about Slack because Slack is ridiculously expensive, right?

[Tony]

Well that's what happened when, when we looked into it because I think you have to pay per user.

[Steve Chou]

Per user?

[Tony]

Yes. So that immediately went out the window because of that factor. I know you are interested in Discord.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, I, I'm actually ready to pull the trigger on it actually. But go on. Yeah. Why didn't you like Discord?

[Tony]

Liz hates it and, and tried to set up. Well, I don't want to say tried. She set up the fluencer for you for Fruit Community in there and after about a month was so frustrated that she actually just moved to Circle like a couple weeks ago.

[Steve Chou]

I should talk to her what she was frustrated with.

[Tony]

Unless you know, I don't know specifically. I think if you are not techie, let's just say Circle is definitely a better option. I think Discord, you can do a lot more in Discord but I think you have to have some technical ability to be able to make it happen. Whereas in circle, you really. It reminds me of like teachable.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Where you don't really have to know anything. You just type what you want and it makes it look nice. And circle, I think for the. The base level is like $85 a month. So. I know. Once again, I know you don't love the monthly cost of things.

[Steve Chou]

Well, no, I mean, if it's good and if it's.

[Tony]

Yeah. To me, if it's a monthly paid community, then $9 a month. If we're just. We're just use the $9 one. That's easy. You only need 10 members to pay for the.

[Steve Chou]

That. But I think it would just be ridiculously nuts.

[Tony]

Yeah. So which. And that's one of the reasons why we did the 1 million in revenue. Because, like, we know if we want to actually have a good community, it does take a lot of work.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

It does take a lot of time. And so it obviously has to replace other revenue that we have. And so that's the other thing that you have to think about. Depending on what you want to do, there's definitely businesses you can start that don't take, you know, that you can do in 20 hours a week. But I think a community that we're thinking towards is definitely a much bigger undertaking.

[Steve Chou]

I think my rationale was, you know how email, the deliverability and all that stuff, it just continues to get worse.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

As the ISP is get more strict and more spam is happening and the. And we're even seeing that with SMS now with like different inboxes and whatnot. Whereas if you build like a discord of people.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Then you can always get a hold of them.

[Tony]

Yep.

[Steve Chou]

Right. As long as they're kind of invested and they have the app on their phone, they get notifications.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

So that's better than an email list.

[Tony]

Yeah. Especially. And I think the loyalty.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

That comes with especially a paid community is really high.

[Steve Chou]

Well, I'm not even saying paid.

[Tony]

Well, yeah, even I think paid is. But yeah, even unpaid, I think that like face in Facebook groups are hard.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Because.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. Because messages get lost. People don't see them.

[Tony]

Yeah. And if you. So, like, because I remember you and I like five years ago, we're like, we can't take people off Facebook because we talked about this a long time ago, like, should we put the community somewhere else? And we're like, nobody's getting off Facebook. Everyone wants to be on Facebook. And nowadays, like, I'll get a notification on Facebook about Something that I'm actually interested in. And then when I click over to Facebook, I can't find it, Right. Because I've got a hundred notifications and I can't find what I was, like, actually interested in.

[Steve Chou]

It's only old fogies like us are on Facebook.

[Tony]

It's only old people.

[Steve Chou]

The younger generation wants nothing to do with it.

[Tony]

Well, and if you also think about communities, and, you know, I don't want to mention any communities, I don't want to call anybody out, but we are familiar with a community that has a lot of members, and we. What I found is once you are invested in that community from the people that we've talked to, they're willing to pay for more.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

They will go to events, they will pay for different coaching for resources.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So, like, because it's a proven. I mean, you and I have watched a million webinars from people that we know and don't know, and there's always that hesitation of, like, oh, should I have spent this money? Or should I invest in this person that I've only known from the webinar or their email list or their YouTube videos? Whereas if you're already in a community, paid or unpaid, you, you already have the experience, you already have the trust. You, you must like them.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Because you're in the community. So taking that next step financially makes a little more sense because you already, you know what you're getting, or at least you have an idea of what you're getting versus just a random person on YouTube that you're watching and then you go to their webinar.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. So I, I would imagine your goal, since you're following the chief model, is to grow this to as many qualified people as possible.

[Tony]

Qualified is the key. Yes.

[Steve Chou]

So, okay. Qualified is the key. Yeah. So you would never do a general thing. I'm just asking these questions for selfish reasons.

[Tony]

Yes. You know, it's. Okay, here's the thing. It's hard because I think you and I had this conversation a couple weeks ago. Like, community is my thing. I love it. I love community. So, like, none of this has felt like work. I've done almost all of it on the weekends at night. Same with Liz. Like, this is her Saturday night. She's coding apps for this in her free time.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So I think for both of us, since we are just so passionate about community, this feels fun. It doesn't feel like work. Obviously, at some point it's gonna feel like work, for sure. But, yeah, I think, Yeah, I mean, I, I, I I could see this being thousands of people. Like, for us, if we could grow it to a hundred people in a year, we. That would be a success.

[Steve Chou]

A hundred people making over. What was your six figures? Was it.

[Tony]

We don't have a revenue requirement. It's just the entrepreneurial. You have to have some entrepreneurial experience. And you also, like, one of the things that's important for us too is that, like, so, for example, Liz built a company, sold it, is now working for the company that bought her company. But her, you know, eventually wants to go back to building something else, which is what we're doing right now.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So it's like, you don't have to be in this moment, like doing this, but it has to be in your, you know, resume. Basically, you've built a company, you've sold it, you're. You're doing it this. It could even be your side hustle at this point because you're trying to transition. So it's not. I don't want people to think that it's. You have to, like, own your own business and you've never done anything else. For sure.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, yeah. It's like opening Pandora's box. If I do this, I know I can get a ton of members. Yes, that's not the problem. Yes, that is not the problem. The problem is moderating.

[Tony]

Yes.

[Steve Chou]

All of these responses. And I guess I already have someone who can do all that because I have someone who's managing, you know, my emails and customer service already.

[Tony]

Yeah. Here's the other key, I think is that the community, in my mind, and I think Liz would agree with this, is. Is never going to be about Liz and Tony. The community is about the people inside the community. Like, we don't have. We don't have any special skills that other people in the community don't have, other than being super passionate about this.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Like, our special skill is that we've always cared really deeply about female entrepreneurs. And it's always been, I mean, I did what I had my other conference digi. All have done coaching. Like, my whole life I've spent trying to help other female entrepreneurs. So this just feels like the next logical step. But the community itself is the value.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Finding the right people in the community to be able to help each other. And it's funny. So we started this, like, beta mastermind.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Tony]

With people that we knew fairly well because we felt like we, if, if we're gonna, like, have these people walk through this with us, obviously we want them to get a ton out of the Mastermind. But we also want to feel like they're going to give us really great feedback on what we're doing. And just from this, there's six of us.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So small group of people, like the texts that we're getting, like, you know, one of the team, one of the people in the Mastermind sends out a text every Tuesday and is like, happy Tuesday. And then like, this is what I'm reading. This is a quote that I really liked. This is what I'm working on. You know, what are you. You know, just like that level of like, hey, someone else is out here hustling, just like us. It's been really motivating.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Because Tuesday morning you're like, all of a sudden you get this great text at, you know, 8:30 in the morning and you're like, oh, I'm kind of motivated to, like, work a little harder today.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Or, you know, do, you know, go to the gym or whatever it is.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So I feel like that, you know, that's the value.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

People are in the community. They're getting that from other members of the community. And, you know, everyone has. I mean, everyone's experiences are different, but they're also very similar.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. The vetting process, I mean, right now it's. It's nice because you know everyone and you trust everyone. Yeah. Once it gets a little out of hand, like the vetting process, I guess my worry is all it takes is like one or two bad seeds.

[Tony]

Yep.

[Steve Chou]

To corrupt a community. Like what happened with our good friend.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Or things just got out of control because of like, three people.

[Tony]

Yeah. And so. So here's what's funny is I think you just have to be willing to, like. So we had another person in our mastermind when we started, and we realized very quickly she was not a good fit for the mastermind. Great person, you know, nothing wrong with her.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So we were just like, hey, you're out. I mean, really? Yes. Wow.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Tony]

So I think. I think that, like, I mean, and you know me, I don't like confrontation at all.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, you do. Not at all.

[Tony]

Liz is fine with it. So we've got the heavy and Liz. No, but I. I do think. And obviously that's. And actually that's something I'm. My next goal to run through chat GBT this weekend is like some community guidelines.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

And, like, people have to agree to the community guidelines or we will remove you from the community. We'll refund your money. Like, you know, we're not trying to steal from anybody. But, like, just. I agree with you, like, one bad apple can spoil it. And so, you know, and this person wasn't even a bad apple. She just wasn't the right fit for our group. And I was like, you know what? You might be a fit down the road for a different group.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Like, you might be able to be in a different mastermind, but for what we're doing, it just is not working. So, yeah, we'll. We'll remove you.

[Steve Chou]

This Facebook group still exists, but I have a. My wife quit her job Facebook group which had like 15,000 people or something like that.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

But it ended up being like this spam fest where people were just coming on and promoting themselves and to the point where now today, every single thing posted has to be approved. And then it just got out of hand. So I. Yeah, it's dead now.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. But it's, it's a shame because for a while it was okay.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

People asking questions and whatnot.

[Tony]

But yeah, so, yeah, I, I definitely think if you are thinking about doing a community in general, the monitoring of the community is the. Is the hardest part, but also the most important part.

[Steve Chou]

I mean, I honestly think this is the way to go in the future, which is why I'm, you know, spending brain power on this. Right.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

I mean, with AI and, And all this other stuff, people are going to be craving human connection.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And. And just the sheer amount of spam. AI spam.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Means that community is going to be even more important. So.

[Tony]

Yeah, so. So here. So, you know, after going through all of this kind of in. What I. What I really appreciated about AI was that it took all of Liz and I's like, ideas and organized them into something where we're like, okay, now we can work with this right now we have. We've always known what we wanted to do. We just didn't have the steps. And I think sometimes, especially if you are like working on a lot of different things and most people are like, they have multiple things going in their business, like just that focus and is really helpful. I'm going to read you a script that ChatGPT came up with because I was like, okay, if we want, let's just say we're going to. We're at this point, we're operating on the nine community.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Like, that's the. I'm using that as my plan with chat. And I was like, okay, I need three TikTok scripts basically on how I can talk about the community, but not in a way that's like, totally selling the community, right? So this was one of them. Why you feel stuck even though your to do list is full. If you're a type a woman with 40 things, 47 things on your to do list and still feel stuck, here's why. You don't have a clarity problem, you have a focus problem. Most high achieving women make plans like CEOs, but execute like burned out interns. Because without clear priority structure and accountability, your brain stays in chaos mode. What you actually need is one weekly check in, one goal at a time. One group of women who get it. That's why I built type a circle, a $9 a month community with weekly office hours for women like you. One goal, one priority. Big momentum links in the bio if you're ready to stop spinning and start winning.

[Steve Chou]

I like it. Yeah.

[Tony]

So I mean, that's with. No, that's without me tweaking it at all. That was their first shot. But I'm like, okay, it gets what we're doing, right? It like understands, like, because I've spent all this time, right, like putting the avatars in all this stuff. So I was really excited. I was like, oh, this is going to be. This isn't going to be hard to make the video content, right? Because it's taking all of our ideas and just organizing it into little mini, you know, humans anymore, right? I mean, one of the, one of the TikTok scripts, I was like tearing up. I was like, I was like, why is CHAT GBT making me cry?

[Steve Chou]

I don't know if you've noticed this recently, but ChatGPT always says stuff in a positive, optimistic way like, yes, great idea, Steve. Like, yes. Yeah, yeah, I think this is gonna work. But this is something that you could do to make it even better. Yeah, yeah.

[Tony]

So anyway, so at this point when I was getting the TikTok scripts, I was like in full, full productivity mode, right? Because I was just like, this is crushing it. Like we're, this is gonna be so amazing. And then I was doing like long form scripts and then having it, you know, shorten those and give me some TikTok stuff for that. And so then I was like, okay, this is all great, but like, and the 90 day goal setting thing is like a really fantastic workbook, but it's also too big, right? Like that's like exactly like you said, right? You're like 90 days.

[Liz Saunders]

Oh my God.

[Tony]

Like, I can't do that. So I was like, okay, what's our lead magnet then?

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

So then I went back into chat and I was like, okay, now chat has like my whole business, right? It understands it. So I'm like, what? You know, I need a better lead magnet, right? Like, give me some ideas of how I can get like, I need a call to action at the end of videos. That doesn't include buying into the community, right? So then it was like, why don't you do a type A quiz? Like, what type of type A are you? And I was like, oh, that's genius. Because everyone loves quizzes, right? And to get the answer you got to give your email. So we basically created a type A quiz to find out what type of type A are you. And then obviously for me this is like amazing, right? Because then they're tagged in ConvertKit, so we know. And in there, if they join the community, their type of type A will be like next to their profile. So they'll get like a little symbol because they're the, you know, over planner or whatever it is. So then it, and then it was like, do you want me to build it for you? Like the quiz?

[Steve Chou]

Oh, okay.

[Tony]

And I was like, I was like, heck yes, I do. So then I threw it over to Liz and she built the quiz. And so now it's not fully set up yet, but it's basically on the website connected to email. And I'm like, this is a great lead magnet. It's five questions, right? Five questions, easy for people to answer, get a response immediately. And then of course it's like based on what type of type A you are, like, provides that curiosity for people.

[Steve Chou]

It's just interesting. I didn't realize there's different types of type A.

[Tony]

Yes. Would you like to know what they are?

[Steve Chou]

Sure I do. I'm very curious. Tell me, tell me what they are.

[Tony]

The Over Planner, which is you have a color coded calendar and no momentum. You love structure, but you use planning to avoid taking messy action. You're stuck in prep mode and need accountability to act. That's the Over Planner, okay? The Avoider. You're doing everything except the thing that matters. You jump from task to task, hoping it'll all just work out. But without focus and real check ins, your goals feel foggy and unfinished. And then the third one is the hustler. You're always busy, but rarely fulfilled. You move fast, but you're burning out because you never pause to evaluate or adjust. You need a system that works with your drive, not against it. So unfortunately. So we've been having people take the quiz to see if they agree with the results. And so Liz Had Adam take it. He was offended.

[Steve Chou]

All of those are negative though.

[Tony]

Well, it's because like it's, it's basically defining like why you need help. Right? Like why do you need the community? Like your type A, you're, you're very organized. You, you know what you're doing. You're, you're very successful for, for the most part. But there's this part of your business or this part of your life that's like in chaos. And this is why you're the over planner. You're the avoider, you're the hustler.

[Steve Chou]

I see, I see. Because when I think of the word type A, I always think of someone who's already put together. Very organized.

[Tony]

We are, but we have, we have hidden skeletons. Oh yes. I'm the, I'm the hustler. That's my type. So I, so I'm on vacation when we're working on this, right. Last week. And I like, there's no one else in my family that's Taipei because I wanted to test, test the quiz out and none of my family is. And then I was like, oh, my daughter in law, she's Taipei. So I was like, Kathy? Yeah, she. Yeah, very much so. So I like put her through some of the stuff and she was like, it was really cool because, you know, here I've just been dumping all this data in and you know, working through it, but I don't have any like proof yet.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

And other than Adam being mad about whatever he was categorized as and she took it. She's also a hustler and she was like teary as she was, she's like, this is me. This is me 100%.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

So I was like, okay, we're on the right track. We're. We're nailing what people need.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

Like we kind of figured that part out and now it's just about the execution side of things.

[Steve Chou]

Interesting. Okay, I guess people who haven't even heard of this term need to know if they are type A in the first place, right?

[Tony]

Yeah, I think, I think type A people know their type A.

[Steve Chou]

Do they? Okay, I don't know. I had never heard of the term until I met you actually.

[Tony]

Really?

[Steve Chou]

Yeah.

[Tony]

That's, that's actually good feedback though, because we probably need to do some defining.

[Steve Chou]

Well, I, I don't know. That's just me. Yeah, but I'm a dude too, so I mean, isn't type A apply to guys too?

[Tony]

Doesn't type A and Asian, aren't they same synonymous with.

[Steve Chou]

Well, Besides the fact that Ace A stands for Asian.

[Tony]

Yes. Okay. I'm surprised you've never heard of it before.

[Steve Chou]

Honestly, I don't know.

[Tony]

I mean, not in a bad way, just.

[Steve Chou]

No, no, I know, I know. To me, like, at least around here in the Bay Area, like, everyone has it, you know, it's. It's like an arms race in terms of, you know, getting stuff done and whatnot.

[Tony]

So. So.

[Steve Chou]

Well, that's cool. So when is this set to launch? I know you already have a group, but when is the broader product going to launch?

[Tony]

So our goal is. So we're actually filming all the video content at the end of July, so. Or not all of it. We're going to get started on filming the content. We've actually decided. It's funny, after you and I did the in person webinar together and felt like it just flowed so much better, we decided that we weren't going to try to film separately, probably.

[Steve Chou]

Good, good idea.

[Tony]

I mean, we'll obviously make content separately and put it up. Like, it's not going to always be the two of us for sure, but like, for a lot of the content, we decided to film together. So we're actually renting a studio in Austin and filming at the end of July.

[Steve Chou]

You should go to boise and use ConvertKit Studio.

[Tony]

I should. Except for that's really far.

[Steve Chou]

Oh, I.

[Tony]

Neither of us live by Boise.

[Steve Chou]

That's true. It's just a little farther than Austin.

[Tony]

Yeah. Like three more hours closer.

[Steve Chou]

For me.

[Tony]

Yes, for you. Which I, you know, I realize that that's not something that everybody can do, but most people who live in a decent sized metropolitan area, there are recording studios that are pretty reasonable. I think we. Because we at first thought we were going to do it here in Orlando, and we found a studio that I want to say was under $200 and I might have been $100 an hour. And that included like a. All the equipment and someone like running your sound is like really inexpensive. So, I mean, I don't know what part of town it was in. Might have been taking my life in my hands, but, you know, I think if you. Here's the thing, you've got to go into it with like all the scripts, everything ready, practiced, you know, so if you're in there for four hours, you're gonna knock out 20 videos.

[Liz Saunders]

Right?

[Tony]

So that's. That's our plan to start with. And then we'll probably. I mean, we see each other a lot in person anyway. So. Yeah, we'll probably just try to make it a habit of when we are going to be together. We rent some studio space and you know, film.

[Steve Chou]

Is there a URL for this yet?

[Tony]

So you can actually go to type A Mastermind.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Tony]

And then I'm see if the quiz is linked. Yeah. And then you can actually take the quiz. It's not. The email flow is not fully set up but you could, that's okay.

[Steve Chou]

People just want to know what type they are, right?

[Tony]

Yes, they do, they do. See, see if you match my hustler or if you're, you're something else. So. No, I mean but here's, here's why. What was really exciting is that when I've been working on all this, you know, we, we have so many students in the course that don't have a lot of tech background and don't have it and that feels like almost always the biggest hurdle for people. And the fact that now like we built this quiz with AI, we've built, you know, pretty much everything we're building that's tech based has been done on Claude. So I think that for people who feel like, oh, because a lot of people we know want to do a quiz, right. For their e commerce store or for their WordPress whatever and they're like oh, I just don't know how to build that. Well, you don't need to know anymore.

[Liz Saunders]

Right.

[Tony]

You just need to put the data in and you'll basically be able to with some trial and error. I'm not going to say you can do it in five minutes. You have to figure it out. But I think that's exciting for people because it allows people to have a lot more, I don't know, opportunities in their business that is basically free.

[Steve Chou]

Type A mastermind.com folks, curious what type of. Given that you are type A.

[Tony]

Yes.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, I'm gonna go take it right now. Even though I'm not type A. I don't.

[Tony]

Yeah, I don't think you are either.

[Steve Chou]

Hope you enjoyed this episode. If you're interested in her mastermind, feel free to send her an email. For more information and resources go to my wife quit her job.com Episode 600 Once again, tickets to the Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over at sellers summit.com if you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton then come to my event. Go to sellers summit.com and if you're interested in starting your own e commerce store, head on over to my wife quithherjob.com and sign up for my free 6 day mini course. Just type in your email and I'll send the course right away via email.