The Sisterhood Success Club on building a community & showing up online
Firstly, what do you feel 2022 will bring for the sisterhood success club? What is your collective “word” or phrase for the year so far?
We believe that 2022 will bring lots of opportunities for partnerships, collaborations, and to work with like minded women.
Lioness is our official word for 2022. Although we have an array of words (Like freedom, confidence, and collaboration) Our biggest focus is to step into the role of lioness. The word lioness reminds us of our strength and what we are capable of, it reminds us to strive for what we want, and not to give up, despite what obstacles may come our way.
As lionesses we need to own our power. We need to realize that we are the predators, the queens of the jungle, we are not the prey, and the world is ours for the taking. We women already have the power within us to create the life of our dreams.
For centuries women have faced so much inequality and unfairness, however we will not allow this to define us and to determine the trajectory of our lives. We are here to create impact, to create change, and to make a meaningful difference in the world - hear us rawr (lol)
How long did it take you to build the online community you dreamt of, what was the runway time from idea inception to seeing your community begin to grow?
We are so grateful and blessed that our online community grew within a very short space of time. Within the first two months of launching our Sisterhood Facebook Group, it grew to more than 3000 ambitious women, a community that we would see grow consistently over the next few months.
Not only did our Facebook Group grow, our official membership, our email database, and our Instagram community grew to thousands too. Our official membership is almost a year old (our birthday is 1 March 2022 - woohoo!!!) - and our community has grown to 30 000 beautiful people (across our various channels) in this space of time.
We truly believe that this was due to us leading with love and value and truly caring about our community
What has been the most rewarding aspect of being a business owner, and what has been the most challenging for you as a collective team?
Being business owners allows us to follow our passion and to be in control of our own lives and destinies, so to speak.
In most cases, when you search for a job, you are motivated by financial needs and sadly do not always have the opportunity to select a career that you are truly passionate about.
Whereas when you start your own business, you can truly build one around your very own passion and vision. The freedom that comes along with having your own business is just magical. Don’t get us wrong, building a business takes a lot of hard work and dedication and believe it or not, most days are difficult, but it's truly worth it, as you are working towards your own dreams, doing what you love.
Having a business partner that happens to be your best friend is challenging lol, not because it's hard to work with one another, but because there's a very thin line between our professional and personal relationship.
As business partners we've found that we have different ideas, opinions, points of view and we don't always agree on things - which is totally ok. Respectfully disagreeing and compromising is all part of a healthy business relationship.
The last couple of months has proven that we can overcome anything, when we work together. Differences of ideas and opinions can either strengthen or break your business apart, in our case it's definitely the former.
From day one, we have always kept the communication lines open, making sure that we are always respectful, truthful, and direct with one another. We have found that it is necessary to have those "hard" conversations, so that we can always be on the same page – both personally and professionally. And although we are best friends, we try our utmost to keep our professional and personal lives separate.
Even when times get tough, we never allow it to affect our relationship. When we officially became business partners we drew up a Friendship Contract, to remind us that we will always respect and care for each other, even when we experience inevitable challenging times in the business.
What is your go-to mantra or motivator that keeps you positive on the days when things feel overwhelming?
"If we sit on our butts and wait for opportunities , we will not prosper" - Caryn & Shev, hahaha
When we feel sluggish, demotivated or even when we feel like quitting, this little phrase reminds us that our futures depend on us, and the only person that can make a difference in our lives is US. Although this might sound like a heavy responsibility, it’s not. It is all about understanding that you, and you alone, are in control of your life, future, and your dreams. If opportunities don't come to you - create your own!
On days when we feel demotivated, this phrase reminds us to hold our heads up high and to keep going. Running a business is hard, so you're not always going to be positive. The real power however, isn't in always remaining positive, it's in the ability to keep pushing through and showing up, even on those tough days, when you don't feel like it.
I love the idea of a ‘sisterhood’ and believe that the world is a better place when women work together rather when women choose not to value each other. What are the benefits you’ve seen of facilitating a sense of sisterhood within your community?
There has always been this narrative that women don’t support each other. We’ve heard terms such as “cattiness”, “girl hate” etc. and it's true to some degree, however we have started to see a positive change in the world, whereby women are actively supporting one another more and more, and we want to be part of this change.
You know the saying, it's an African Proverb: “we can go faster alone, but you can go so much further together” we wholeheartedly believe in this. Choose collaboration over competition every single time.
We’ve truly created a supportive community and we’ve seen first hand how women can confide in one another, ask for help, and tips. Not only that, we’ve seen women work together, collaborate, and share skills and resources. This allows "our sisters" to truly grow together by supporting each other.
What is the one big mistake you see businesses or brands make with their approach to community building?
We're going to break the rules and give you three mistakes we often see, instead of the one you asked for :) because community building is so important to us.
Businesses often look at numbers when building a community; how many followers they have, how many views, how many likes.. and yes this is important to some degree, but what's even more important, is truly building relationships with one's community. Afterall selling is all about relationship building - something that many tend to forget. So focus on quality over quantity.
Businesses tend to focus on the sale, the money and "what they can get out of the deal", however we're of the opinion that if you lead with value and nurture your community, that the abundance and success will follow. I love this saying by Business-Owner and Author Robin Sharma "serve before you sell" and the rest will fall into place.b We always need to remember that we are dealing with real human beings, with hopes and dreams, not just numbers.
Another mistake we often see being made; is that businesses want to rush this process of growing a community, it's a slow and steady marathon, not a sprint. Once again it takes time to build a "quality audience" that genuinely knows, likes, and trusts you.
