You Can Start From Zero

Woo! I want to see who's in the audience right now that is like, you know, easy for— I saw this earlier this week when I was posting about the summit and I was posting about our speakers. And I saw somebody who was like, it's easy for you to say because you have all of these things given to you, or you can do this because You know, somebody has a massive social media following or because you have an email newsletter or an email list for the last 10 years. So of course you can create a community. And I want to just point out, neither of those things were true for you. So maybe you can start and share where, where, where, where were you and how did you get to this moment? And this moment being a wildly successful community, a bestselling book with a second book on the way, a front-page New York Times feature story on what you do and how you do it, as well as an incredibly important story for where, where you started and where you are today. So maybe with that, I can open the floor and you can you can help us all hear what it's like to start from scratch.

Alrighty, so how do— how did everything start from scratch? So 2019, let me take everybody back. 2019, pre-pandemic. Do you remember what the world used to look like before then? Uh, I did. Um, a little bit about myself. I, I was just a, a runner, you know. I, I ran maybe 1 or 2 marathons during that time and I was just upset with what the running industry had to offer me as a larger individual, as a slower runner, as somebody who's in the back of the pack but paying their money to be, to be a part of this running community. I was upset, very upset with what was going on with the community, and I knew that there were other people out there who were experiencing the same thing that I was experiencing. And one of the things that I just started to do, or just started to think about as I started to run these races, run these races and meet other people, was why aren't we together? Why aren't we in a community together? Why aren't we celebrating our wins?

And these are these back-of-the-pack runners, like people that are finishing like a lot longer than like the last person before them.

Absolutely. So think, you know, on average, on average, average marathoner will probably finish a race around 3 to 4, 3 to 4 hours. We're talking about people who are finishing races at 6 hours, 7 hours, 8 hours, 9 hours, right? So these are individuals who are just left to fend for themselves. And I was one of those individuals, and I felt like There needed to be something out there to support us. If the running community at large wasn't going to support us, then we needed to find a way to support each other. And that's where the idea for Slow AF Run Club came from. And yes, it started off with literally zero people. And one of the things that I did to help, A, get over that initial hump was to share my story and share A, why I'm doing this, also shared a journey of building this thing. And then the thing that really took off was helping out and pointing out the pain points of other individuals that were inside, or that wasn't inside this community, but they knew they needed to be inside this community.

Yeah, yeah. And then the other thing that I think is so important about your story Um, and maybe you can share this experience, which is you followed all the gurus at that point in time. You followed all the people that told you to, uh, build an email list, launch a course, um, think about community later, like after you have your funnel and your automations and your tags and your this and your that.

Yeah.

And that had happened right before you and I met each other. So maybe you can share that story because I think—

Oh man. So let me tell you this. Yes, I followed all the gurus, any guru that you can think of when it comes to business and building an online business. I bought their course, I followed their methods, and so on and so forth. So much so that yes, I, I built multiple email lists and they failed. Um, I created a course, and this is something I think I told Gina as I was talking about Mighty Networks, is like, yes, I built the course and, you know, I followed all the gurus. 5 people joined that course even though it took me thousands of dollars to build that course. And somewhere in the middle of that course, 2 people flaked out. They even joined the course, they just paid and not even do it. Uh, another person got injured in the course because they didn't listen to anything that I, uh, that I, I taught. And then The other 2 people was like, hey, like, this is not what I really thought I was going to get. Can I have my money back? So like, that was my experience, and I was fed up. I was a little bit fed up with all of this, of, you know, all these gurus saying it's going to be easy. All you got to do is build this course. If, you know, if you build it, they would come. And yeah, 5 people came, but when it was all said and done, I impacted nobody, and I was out of thousands of dollars.

Right.

Yes, I met Gina at a very interesting point of my life of having these failed courses, doing this failed email list. I done spent all of this money, um, following these so-called gurus, you know, business gurus who really made their money on building businesses, or who made their money on teaching people how to build a business, but that was originally their business, right? Um, and I was fed up. And meeting Gina, and, you know, one of the things that we was talking about was Well, why haven't you built a community? And I said, what do you mean?

Before the pandemic, I worked out at a gym around the corner. It was like a boutique gym. So it was like, you know, only about 20 people were in this gym at one time. So it's me, it's my trainer. And all of a sudden, this guy starts cleaning Near us and starts cleaning, you know, the equipment near us, starts sweeping near us, and strikes up a conversation. And he had, you know, no idea that I did business stuff or community stuff or had like created some of the things that I've created. But what was so fantastic about me, my trainer Jor-El, and our new friend Martinez is that we started to have really interesting conversations. And this was before I had launched the precursor to People Magic Profit, which was Community Design. I had not launched a course yet. I was totally intimidated by running a course, even though we had built courses into Mighty Networks. I thought you had to have like a PhD in like online courses or like SCORM or something, because everybody we talked to who wanted us to build online courses into Mighty. This is like 2019.

Yeah.

They all seemed like they had been doing it forever. So finally, I was like, okay, I think I'm gonna launch my own course. I think I'm gonna launch my own course. So a few weeks before I was getting ready to launch my own course, I'm at the gym and I'm like working out. And all of a sudden, you know, Jarell and I have this new friend, Martinez. And Martinez starts telling us his story. And his story is incredible. And his story is, wait a second, I've built this pretty special thing with my blog and my Instagram account. And I launched this course, it didn't work. I don't know what I'm necessarily going to do next. And we started sharing our stories. And what was so fun is that Martinez knew he did not want to do a Facebook group. So at the time, Facebook groups were like, oh, well, why wouldn't you just do a Facebook group? He's like, I don't want to do a Facebook group. And what was really fun was while I was like trying to work out, Martinez was not only peppering me with questions, but challenging me with like, Well, what about this? Why would I do that? But I could do this over here. And it was, it was awesome. And so I launched the first version, my very, very first course, um, the Community Design Masterclass. About 300 people joined. Martinez was one of them. And here was the thing. I, I just, this is such an important lesson that I learned from you, Martinez, which is when you do things live, just like we're doing right now. Not only do you learn a ton in the chat, but for the things that I nailed in community design, I heard about them pretty, pretty quickly. And for the things I got wrong in community design or were a little bit fuzzier in community design, I heard about those things immediately. And I'd never done this before, so it was Such an important lesson. So literally, I came in, I think it was like week 3 or week 4 of a, of a, of a 5-week course. And I was like getting ready to work out and Martinez beelines for me and is like, Gina, I absolutely do not understand how, like, the launch math that you are sharing doesn't make any sense. And here's why. And I realized at that moment, I'm like, oh my God, this is my secret weapon. Or my magic elixir, if you would like less violence in your life, is when I can surround myself with my own community, I'm going to get feedback so much faster. And so not only did Martinez take Community Design, but I'll hand the microphone back to you. You started thinking about how you could turn your 300 Pounds and Running Instagram account, which I think at the time had about 25,000 people in it, into something that was that community. Um, what was that process like for you as you were learning about some of these things? And what was, what was the hardest thing about it?

Oh man. Uh, I'll start with the hardest thing. The hardest thing was just getting out of my head, right? And not being my worst critic. And being my worst enemy and trying to outthink why this wasn't going to work. That was probably the hardest thing. Um, I would say what I learned through that whole process is how quickly and how easily it became when I launched the Slow F1 Club. Literally, you know, we launched this thing, we had less than 20 people. And I learned so much just from those 20 people, interacting with those individuals, uh, asking questions, answering their questions, so on and so forth, that it really helped me grow and foster this thing to what it is today.

I just want to, you know, put a pin in this for one, one moment. Not only did you identify your first transition— so your first transition were— was people Who were not sort of accepted runners who wanted to run their first marathon into realizing that the transition— so from point A, not doing anything, to point B, having run their first marathon and then running more marathons— to a broader transition of adults who Wanted to be more active, wanted to run, that didn't know where to start.

Yeah. Yeah.

Didn't know where to start. Now, for you, this also created— as Slow AF was growing, it also created more opportunities for you. Do you want to talk a little bit about how you turned Slow AF into multiple other opportunities? The one I'm thinking about Is, is one that I read. Okay, so let's talk about that as a hint.

Um, so yeah, I actually have that next to me. So during that process of all of these people coming inside of Slow Your Front Club, the questions, the barrage of questions came, and literally I became a servant leader and asked and answered every question that Anybody asks about running. Do you run about speed? Do you run about speed first? Do you do distance? What shoes to wear? So on and so forth. And then somebody in the process was like, yo, you have this amount of information, you should write a book. And I was like, you know what, I should. And I went on a process of figuring out how to write a book, write a proposal. And this is the the end product, the Slow AF Run Club, the ultimate guide for anybody who wants to run. 30,000 copies sold within this first year. Most books in this whole life of a book does not sell over 2,000 copies. This book itself has sold over 30,000 copies, and which has created this whole other thing about multi-figure, uh, multi-six-figure book deal that came along with it. Speaking engagements. Um, something else that also happened with this thing was a 50-date book tour across the United States. Now that I'm, you know, now we are moving from virtual community to actual in-person, to meet, touch, and really feel these people, and these people can feel me, to see, to say, hey, you really changed my life.

So I just want to stop there for a, a minute. Holy guacamole. Um, the other thing is the strength of the community was one of the things that the publisher looked at.

Absolutely. As I'm talking to the publisher, and by then Solo AF Run Club has grown Um, from those 20 people to now 5, 10, 10,000 people inside this community. And as I'm talking with the publisher and I'm letting them know all the ways that I'm going to promote this book, one of the ways that came out was I'm going to do this massive book launch party inside the Slow AF Run Club. And that was something they really liked because it was novel, but also it has never been done before.

Right.

So when we start to do this, you know, we had this whole virtual street team of people who would go and promote this book, who would go to their local libraries and request a book, who would go to their local bookstore and request a book, that would go buy multiple copies and put it in the little libraries and so on and so forth. Like, this campaign was amazing. Like, within, um, first week sales, when you're even just thinking about the book, we sold Roughly 6,000 copies in the first week, which is almost unheard of.

It is unheard of. One of the things that I think is so awesome about your story, and we see this all the time at Mighty, is when you start with a community, you actually feed not only these opportunities, but you can feed your audience. So your audience actually gets bigger If you have this community of people who are connected to the mission, but also when you reach people who have that sort of singular transition, they have more motivation to meet each other and more motivation to take an action that includes the really concrete things that go into sales. Go into the action that you are doing.

Absolutely. And I think that's the most wonderful thing, is understanding, um, the amount of people's lives that you're changing by building this community. I would have not known that I would be even able to sell 30,000 copies. Like, Gina, when I met you, I was cleaning, uh, toilets at a gym. So to go from that—

that is true.

Yeah, like literally cleaning toilets at a gym to creating this massive following, uh, this massive community, and be able to have some of these outcomes that, that I would never ever thought of. But it's because of the community that I've built with Slow AF Run Club.

Mm-hmm.

That is the reason all of this stuff have happened. It's going to continue to happen.

And I just want to stop and reiterate or just shine a big fat spotlight on something Martina said. He started with 20 people. And I think one of the things that social media has distorted is this idea that you cannot start a community with less than like 100 people. And it's just simply not true. I just want to really stress that the more that you put pressure on yourself upfront to have a lot of people and build this massive funnel, or like, God forbid, go and buy Meta ads to be able to seed your community. Like, when you hear Martinez's story, that is not what ultimately allowed him the opportunity to create the Slow AF Run Club.

Can I also add something, Gina? It's the, it's the fact that I'm kind of the guest.

You're kind of the guest, so you can actually like talk all you want.

So I would say it's the fact that I started off with 20 people to really understand, like, to validate the ideas that I had and the ideas that they wanted and try to figure out how to bridge that gap.

Yeah.

And having those 20 people is what really helped me do that. You can't do that with 1,000 people or 100 people. Like, there were times where I, I missed the mark and it was just a simple delete and, hey y'all, my bad, I, I didn't get it right. But it's a lot— that repercussion is a lot bigger once you have, um, a larger community.

Yeah.

So if you're just starting out and you don't know where to go, I would aim for a smaller community So that way you can figure out and learn together. But it also, it also helps build loyalty like nobody's business. Those 20 people are still like my ride or dies. And during the book tour, I had somebody that lived in Chicago and went to California, uh, Washington State, so on and so forth, just to help me with the book tour. Just because they were so invested in the success of the Slow Your Run Club that they just wanted to help. And that's the only way you'll be able to do that is when you are building something from that small point and you're growing together.

That's profound. That's profound.

Thank you.

All right. We are, we are running up against time.

All right. What do we do?

Why don't we have one final question, which I think is great. It's from Monica. What kept you going when your numbers were low? Oh, I would also reframe to, we have just spent a bunch of time talking about the fact that, that 20 members is not low. You are doing something different at that phase than you are doing later. But You've got to have had moments where things felt like they were going slower than, than you wanted them to go.

All right, now I'm about to get in my Martin Luther King bag. All right, I've been to the mountaintop, and I'm here to tell you this: everybody starts at zero. When I started running, I did not know how to run. I couldn't even run for 15 seconds. Now I've ran 8 marathons. Like, it's literally everybody starts at zero because that's, that's the part of the process. Like, if you started off and you got millions of people in the community, then you didn't start at zero, right? But if you start at zero, it's a part of the journey. It's a part of the journey to figure out that there's this thread that you're trying to help, right? And I think for a lot of people, they think, oh, it's the money, it's the, um, you know, all this other stuff. No, like, really what it is about is helping people get from point A to point B. And for me, that's from not running to running, right? So if you focus on that and you continue to foster those people, the numbers will come. Literally, the numbers will come. Like, that, that's, that's— I would say that's the least of— that should be the least of your worries.

Right.

Like, the most important thing that you should be worrying about is really figuring out, like, how, uh, what is your message and what are you doing to go cultivate the people who are actually there. Um, there's this article that I read years ago about, you know, 1,000 true fans. Um, and I, and I think that that notion is still true. If you got 1,000 people paying you $100 a month, then you don't have a problem, right?

Martinez, the inspirer any day of the week. Thank you so much for your time. Is there something holding you back from starting a community? No followers, no email list, not enough time or a team to do it? Well, after helping tens of thousands of people get started building communities, courses, challenges, and events, here is what I know. You need just one thing to get started. Join a community. And that's why I'm hosting the People Magic Summit on January 22nd and 23rd. This free virtual virtual event is designed to help you build a $1 million community in 2025, surrounded by a supportive community and with step-by-step instruction that is going to make it so easy to get started. I want 2025 to be your breakthrough year, and a free 2-day summit where you're learning alongside people on the same path, well, it seems like a pretty easy way to get there. Register now at summit.mightynetworks.com.