Ep 60: How to Have Raving Fans and Lead a Meaningful Community with Lauren Golden

Apr 11

How to Have Raving Fans and Lead a Meaningful Community with Lauren Golden

Every now and then I come across somebody whose business embodies the community strategies that I teach. One of those people is Lauren Golden, founder of the Free Mama Movement. In this interview she shares how she turned that community into a million dollar movement and how you can do the same.

Favorite Community

What is your favorite community you have ever been a part of, and what did you love about that community?

I am glad that you prepared me for this question so that I could delve into history. In all honesty, my favorite community is the one that I created. I am not saying that to boast, but because I was lacking a space for someone like me, which is why I established the community in the first place.

The less egotistical answer is that I have taken positives from various parts of my life. I attended an all-girls high school that had a strong sense of community, and I was in a sorority in college, but certain things stood out. Lack of safety, perhaps, being one of them. There were cliques, and I did not always feel comfortable being myself or being vulnerable. I felt like I had to conform to a particular image to belong to those communities, which is why they are not my favorite. However, when you reminded me of this question, I recalled something that has a lot to teach us. Although I am no longer a member of the community, are you familiar with the Skimm newsletter?

I was an early adopter of the Skimm. If you are not familiar, there are two female founders, and I have met them. They are very cool. The Skimm is still going strong. I just have different boundaries with technology now, but it is a quirky millennial daily news recap told in an exciting way. I was an early adopter within the first six months of its launch, and they became successful and still are because of their ambassador program.

When you asked me what my favorite community is, I remembered feeling like I was part of something bigger than myself. I recall being told that I was part of something, part of this ambassador program. You did not earn any money, but they had swag, and they sent you things in milestones. I don't even think I did any of this consciously, but I think I incorporated a lot of what I learned from what they did in that community that I have integrated into the Free Mama movement, which I never even thought about until you asked me this question.

They did an excellent job of creating something that people felt like they were part of that spoke specifically to that group of millennial women. They were unapologetic, and they did not care what other people thought. They did a good job of taking care of their followers. So, I am going with that final answer.

Creating a Movement

Can you just give us some practical understanding of how you went from this vision of helping this person you wanted to help to really creating an identity and a whole movement around it?

I don't want to say that I got lucky, but I will say that some of my early actions were subconscious. I acknowledged my experiences, but what I think I did well was realize that my community was not about me. This is the opposite of the gurus out there who make it all about themselves, right? They want you to follow them. My invitation was always to be part of something. Yes, I am a leader, and I bring information, but being a leader means showing up and setting the stage. I was very intentional from day one of launching my Facebook group, which is the hub of our community.

I was clear on my values, and not only did I explicitly articulate those values, but I was also clear on my mission, which is equivalent to your cause. What is that mission statement? Who are we? What does it mean to be a Free Mama? I was intentional about being a model member, and I exemplified what it looks like to be in this community. I showed up every day, answered questions, and was consistent with my trainings and Facebook lives. I did what I said I was going to do, kept things positive, and was intentional about protecting the space. We have a one-and-done policy, and we take our rules very seriously.

We're not so locked in that we think we're right all the time, but we are very protective and don't mess around. We set that tone early on, and I've never had a full-time community manager. I do about 60 to 70% myself because we've built a culture that protects itself. People report things immediately, and we can have it handled in seconds. We've created a space where everyone feels like they have a seat at the table, and that's what I'm most passionate about when it comes to community.

I think Facebook groups are an excellent way to grow and support your business, especially a free group where you can nurture your leads. But one thing I do differently is create space for and nurture non-buyers. I can see beyond the transaction of a relationship, and I think that contributes to both safety and positive outcomes. I've never treated my Facebook group as a place to sell, but as a community.

The Free Mama Identity

How do you weave the Free Mama identity and movement into the webinar?

There's a lot of cross-promotion happening, as you said, which is something I often do. As far as the identity piece, going back to your very first question in this interview, there are things that you have to assign the identity to if you want a community. Now, I happen to have a business name where it's pretty obvious. My company is literally called The Free Mama. I started it in 2014, but I did not start the Free Mama Movement until 2017. There was a bit of premonition there. I'm wearing my Free Mama shirt right now, and when my students graduate from my course, they get a shirt that literally says, "I am a Free Mama." Two powerful words.

What comes after that? "I'm a Gamma Phi Beta." "I'm a Skimmer." "I'm a Funnel Hacker." These are all communities where you get this identity, and you feel part of something. That ties back into the identity that's bigger than themselves, and it is literally a human necessity. As humans, we all have this basic need, and when you can create a community that's safe, that has all of the four Cs, that gives people all of those things, it is really special, and people will not leave easily. They might outgrow it over time, but people don't leave that community very quickly.

Free Community Leading to Sales

How can a community support you on the marketing and sales side of the business?

If you're interested in building a community, it's also important to consider the business side of things and making sales. As someone who is passionate about my Facebook group being a space where even non-buyers have a seat at the table, I make it clear that I am the leader of the Free Mama Movement. It's surprising how often you can be part of a Facebook group and not even know who's in charge or what they're selling. That's a missed opportunity for them to set themselves apart, regardless of their goals.

From the beginning of my funnel, I invite people to join my Facebook group. I want them to feel like they belong and to be sold on my mission before I even pitch a product to them. Even if they don't buy, I want them to know that they are welcome in my community. For those who do buy, I integrate my free community into my course. Throughout the book, there are calls to action for engagement, sending buyers over to the community for social proof and engagement.

For non-buyers, I spend 15 minutes a day answering questions and being present in the community. Once a week, I host a Facebook Live that I call my re-enrollment webinar, using the ULA framework. ULA stands for update, lesson, and announcement. I update them on what's new and why it's important, provide a lesson on mindset, marketing, or sales, and make an announcement about upcoming events or new offers.

During these lives, I talk about my offers, but never pitch them. I let people know what's available and invite them to learn more, without feeling like they're being sold to. This approach creates a sense of safety, making people feel invited to learn more rather than feeling pressured to buy something. It's a natural way to bring people back in for when they're ready to become a buyer. By constantly talking about my offers, but doing it in a value-first framework, everyone in my community knows what we have to offer, without feeling like they're being sold to.

Framing the Movement on the Webinar

So talk to me a little bit about the webinar itself. Do you talk a lot about the Free Mama movement and what it means to be a Free Mama on the webinar?

I do, and I give lots of examples of Free Mamas. So again, this is going to be your social proof, but it's not just "look at this person who had this win". It's a lot about the transformation of, "look at this mom who was staying home, maybe had lost a part of herself after having kids, had quit her job, but realized she missed working." You know, that story. And then she became a Free Mama, and then look at her revenue.

Well, I was just going to say that we have several examples, and we're intentional about relating to different types of women who are coming into our world. When I first started, I really was talking to the former version of myself, which I think a lot of business owners do that and have that story. And I was the working mom who was overwhelmed and stressed out. Now we know there's a whole lot of moms who are attracted to what we do, and we even have some dads who are comfortable with their masculinity. We have non-mothers as well. We have grandparents and fur baby moms and all the things. So we're very inclusive. Of course, the company's still called The Free Mama, but we show these examples and we show the transformation of kind of before, when they were out on their own.

And then, like you said, when they became a Free Mama. But then, of course, our logical brain still wants to justify it with the financial results. How long did it take to get a client? How long did it take to get started? How long did it take to quit their job? Those types of things. So, I think it's subtle. That's a really great question. I have not watched my webinar in a hot second. I don't know that there's a specific invite so much as I do a lot of references.

We also do this on Free Mama TV, which is my YouTube channel. I always reference my Facebook group on every episode. I'll either work it in differently so it's not, "go join the Facebook group". It might be, "if you have follow-up questions, the best place to connect with me is over on our Facebook group, and the good news is, you can connect with thousands of other people just like you, which is really cool. It's free to join. I'm really active." So, I'm always seeding the Facebook group. This is actually the advice that I give, ironically, being on this interview with you. This is the advice I give my students who are growing, and they're to a place in their business where maybe they're getting invited to speak or do podcasts or whatever. They always come to me. They're like, "What do I need to know? How do I need to be prepared?" So, I kind of walk them through it, and I was like, "more than anything, because you know, be yourself and you can't get it wrong, as long as you're speaking to your experiences and your knowledge. It's when we try to posture, and that's when an interview can go south."

But I said the number one thing you really need to know is, "what do you want the people to leave with in terms of how to connect with you?" Yes, there's your message and all of that, but some people are better at guiding interviews than others, and that's out of your control. But I don't know that I've ever been on a podcast interview where someone hasn't asked me at the end, "what's the best way for our listeners to connect with you?" In the past six years of doing interviews, there hasn't been a single one where I didn't recommend joining the Free Mama Movement Facebook group. It doesn't matter what I'm selling or promoting because getting people in the community is crucial.

Once they see how amazing it is, I'll have their email, which allows me to start an indoctrination sequence. By doing this, I can get everything else I want from them once they know and trust me and I've provided value to them.

This is a big piece of advice that I always give. If you're not using your Facebook group to create an indoctrination sequence via email, you're missing out. By getting people into your community, you can create a path towards building a relationship with them. This is why I try to incorporate it into everything I do. Even non-buyers have a place in my community.

Using Entrance Questions to get Leads

You can really leverage those entrance questions for a group to get leads. So talk a little bit about that.

Not only is this a place for you to get leads because you can use those questions, and our very first one is required. You can always opt out later, but you will not get into the group if you don't answer this question, which is for their email.

But here's the kicker: when we're starting, or we're newer to business, or we don't have the revenue we want yet, we can be desperate. I'm just going to say it because I've been there. I've been very desperate where we say something like, "I want more people in my group." No. We are very strict.

We have very strict boundaries with who we let into our group. I don't need another thousand people in my group, whether I have 1,000 or 50,000. I need the right people in my group. So we use the questions as a pre-qualification. I think right now, our questions are email, how did you hear about us (which we can eyeball scan through our third-party app), and do you agree to our rules?

I have had people message me, "Hey, I tried to get into your Facebook group," and I'll look them up, and they didn't answer the questions. And I'm like, "You're in purgatory. I don't know what to tell you."

For me, part of the identity of being a Free Mama is being an action taker. So if you don't follow instructions, or you are not willing to participate, or you are too lazy to click a checkbox that says you agree to our rules, you are probably not going to buy from me. You're probably not going to be very engaged or participate in the group. If you do, it's probably not going to be the right energy, and I am very comfortable not letting those people inside of the group.

This may sound exclusive, but to me, it's actually very protective. It's like your audition. We have a lot of free value in this group, a lot, not a little bit, a lot of free value inside of this group. Three questions are all I need from you, and it's like a test of are you going to do it?

So I think it's the email, how did you hear about us, and do you agree to our rules? We do not let people in who do not say yes. I could probably have a group with a hundred thousand people in it by now. But that would probably require a full-time community manager, and it might keep me up at night. So, it's a really great place for you to pre-qualify who the type of people you want in your group.

3rd Party Lead Collection Tools

There's been a lot of debate about using third party apps to collect leads. Do you have one that you use that you love? Group Leads is one.

I think that's exactly what we're on. I was gonna look it up, but I think Group Leads is what we use. I don't know what the dialogue is about it. We're very explicit about what they're opting in. There's no surprise. There's absolutely a disclaimer of, in order to join the group, this is required. You will be added to our email list. You can unsubscribe at any time.

And I think it says we send them a free gift because we do. We have that. I think there's like a three to five email indoctrination sequence that gets kicked off right away because the app sets up an integration. So all of this is happening in the background, which is beautiful.

We have a lot of value in that initial email sequence because you think about it, when someone joins your Facebook group, that's your opportunity to make a first impression. And so a lot of the disengagement that's probably happening in a lot of groups, whether they're new or not, is if you don't capture them right away.

Now again, I'm big on boundaries and I'm a minimalist. So I'm actually not in a ton of Facebook groups, and I have most notifications turned off because my priority is running my own communities so those are the notifications I wanna see. But a lot of people who are consumers, they're consuming your information or mine or whatever.

They're probably in 500 groups. If you don't get them roped in and participating, like right away, they're gone. Unless they're buying something from you already, or they've been following you on Instagram for years or whatever. It is difficult. I don't wanna sugarcoat it.

It is difficult, but it's your responsibility as the leader to give them a reason to show up, to engage early on, to put themselves out there.

Advice from Lauren

Talking to the person who has a mission in my heart that I feel called to, but I don't know where to start. What would you say to that person?

I wanted to start a community, as I mentioned earlier. I never had one. I started freelancing as a full-time working mom with a newborn and a two-year-old, and a husband who was never home because he was also an entrepreneur, and we had brick and mortar businesses at the time. I was incredibly isolated, with no one to ask questions.

I failed forward fast, which was good because I learned quickly. But after two years of doing that and having quite a bit of success for myself, that's when the calling was placed on my heart to teach other people how to do this. The way my business evolved looked very different from that early calling because I wanted to do it comfortably.

A Facebook group for me actually felt kind of safe because no one would know, and my friends and family wouldn't see me. But I had never done a Facebook Live before. I actually had a business coach who said, "You're going to start doing this," and I said, "No, I'm not." She said, "Yes, you are. It gets easier."

If you don't feel ready or capable, but you have a calling, you have an obligation to feed and nurture that calling. You will become qualified through tiny steps of action. I wanted to die the first time I did a Facebook Live. It was maybe three minutes, but it felt like three days. I don't think anyone watched live.

Now I go live every week and I love it. Here's my tactical advice: you're not alone, it is scary, but those callings, those desires, those missions don't go away; they get louder. Your first step might not be to start a Facebook group if you're at ground zero. Your tactical first step, your baby step, your mini-win is just talking about it.

When you start talking about it, you will start to see who's interested. You will find your voice, you will clarify how you want to talk about the thing or what it's ultimately going to look like. It's like a seed that you have to water. Your clarity and your confidence are both going to be a byproduct of you taking action.