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What you’ll learn in this episode:
We’ve all heard it before – building your business is all about relationships and building a strong network. And although for many of us this does ring true, understanding how to do that in a way that is strategic, impacts are bottom line, and feels like a win-win for everyone involved is not something we see a lot of examples of every day.
In today’s episode, we have the good fortune of sitting down with the founders of The Women’s Business League – Amy Pocsik and Melissa Gilbo – to hear about how they have grown their business into a nationwide brand with over 40 chapters (and growing!), and how they leveraged the power of networking and putting their relationships with their clients first to create incredible value all around.
If you’re someone is operating a thriving business, wants to continue to see it grow, and wants to maximize the connections that your have both with potential clients coming in contact with you business, as well as paying customers (and to also continue to foster the growth of your network and connections), this episode is for you.
Here’s a glance at this episode:
- The “lightbulb” moment that Amy and Melissa had on their business journey, and how it changed everything in their business (and how it can for you too)
- The power of listening to your clients, and why this matters for growth
- What Give 30 is, and why you need to incorporate it into your business right now (ok, actually yesterday)
- Why strategic networking is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business, and how to do it
- How to uncover unique and specific things that your clients need so you can deliver more of them
Mentioned in this episode:
Women’s Business League – Website
Women’s Business League – Instagram
Work/Connect with me:
Consults That Convert FREE Training
About Amy Poscik and Melissa Gilbo
Founded by two moms/corporate refugees, Amy Pocsik and Melissa Gilbo, the Women’s Business League has reignited the power of networking. The core of their mission is kindness and generosity, values that drive the connections created amongst its members. Together, Pocsik and Gilbo, have created a safe haven for female entrepreneurs and business leaders to come together, share resources, and achieve the highest and best version of themselves and their business.
Jessica Miller
[00:05] Hello, everyone. Oh, Amy and Melissa, we are so excited to have you here. Welcome to the It’s Your offer podcast. I am thrilled to have you both in the studio today.
[00:17] We are so excited to be here with you just oh my god.
Jessica Miller
[00:21] Yeah, pinch me moment. Of course, highlight of my week highlighted my week. So for all of you listening here today, oh, we have the two founders of the Women’s Business League, the WBL here in the studio, to talk to you about their journey about what’s behind their heart for this amazing organization, the evolution of their offers, which we’d love to hear about, and how they are rocking and rolling right now and growing at a huge clip. And I’m part of it. So I’m so excited about that, to hear about their journey and to kind of be able to peek into what it is that they’re doing that maybe something that you can consider doing, or something that you’re already doing, but understanding what that looks like as your business grows. So Amy and Melissa, I’m going to turn it over you to introduce yourselves and introduce your business. So Amy, maybe you first?
Amy Pocsik
[01:14] Yeah, thank you so much Jess. So my name is Amy Pocsik. I’m one of the co-founders and CEO of the Women’s Business league. And listen, I think like so many women, I’m a corporate refugee, right, spent over a decade as a CPA and then decided to really pursue my entrepreneurial dream to live a life that sets my heart on fire. And I want that for every single. I love it.
Jessica Miller
[01:40] I love it. Melissa, what about you?
Amy Pocsik
[01:43] Yes. So I’m Melissa Gilbo, co-founder, and CEO of Women’s Business League. And alongside Amy. I can’t wait to get into kind of like our story together. But my story, my journey, I grew up in the insurance world in the insurance space for over 20 years. You know, knowing that I really was meant for more, there was more of something. But in my early years, I just didn’t know what that was or what that looked like. And for our listeners, you know, I just think it’s so important to understand and know, now that I look back is that this journey is not a straight road, right? Oh, this just wiggly roller coaster of winding road. And we’re here for it all like it’s all of the wines in the wiggles are so exciting. Because you learn from all of those moments that brought us here today. So we’re so excited to kind of dive in and share all the things.
Jessica Miller
[02:47] Oh, it’s so good. Yeah, and sometimes a wild ride, right? I mean, home is amazing and wild. And how long have you guys been in business now? That’s five
Amy Pocsik
[03:01] years in October. So you’re gonna see a huge celebration.
[03:05] Back on in October. I talked about the five-year mark. I
Jessica Miller
[03:08] love it. I love it. And how did you guys meet? And what how did you start this? Tell us the story. We got to hear this.
Amy Pocsik
[03:15] Oh, this is one of those stories that is so real and authentic and genuine. Amy and I get the question all the time. You guys must have known each other since childhood. How long? Right. So we do get that. But honestly, I’m going to tell you we met through networking. Networking connection is how Amy and I met. At the timing. Amy was in mortgages. And again, I was an insurance. So it was actually a bosses that put us together. So I bet they’re looking back now saying maybe I shouldn’t I connected them. But in that moment, you know, I was busy in my insurance role. And I’m like, geez, I don’t know, I don’t know if I should meet Amy like I don’t have time. And part of our messaging today is you never know, like there’s so much power and showing up because you never know what door or opportunity or who you’re going to be sitting across the table from. So thank goodness, we both showed up. And we not only showed up for ourselves, but we showed up for each other. And in that moment. It’s like we knew each other for our whole life, and we had just met it became just a real conversation Amy will share a little bit, but we just shared what was on our hearts and how hard and this journey is hard to do it alone and to really meet people and to build your business. Being moms we are both boy moms. So we just kind of laid it Anything on the table during that first meeting, and that was the seed of what women’s business really came to be. I’ll let Amy kind of share a little bit there. But we met through networking.
Jessica Miller
[05:11] Love. Okay, let’s hear your side of it, Amy.
Amy Pocsik
[05:18] All right. So my story is crazy, too. So I started as a CPA, and then, you know, through a series of events decided that I really was meant for more, and I wasn’t going to settle. But I think it’s important to note that sometimes that decision happens, and there’s time that goes by before you actually can act on that decision. And so it took me a while, and I decided that I was going to try being a mortgage broker became a mortgage broker overnight. And it was the first time in my life, I had to go, how do I get my next client? Where is my client? Where are they coming from. And so that forced me onto the networking scene that I had never been on before. And so I was going to every networking event, taking coffee with anybody with me. To get my next client, and it was leaving me exhausted, it was draining my marketing dollars. I was walking into rooms and feeling invisible. I was feeling unwelcomed. And I was really frustrated. And so when I met with Melissa, I said, Okay, here’s someone who has been networking for 20 years, I must be missing something. So I said most of where do amazing, powerful women go to Network to lift each other up. That’s someplace where they’re fueled. And they’re doing really great business. And she said, you know, he, I don’t see a place like that. So we decided in that moment, to create the table that we wanted to sit around. I said, you know, I’m meeting all these amazing women, you have a network of incredible women, what would happen if we got them in a room. So in that moment, our pain became our purpose, our irritation became our inspiration. And if somebody is listening to this, and they don’t have a business yet and want them to really think about that, or if they do have a business, a great opportunity is to just see where the gap is in the market. What’s the problem that you can bring a really innovative solution to. And so that’s what we did. Literally, our business was born out of a desire that we needed in our lives. And so we got these amazing women in a room. And magic happened, we were lifting each other up, we were supporting each other, we were opening doors of opportunity for each other. So we were soaring in our businesses, and also being fueled, personally. And it was really, just incredible. So we did this for a year.
Jessica Miller
[08:04] So amazing.
Amy Pocsik
[08:07] Just really super organic. And then the women that were there started inviting other women. But the light bulb moment, just the light bulb moment was when women from other communities started reaching out to us and saying, hey, I want that what you’re doing in my community. And that was the moment Melissa and I said, Hmm, other women need this. I think that we can serve others in this way.
Melissa Gilbo
[08:40] Again, and I, I did show up to that meeting.
Jessica Miller
[08:45] I do think this is a really important point here, the two things that you said, that really resonate. And for this audience that’s listening to this. We’re all entrepreneurs, for the most part that listen to this podcast. And so there were two key pieces that you mentioned that both touched your business but are around your philosophy. And that is, number one we talk a lot about when we think about offers what the problem is that you’re solving and owning a problem. And really getting clear on what that is and who needs it. And in essence, setting a category of your own through owning that problem. A lot of times when we think about businesses, we’re kind of in this quote unquote, competitive space, like in this competitive front. But when you get really clear about that gap, and then you go and you fill it and you own it, you end up becoming a category of one. And that’s where it gets really good. And people start to catch on to that because they’re seeing the gap too. And that’s how you know it’s working. And to your point, Amy, it’s like you don’t wake up one day and you’re like, this is the problem.
It’s almost, it’s organic, you kind of feel into it, but it’s such a huge part of then crafting whatever it is that you’re going to offer people are the solution to that problem once you’re really clear on that. And then the other piece that I think is another huge piece of the puzzle is, it’s so important to have an audience, it’s so important to continue to grow that network and grow that traffic. And you don’t have to be a Facebook ads machine. Or you don’t have to be like running around waving your business card and in some random way, throwing spaghetti at the wall. It’s about finding people who align with you, and really have built something to help foster that outcome as well. And then joining forces with them, which is why people join the web L and want to hang out with all of us, because it’s amazing, right? So I think those are really important pieces. So when people started reaching out to you, and you started to like, the momentum is building, what happened next, like, what did you go out the door with? You’re like, Okay, I’ve got a problem. Now we’re going to solve it. How are we going to do that? Like, how did you put that offer together?
Melissa Gilbo
[11:00] I think, in this moment, as we were, we were putting this together. And we had that aha moment. I think for the listeners, what Amy and I did next might be shocking. But we actually paused. And we came together. And we said, you know this is needed. We want to be able to serve and help more people. But if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it. Well, we’re going to do it with such high intention, standards, and quality. Get clear on our mission and our values and what our heart was talking about. So in that moment, we didn’t leap, we didn’t just dive in, we took a moment together, we paused. And we took time, I want to say a good eight months between that aha moment. And when we first put our first offer out there, and we did the work we surrounded ourselves with, as Amy says, are a team. We interviewed many lawyers, we went in search of our accountant, we have the foundation that we built. And I think that’s very important for our listeners, like you have to have that solid foundation for this to sustain, and have the insurances in place, the legal team, all of the things to be able to accept your first dollar. So again, eight months later, we did roll out our membership model and accepted our first dollar. And I remember that moment, Amy and I were like, how much should we should we? You know, it was frightening, but exciting all at the same time.
Jessica Miller
[12:49] That’s so awesome.
Amy Pocsik
[12:51] Yeah. I think the one thing I would add to that Melissa nailed it on the head. It’s we absolutely assembled a team, people who believed in our mission and believed in us as founders. We also did, I call it a listening tour. So the women that were around that table, Melissa and I were coffee dating with them and listening to their pain points and their experience and asking them really pointed questions like how can we help you? What is missing from your professional experience? What would you love to see? And just listening? And that really elevated the quality of what we were able to deliver. And we still do that?
Jessica Miller
[13:39] Yeah, today we’re so you both are masters, at connecting with your members, and asking the questions and offering value and listening to the response and collecting the data. It really feels like you’re just right in that space with your members, which is huge when it comes to building your business and having that relationship and knowing where to put energy to give people value.
Melissa Gilbo
[14:07] It’s so true. Jessica, I appreciate you saying that. And thank you for that feeling. Because, you know, this is all heart. Amy and I have 100% of our hearts in this and our members are everything. So this entire community that we are building is for the members. It’s for all of us. We’re all growing together, we’re learning together, and to be able to listen in and ask, what do you want is so powerful in terms of building a business. And I just want to go back to the early days real quick. You said something just go vote. You know, it’s not all social media. It’s not all the heart of building a business is relationship based. Right so when Amy and I got real We clear on putting people first and in the business will come it was a game changing moment for us and how we lead and how we educate others I grew up with the business came first, it was all about the numbers, it’s about the referrals, and the people were put in the back. So we’re just flipping the script here. We’re like disrupting the word networking, it doesn’t have to feel so heavy. And like Amy says, you know, networking is just a great word for helping, it’s helping others. So we’re here to flip the script, and, you know, change the game and the whole entire community space, the networking space. So relationships. First is our is our foundation.
Jessica Miller
[15:51] I want to talk a little bit about that, because I think a lot of business owners have heard this right. If you’re listening to this, you’ve probably heard it’s about relationships and put people first we’ve heard this, but actualizing that is a whole different ballgame. So tell me a little bit about how you do that. Like, it sounds great. But how do you actually execute on that? Do you sit down and, you know, create an avatar first, like, walk me through like a day in the life of the two of you just sitting around the table?
Amy Pocsik
[16:22] Yes, so the number one practice that transformed my business and my life is called give 30 Spend 30 minutes a week, purely creating value for others. It’s on my calendar, it’s 30 minutes of making connections for others, giving reviews, a Social Shout Out. Making Connections opportunities for others. But you have to action this right? If you do give 30 consistently every single week, your business in your life is going to transform because you become a value to others by helping them. And opportunities and doors are going to open for you. But I’m really clear that when we’re doing the gift 30 There’s no expectation of it coming back, right? It’s purely pumping out positivity, and helping others. It is the transformative practice in business and life.
Jessica Miller
[17:31] So when you’re thinking about your business, if you’re incorporating that give 30 practice, when you’re sitting down to think about what to do, I’m just making this up, we’re going to look at 2023 for the rest of the year, we want to think about what things we’re putting out there that are going to be valuable, maybe we’re going to optimize some of our offers, when you go into that space together to sit down and do that work. What do you do first? What comes up in your brain first? And what do you do first?
Amy Pocsik
[18:03] So when we’re looking for what we’re going to put out there, right, just like write new offers, and all of our brains are fully focused on the women that we serve in our community. So we are thinking about, how do they spend their day from the moment they wake up to the moment their head hits their pillow? what’s on their mind? What do they want? What do they not don’t want, what’s keeping them up at night? Like, we know our members are building businesses. They’re thinking, where’s my next client coming from? They’re thinking, I have so much on my plate, how am I going to move my business forward. And then from that place of service, we’re creating an experience inside the membership that supports them and fuels them to
Jessica Miller
[18:55] Okay, so you’re almost going back to that place where that woman is in the center of your mind. You’re thinking about her problem and how to help her in service to her results. And then you’re coming up with what it is that you can do within your business to make that happen. So it’s always people first, as you mentioned, relationships, because really leveraging what you’re hearing and understanding and then creating the solution to all of that as part of your offers or optimizing your offers. Love
Amy Pocsik
[19:29] Yeah, and I think it’s so important to always be listening. So focus groups, talking to our members, just always listening, always having an open ear. You know, I’m going to tell you something, we got some advice a few years ago, that we wholeheartedly rejected. We got the advice that we should be leaders and that we shouldn’t our members should not have access to us because the thinking was, they won’t pay for it. Melissa, and I said absolutely not. Our members are everything to us, we want to show up for them and be there for them, have an open ear for them. Because they are the center of our universe.
Jessica Miller
[20:13] And that’s what makes your “job” (quote unquote), so much more fun. When you’re touching your people, and it’s impactful, I’ll never understand the Iron Curtain thing about that person either. And I just don’t get it. It’s like, okay, just go sit on mountain Olympus and don’t talk to anyone. No, that’s not how it works. You know, and then you’re in this like, glass bubble, and it’s miserable. Plus, you get so much more insights and opportunity to add value when you’re in the mix with people, you know, plus, there’s so much you can learn from your members.
Amy Pocsik
[20:48] I was just going to say that what we received back from our members, Melissa, and I personally and professionally, I can get teared up thinking about this, the way that they have enriched our lives is absolutely incredible. And that’s why I like to say a powerful business is meant to transform lives, including the founder. Right?
Jessica Miller
[21:10] Yeah, there’s something so powerful to about loving on the clients that you have. So all of you, I mean, as business owners, both of you know, we have such a focus on the inbound marketing side. And of course, right networking is about meeting people that you don’t know. And that’s part of inbound, and it can be very organic. I think that part of the whole puzzle is strengthened when you love the people who are in your space, they’re in your business already. they’ve opted-in to hear from you. They’re the people that are your paying clients. If you make that experience, second to none, guess what they do? Tell everybody about it. They tell everyone about it. And it’s when your marketing dollars go down, their value goes up, you’re having a blast, and the whole thing continues to get tighter and tighter and tighter and more powerful. And we forget that sometimes because we’re so focused on the front-end stuff. But it seems like that’s where you guys have cracked the code here.
Melissa Gilbo
[22:12] Yes, I love what you just said. So you know what to give, we always know the more you give, the more you receive. But another point that I want to make sure our listeners really, really take from this is that you only are as busy as you say you are right. You cannot become that busy that you stop meeting people. It is so important to get out there. And how are you today? Tell me about you tell me your story. That is the real foundation, right? Like, I know, Amy does. We both hold Fridays as our day to really get out there and connect with others. So you know, you have control over your calendar, you have control over your time. So when you sit down, I really want everybody to be intentional on what lands on their calendar. So right now block off Friday mornings, for you to grow up and connect with somebody. Maybe it’s somebody that you already know that you want to like, reconnect with, maybe it’s somebody that you admire, and you want to kind of put yourself out there and reach for that coffee date, because it’s so excited when you can. So there’s all different ways to really, you know, connect and use your time, intentionally and with your good heart, you know, with intention to give and help and support and cheer them on. Is all kind of circling back to this whole conversation, which is so awesome. Yeah.
Jessica Miller
[23:53] And it goes back to what you were saying before, it’s that people underestimate the power of even just one relationship. You do not need to be out there talking to 10,000 people 24/7, even those few intentional connections, and I think the key is intentional and strategic. Right? Who are your people? Where are they hanging out? Who knows them? Who can help you who’s going to cheer you on? You know, that’s not everybody. So getting very intentional about that. And pour, like really channeling all that energy into that conversation that you’re having with someone. The ripple effect of that is huge. And so huge. Yeah, it can be really efficient if you do it correctly. And I wanted to just step back. So when you bought these women together in that first membership, it probably looked a little different than it looks right now. So tell me about that. So they came sort of around the table then. And what were you focused on then and then how did it evolve?
Melissa Gilbo
[25:01] I’m going to take this real quick. And then Amy can add. But when we built the table that we wanted to sit around, we had control over what this was going to look like. So we know it’s networking for adults, we took all the CRA P out and really became intentional what this was going to look like. But I think the first moment, to be honest with you, we thought people were going to come for referrals, we thought this was going to be like a referral-based model. But it was so eye opening to Amy and I, as we started welcoming in, you know, women into the community, they were coming for so many different reasons they were coming for connection, for community, collaboration, for kindness, for charity, for all these different things that just, it was so exciting to see this evolve right before our eyes,
Jessica Miller
[25:59] I bet. And then so you observed you were in the mix with them, you started to see these things. And I think this isn’t uncommon, right? As business owners, we start to grow our business, especially if we’re putting out a new offer, or we’re doing something like that, you start to kind of get different people with different desires. So now they’re at your table. And then what happened.
Amy Pocsik
[26:23] I want to share a funny story that I think will resonate. When we first started, right? This goes to the point that your business will never outgrow you. And so there has to be a lot of inner work before you can get an outer result. And Melissa and I, when we first started, we put out a $45 membership. There was a lot of inner work that we had to do around owning our value, understanding the result that we could deliver for people and really stepping into that leadership position. So quickly, we realized that wasn’t going to work. And we completely revised and went back to the drawing board considered where we could really add a lot of value that would move the needle forward for women in their business. So going back to the drawing board, put together something that had a lot more value in it and came back at the $400 level. And that was a that felt really good to us at the time. And so again, we hold the networking piece, but it’s also about the education our community is really invested in and about the education because we believe that everybody has something to learn, and everybody has something to teach. And so tapping into that collective knowledge is a way that we can all lift Well, I
Jessica Miller
[27:51] love that. And you’ve done some very unique and specific things as part of the membership that I think really Foster’s that talk a little bit about that you have recurring, you know, trainings and things that you do, like what are some of those things that you feel like you offer that really move the needle for these members?
Amy Pocsik
[28:12] Yeah, absolutely. So monthly power hours. Again, that is a win for our members and a win for the community, because we’re, our platform belongs to our members. So this is an opportunity for a member to shine and pour into the community with her expertise, and that we all get to benefit. We also do quarterly accelerators, which is a deeper dive on our topic. The cool thing about that is you get to be in this learning opportunity with women from all over the country. So that’s a lot of fun. And also just making sure that every single one of our meetings, in addition to the networking has a content piece, so that we’re always learning and growing. Our members are women who want to achieve the highest and best version of themselves.
Jessica Miller
[28:58] I love that. And I think the give and get in that reciprocal nature of those pieces are really important. It also takes the spotlight off of you as the owner. And I think for business owners, this is a big thing. We think the value often only comes from us, like what we know or what our experience is, and that is a catalyst for what we create. But when you start to bring in the collective expertise, that’s when things really explode, because then it’s cumulative. And everything is kind of coming together and feeding into that and it provides so much value whether it’s for you or for your members to be part of that which is awesome.
Amy Pocsik
[29:45] Jess I love that you brought this up. I think business owners leave a lot on the table when they don’t build community around their brand in a lot of different ways. And you brought up such a beautiful thing.
Jessica Miller
[29:57] Yeah, I think it’s everything and it also brings together that feeling of collaboration versus competition. Because the truth of the matter is, none of us are really in competition with each other. I have had so many incredible relationships with people who do exactly the same thing that I do. There are gazillion business coaches out there. And we all know, there’s all that place for us, especially if you get really clear on your problem, that problem, and really leaning into that. And your unique solution to that is huge. And I think when people build around that, to your point, if it’s on a solid foundation, those offers are optimized, people can move through that customer journey in a way that is efficient, and feels awesome. Everything comes together. And I think it does start with you as the business owner, it’s that intention, it’s where your heart really is. I always joke like people have a BS meter like a mile wide in this world where we are barded with information, they can tell when your intentions are not pure. They know it, this is an energetic exchange. And so when you’ve built something around something you really care about around people you really care about it shows and then your offers, they evolve in line with those intentions. And so now you guys are here, doing amazing things and your membership has evolved and your business has evolved. So tell us what is going on now for WBL. And where do you see it going? Like, okay, what’s 2023 People have come out of the pandemic, it’s been a hell of a ride. What do people/what are you seeing that they need? And what are you let’s lit up about creating and putting out there?
Melissa Gilbo
[31:43] Oh, my God, Jessica, we’re just getting started. I’m telling you it started here. So to answer your question, we’re five, we’re coming up on our fifth birthday. We’re a national brand within the United States. So we’re so excited to be able to offer this community beyond you know, just our sphere here in Massachusetts. We are we’re at about, I don’t know, 48 chapters now with an incredible community of women that are here because they want to not because they have to. So yeah, I mean, our goal here is to really grow intentionally, and to be smart about our growth and not to just open chapters just to open chapters, it’s never been about the numbers, it’s about the community. It’s about the locations that really need this in their in their area. It’s about the leaders that have our values, they understand our mission and our hearts for helping and supporting others. You know, Amy and I, we meet every month for like CEO time, and we couldn’t, we could open another 40 chapters tomorrow if we wanted to. But our intentionality and the value and the experience, all really matter. So we’re just slowly stepping and growing. And we’re not stopping we’re here. Fast forward to today, Amy and I are both 100% full time Women’s Business League, I made the decision to leave my career of over 20 years that I worked so hard for, but I never looked back, it was scary as heck, I’m not gonna lie, making the decision to leave corporate and really follow my passion and my heart. That was that moment when I was like, oh, this is the more this is, this is what I’ve been feeling my whole life in terms of giving more helping more. And now I see it. And when people say you know, you never work a day in your life, I never understood that until now. When you really, really find your passion.
Jessica Miller
[34:05] I love that. I love that. And so your membership, you’ve taken all these great pieces, the Monday morning meetings, the trainings, the you know, accelerators. And what do you see as that next step? Do you feel like you’re going to add more like what are you, you know, peering into as far as like needs and even if it’s not something that you have fully baked, but like what is your heart calling you toward your community needing?
Amy Pocsik
[34:31] Yeah, such a great question. So as high achieving women, business owners like we never stopped just ICU you never stopped like Right? We’re always learning and growing. And I think what has really propelled us forward as a community is that we are so committed to the growth of our members and our growth of us as leaders as well. And so we what keeps me up at night as the founder is how can we best support Our members, what do our members need right now to prepare them for what’s coming and what’s ahead. And so what you’re gonna see in you’re already seeing some of this is enhanced, even more enhanced programming. We just brought back or made it part of the membership, the industry roundtables, because as you alluded to those connections within your industry are gold, a place where it’s a brave space where you can talk about what’s working in the coaching world, what’s working in the real estate world, we are seeing huge collaborations and innovation coming out of our industry roundtables. So those are happening once a quarter, we will continue to lead in the networking and education space for the foreseeable future. We are so dialed in in the success.
Melissa Gilbo
[35:50] Yeah, we want to be the only option in this space. The we you know, this is
Jessica Miller
[35:57] that web shell, you know, love it. What do you think your biggest hurdle is? Like, what do you think is that thing that’s like, coming up that might stand in your way?
Amy Pocsik
[36:09] This is a great question; we grew very quickly. So as Melissa said, we have a waitlist of people that want to open chapters, we have paused on that. I have not fully but slowed way down. Because we just hired two new people to grow our team to support the growth, because it’s more important for us to maintain the integrity of our experience of our members, then it is to just grow really, really rapidly. And so for us, we want to grow strong, we want this community to, to maintain and continue to be this special place that it is. So that’s
Jessica Miller
[36:45] I love that there’s you know, it sounds so sexy to be growing like wildfire, but it’s really about controlled and sustained growth. And that is one of the things that I see the most as a growth and sales consultant, when we start to look again, coming back to those gaps, when you start to look at that customer journey, and you start to really see where there might be opportunities to tighten that up. So that it runs super efficiently, super cost effectively. And then you turn the heat up, you just drive people to a model that can be broken, it doesn’t give you more of the good stuff, it gives you more of a headache, and the experience goes down. And the experience is really what drives the you know, the whole growth for the members. So I love that you’re doing that. And you’ll get so much insight, and you have experience to know that when you go slow, you go faster, because that’s how you started.
Melissa Gilbo
[37:43] Yes, taking all the behind the scenes, you know, you’re thinking of the foundation of a house, right? Like your backyard is just as important as your front yard side. Like that all matters. So those systems and procedures are so very critical and important. Training your team loving on your team appreciating you know, all of that is near and dear to what Amy and I are doing kind of behind the scenes that you don’t see. That’s important to us as well. And you know what else is really fun that we’re looking forward to is we love a good event. I mean, we’d love to get out there and celebrate and, and be with everybody. So we’re not going to slow down in that space either in terms of you know, some of our signature events that folks are just, you know, they’re already anticipating next year. They’re anticipating this. So we’re super excited to be out there doing that, too.
Jessica Miller
[38:43] So are you saying there’s going to be a WB l dance party that’s what we’re looking at. I’d be there in a heartbeat ladies, I’m just putting the plug for that offer?
Melissa Gilbo
[38:54] Well, we do have a summer soiree coming up. So I would love to kind of have that save the date come out with its August 17 is our signature event summer soiree where it’s a little bit of that community and celebration and there might be some dancing this year 817 Hold that date. location will be in Hebron, Massachusetts, for those of you that can attend we would love to have you and meet you. Tickets are not on sale yet, so you’ll have to kinda stay in touch with us to see when those drop.
Jessica Miller
[39:29] Yes, I’d love that. And I’ve heard and I have been witness to the summer Soiree. It is pleased to be so for all of you listening, especially locally, August 17. But that brings me to this next point of where can we find you so where are you all hanging out where we can come check web all out and you know, get to know you guys more and get on that waitlist and all the things
Melissa Gilbo
[39:52] so we are on our platforms that we love is Instagram, Facebook, and link then. So we are very visible there. So you can connect with us in any way on those platforms. Our website is women’s business league.com. It’s live, all of our events are there. So it’s a real time website. So that’s a great resource for anybody looking for more info. Yeah, and we have an email info at women’s this league.com For anybody that wants to chat,
Amy Pocsik
[40:27] and love it. And also just want to mention, if you want to follow me and Melissa, personally, you can find us on LinkedIn and Instagram and our names. We, like we said, we’re so accessible, we love hearing from you. So please don’t hesitate to
Jessica Miller
[40:43] Yeah, I love that. And for anyone who is looking for a community like this second to none, go to www.womensbusinessleague.com. And check out the chapters in your area. There are, every one of them is amazing. Every one of them has their own flair, which makes it really fun. There’s a lot of collaboration between the chapters. But if you’re looking to bring your networking to the next level, find those women you’ve been looking for that are going to cheer you on help you give you brass tacks of growing your business as well as really locking arms with you. I would highly, highly recommend that you go to the website and look for those chapters. Melissa, and Amy, oh, my goodness, thank you so much for being on the show today. We are so inspired by the work that you’re doing, the way that you’re giving back how you’re loving on your people, both what you create, and you as role models. It’s just so awesome to be in your space. And I think people will gain so much from listening to this episode. And I hope they all go and find you on all the social platforms and on your website. So thank you so much for being here.
Melissa Gilbo
[41:44] Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. This was so much fun.
Jessica Miller
[41:48] So good to have you and for everybody listening until next week. We’ll see you then have a great one.
