♟ Start And Grow Profitable Facebook Groups💲With Christina Jandali — Build A Life By Design with Adrienne Hill

Facebook groups aren’t dead. Don’t listen to anybody that tells you so. Facebook Groups are still up and running, and it’s your best way to building a community. Facebook is different from the other social platforms because it’s about inviting people into your own digital living room. Other platforms just let you look through the windows, but not Facebook. Learn how to start and grow a profitable Facebook Group with your host Adrienne Hill and her guest, Business Growth Strategist, Christina Jandali. Discover the power of building online relationships and how to leverage that. Find out how you can attract your ideal customers by just being yourself. Go out and start that community today!

#impactfulentrepreneurshow #guestinterview #facebookgroup

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♟ Start And Grow Profitable Facebook Groups💲

I'm here with Christina Jandali. She is a confidence-boosting and cash-creating business growth strategist who helps online business owners stand out, get seen and create six-figure-plus profits specifically by using free Facebook groups. We are so blessed to have her here. Honestly, Facebook groups are one of the most misunderstood strategies that a business owner can use. I'm super excited to dig into this topic. Thanks for being with us, Christina.

Thanks for having me.

We are so excited to dive into this. I hear so much conflicting information about Facebook groups. I hear people say, "They are the best way to grow your business. You must have one." There are a lot of naysayers out there who say, "They're overdone and overused. They're out. Don't bother." What would you say? What is unique about a Facebook group? What makes it a powerful strategy? Why is it still relevant despite people who maybe argue that it's not relevant anymore?

The best way I like to look at a Facebook group is you think about all your social platforms. When someone looks you up or you meet someone somewhere or you come across someone or they find you in a group or somewhere else or they hear you speaking, what's the first thing they do? They google search you, "I'll get into Google. Who is this person?" We start socially stalking them on social media and online to get to know more about that person. You think about your social platforms as your online business cards. It's these little points of contact. It's like window dressing.

It gives people the opportunity to be able to say and make a decision, "Do I want to know more about this person or go deeper with that person?" It's those first impressions that get to be created. It's the storefront. Your Facebook group however is not like a storefront. It's like, "Come on inside my digital living room. Let's hang out." It's inviting them into the store versus the window dressing out on the window that you're walking by that's making the decision if you want to go in the store. It's entirely different from any other social media outlet or platform because it's community-based. It's about bringing people in.

The funny thing is, they’re like, "Facebook groups are dead. They don't work anymore. The algorithms are changing or this or that." There's always something. I always think it's important before even going into the tactical piece or what's the best way to do something is taking a step back and say, "What is the business principle that a Facebook group is helping you facilitate? What's underneath all of that? What is it doing?" The fact of the matter is business hasn't changed. When you get down to its basics, what do you need to build a business? You need an audience and you need to sell them something.

It's pretty simple. That has not changed. I don't care what social platforms you're on, what changes online or whatever capacity. That will never change. Those are the business principles of what you need to have a business. If you're not making sales and you don't have people to sell to, you don't have a business. It's simple as that. We get that point but then when we take a look at it, certain business principles are created that move people forward with making a buying decision. There are psychological triggers that move people forward.

If we think about the basis of business, this brings me back to years ago. I worked in the financial industry. I remember one of my mentors in the financial industry. I had been out for lunch with her. I was asking her, "What was the key to success?" Working in the financial industry, I had the opportunity to work with the most affluent people in my community or space. I was asking, "What is that?" She worked with these people as well. She says, "Christina, it's simple. It's about building relationships." I was like, "That wasn't the answer I was looking for."

IES 20 | Facebook Groups — Facebook Groups: Facebook is entirely different than any other social media outlet or platform because it's community-based. Facebook is about bringing people in and hanging together.

I was hoping for something earth-shattering or this one thing you need because we're told, "There's always this one thing." It stuck with me. You've heard this before. People buy from people they know, like and trust. It's a matter of building relationships. The online space is a unique and cool way of building relationships in the sense that you can do it at scale, leverage it and reach people all across the globe. You're not limited to your small in-person community, city, town, state, province or country. You have the capacity to reach out to everyone. It's about building relationships.

The degree to which you get masterful at building relationships is the degree to which you start to scale your business. If you're building relationships one-to-one, then you're going to build a business one-to-one. If you build and scale your relationships as one-to-many, you have the capacity to build your relationships and scale one-to-many. It all comes down to building those relationships. You can't build true two-way conversations and relationships when you're speaking to your people.

You can draw people in by speaking out with them, meaning, "I've got this thing. Would you like to learn three steps to this?" You've got these little teasers or the window dressing that you have on your social media platforms but the only way you build relationships is to have a dialogue or a two-way conversation or understand what's going on in the other person's world. A Facebook group hands down is the number one way online to build those relationships. Have that two-way interaction and connection.

When you're having a conversation in the safe place of your community and the container of your community even though you're talking to one person, everyone else is watching that dialogue. Everyone else is in on that conversation. You could take those conversations one-to-one to the DMs. If we look at the business principles, it's about building a relationship instead of looking at, "Is it Facebook groups? Is it something else?" We want to build relationships. What is going to be the most effective way to build that connection and those relationships? That gets to be the decision.

Maybe one day in the future, there's going to be something else that's going to allow you to have that capacity to build those relationships with people at scale and have that ability to leverage at scale but there's no other option to build in that two-way dialogue, conversation or community. If we look at that, it's about building relationships. We could even get in further and talk about psychological triggers. It's about the community, social proof and what other people are doing, which is what you bring into your group but the foundation of it is focused on relationships.

When you're making friends out in the real world and you meet face to face when you're meeting a friend for coffee, you're going to have a very different conversation in that public place than you are if you invite them over into your living room at home and it's just the two of you or maybe a small group of friends. You're going to have more intimate conversations in that living room than in that coffee shop.

I love the analogy of it being a digital living room because not only does it feel more cozy and intimate but it's also not geographically limited because it's social media. For any of you who have been thinking that a Facebook group is not worth your time, we beg to differ here because this is the only platform that offers a feature like this that allows you to invite someone into your inner circle.

People love exclusivity. They love being part of something. They want to look around the room and say, "I'm in the right place. These people are like me." We're speaking about how Facebook and algorithms are always going to change. When you have a relationship with someone, it doesn't matter. If you have a relationship with a friend and you have this core relationship with them that you've built over time, is it going to make a difference if they have a Samsung or an Apple phone?

Think of your online social platforms as if they’re your online business cards.

Is it going to make a difference if they reply to your texts immediately or maybe they're delayed because they're busy in life and they don't respond to your texts right away? Maybe you send them a couple of texts before they get back to you. Is that going to change the fact that you've built a strong relationship and a friendship with someone that you've established over time? It's not going to make a difference. Why are we making algorithms the story as to why we shouldn't be doing things? There are going to be moments where we have better reach and opportunities.

The newer a social platform is, typically the easier it is to have more reach because soon, they start to realize, "Let's give it all for free and then start monetizing and charging for it." There's the transition of that but Facebook also wants people to stay on their platform, which means that they're going to have more people advertising on their platform. How do they get people to stay on the platform longer? Facebook groups are there because people are in the community.

They're consuming content inside of the Facebook groups much longer. It's beneficial to the company. That is always going to be a perk of recognizing what's in it for the company or the social media platform. Is it aligned with that? It's going to make your life a lot easier but if the algorithms change, it's not going to make a difference. It means that you need to pivot potentially on your strategy slightly of what you're doing inside of the group but it doesn't mean that groups are dead and it's not working.

If you know how to build relationships, then it doesn't matter what an algorithm says. For those who are reading this, they either don't have a Facebook group yet because they were lured into thinking that it's not worth your time incorrectly or they have one but it's dead and they're wondering. The first thing people see when they're looking for a group is they look at the name. Do you have any advice on what makes a good name and how to pick the name?

I've got something that I'll share with you after, which will help with the name as well. One of the things I think about when you want to name your group is don't get fancy with the language or the words and come up with something entirely different. When people start doing a play on words, you expect everyone to know what you mean. They're like, "I don't even know what you're talking about. This doesn't make any sense to me." They have to look at the picture and the banner to figure out how the word plays out based on what the name is. Be clear and concise.

It should speak to who your ideal clients are or whom they want to be. You can get a little bit more tactical if you want to speak about a specific topic and you're very niche that way but typically, it's about who your ideal clients are and who it is that they want to be. The moment that they see the name, they're like, "That's for me." You don't want them sitting there thinking, "I don't know who is this for. Is this right for me? Am I in the right place? Does this make sense?" Let's be clear and simple and get straight to the point of what they're going to get from being in there.

I love that advice. I get invited to a lot of groups all the time. I hate it when I see that the group is all about the creator. If you think about it, you're trying to attract an audience. You have to give them what they want. It makes sense that you would then name it in a way that speaks to who they are or whom they want to be. It's super helpful.

As you start growing this group, whether you're starting brand new, reviving a dead group or trying to take a vibrant group to the next level, what I hear asked a lot is, "How do I get people who want to buy and they're not there for freebies?" The most common thing I hear is, "There are tons of people in there. I give tons of value but all they want is everything for free."

There are a couple of things with this. Number one, you train your people on how to behave. Sometimes, they would be like, "I don't. This is how they are and how they're coming." You're training your people how to behave. If you pour in loads of free content, I see not just even Facebook group posts but struggling entrepreneurs burn themselves out because they're pumping out so much content. They're trying to come up with the latest tips and tricks.

They want to know the answers to all of the things to prove that they know enough, they're good enough and they can add enough value. They burn themselves out from adding all of that content. They're pouring all this content. What happens is they're leaving their people confused. It's like a splatter of paint of information that's blasted all over them. They're supposed to know how it fits together. They have no clue. They don't even want all that. They want to know, "I don't want a million steps. I want clarity on exactly what to do. What is my next step? What is it that I need to do?"

If you're pouring a bunch of free content and you're not using your free content to evoke desire and demand and to move people towards making a buying decision with you, you're training your people to be freebie seekers. When you train them to do that, you can't get frustrated when they don't buy because you've made it easy for them to consume and not have to do anything for it. When you do put an offer out, it feels uncomfortable for everyone and you because they're like, "I was giving. I never listened."

Give value this many times and then you can earn the right to sell. There's no quotient available. Let's take a look instead at, "What am I going to create? How am I going to create conversation, demand and desire for where I'm going to lead people and know that I'm helping them gain the clarity that they need on what they need to move forward versus telling them all the things that I know?" You want to train your people to buy and take action.

Getting people to engage in your content or getting them to like, comment or show up in your lives has nothing to do with you. I remember thinking, "If no one shows up or says this, I'm a loser. People are going to think that I don't know what I'm talking about." Trust me. I've been there. I remember having a pop-up group one time. No one was talking. I'm like, "This is what I teach. Everyone is going to think I'm a loser and I didn't even know what I'm talking about. What am I going to do?" It forced me to get creative.

The important thing is recognizing that. Getting them to engage has nothing to do with you. Getting them to action is helping guide them to be the type of person who is going to step up to the plate, raise their hand and take some action. It has nothing to do with how good your post is or anything like that. Being a business owner is developing the skillset to influence other people. Do you have the capacity to influence people to take an action step or comment?

You get to train your people to follow suit in what you're inviting them to do, which is a precursor to the invitation for them to purchase. You train your people. If you're giving a bunch of content away for free without having an idea of how that's going to lead to your paid offer, you're selling yourself and your people short because you're leaving them more confused. They don't know where to go. That's number one.

The second thing when it comes to freebie seekers is this. Everyone wants a result. No matter what you teach people, what you help people with or whatever the outcome is that you're going to help people with, everyone wants a result. If everyone wants a result, they will have a problem, a struggle or something frustrating and they want an outcome. For example, my ideal clients don't have enough clients. They want more clients and the result.

The degree in which you get masterful at building relationships is the degree in which you start to scale your business.

Freebie seekers desire more clients. Buyers desire more clients. What makes the difference? The freebie seekers are looking at gathering as much information as possible and learning as much as possible. At the moment where it requires any type of commitment, follow-through or stepping into action is the moment they're like, "I better learn something else." They walk away and step back.

They're like, "I want it but I don't want it that bad. I don't want it bad enough that I'm going to go through hard times, stretch myself to do something uncomfortable or get myself into action. I'm not committed. I will quit at the first signs of something showing up that is difficult," whereas buyers are not looking for piles of free information. What they're looking for is the right path, enough information to be making a buying decision and knowing that they need to invest their time, effort, money and energy into getting the help that they need but they might not exactly what that is.

They're doing research to determine and figure out what's going to be the best path for them that they're willing to take. They're ready to jump on but they're looking for enough information. What they want isn't the three-step strategy to grow their Facebook group as an example. What they want is a life. They want freedom. They want to go on vacation and have more time with their kids or their partner. They want to go have fun, explore, travel and live life.

They want the clients but they don't want to learn a tactic. What they want is a lifestyle that's going to go with it. When you want to speak to your buyers, you've got to speak to the bigger desire. There's the immediate promise of what you're going to help people with but how does that relate to what they want? That bigger vision and those bigger wants or the lifestyle ones that people crave are going to pull them through hard times.

That's going to have them show up when things aren't working out, which is going to have them dust themselves off if something doesn't work and continue to have them show up. That is whom you have to speak to. If you're speaking to the tactic of the little nuance of a hack that people can learn or a tip that people can learn, you're missing the opportunity to speak into the characteristics of the true wants or desires of your people.

Getting into the mind of the person, what's in their mindset, what are they thinking about or what's driving them is at the heart of it all. When you're a coach, you're not selling coaching. You're selling someone their dreams. That can probably apply to anything you're selling. You're not selling someone a weight loss shake. You're selling them their dream of feeling healthy and confident.

Something like that is an example. They don't care about the shake. They think that the shake is going to be able to make a difference for them. It's feeling sexy again. It's looking in the mirror and being happy with what they see. It's feeling like they can turn the lights on when they're going to get intimate with their partner and not be self-conscious about the way that they look.

It's about having the energy to be able to keep up with their kids that are running around like crazy, still being able to keep up with them and not relying on fumes and often the coffee varieties. It's taking a look at what is it that they truly desire. Freebie seekers don't care about that other stuff. They're good enough with the status quo. There might be a slight nuisance or something.

It's like, "It's good enough. It would be nice if I had that but I don't want it," whereas someone that lives, breathes, sees that, wants that and craves that more than anything is the person that's going to take action, the shakes and the coaching. That's the new person that's going to be working on this and go through what it's going to take so that they can create that life but they can't do it on their own. They need the tools and support to be able to help get there.

There's something subconscious too. If you're struggling to grow a Facebook group and all you have is freebie seekers but you're not willing to invest in yourself to learn what it takes to move beyond that, there's something psychologically, even if you're not seeing it in your videos or your posts. If you're not willing to invest money, your followers aren't going to be willing to invest either. There's something in your vibe that people can tell. I don't know how to explain why. Have you ever experienced that or seen people with that shift? If you're not willing to invest in yourself, no one else is going to be willing to invest in whatever it is you're trying to sell.

Our intuition is there to protect us. People can feel when there's something off. You can't preach what you don't believe and what you're not practicing. Unfortunately, a lot of people in the online space often are saying, "Invest because then you're going to invest. People would start to invest a bigger price tag and more money. Do this and you're going to be ready." I get that but understanding what's beneath the surface is making sure that you're aligned with what you're speaking of. If you're telling people, "This is the way it is," and you are not practicing and living that, you're not being the authentic person. People can sniff out a fake at any moment.

I remember when I first started online. I was getting into coaching. I signed up for and did this coaching certification. I intended to be a coach. I was like, "This is life-changing. People need to know this." I remember thinking to myself, "How can I sell coaching if I've never purchased it?" I did my coaching certificate and practice sessions. I realized how much of a difference it was but I hadn't invested in a personal coach for me. I've made my first decision in investing with a coach thing.

I want to be on the receiving end of this so I know what it's like to receive this service. I also want to be the person that's in alignment with what I'm sharing. If I'm not willing to do it, how am I going to expect other people to be able to do that? What happens is if you don't, you have this ping-pong match in your mind, "I'm saying this but I'm doing this." It comes through.

People's intuition kicks in to protect themselves from you. There's something that doesn't feel aligned here. It doesn't mean that you're picture-perfect about the things that you do. I see people talk about this. Let's say you help people lose weight. Let's say you're not at your perfect body weight. You teach people about business but you don't have your business exactly where you want it. It doesn't matter.

It means that on your journey, you're in the progress of what you're doing as well and recognizing that if you aren't willing to make those investments in yourself and your future, then how do you ever expect anyone else to be making those decisions? If you're not a buyer and you're consuming all the free stuff and thinking that you can bootstrap everything together and piece it all together, you're letting out a bad vibe to other people.

Bootstrap, figure it out and piecemeal it together. You get to lead by example and demonstrate. Maybe you even had an experience where you're teaching someone something or maybe you've talked to someone about something multiple times. One day, they say, "I finally get what you said." You're teaching kids things. If you tell your kids something and your behavior and actions are different than what you're telling them, do you think they're going to listen to what you say and follow what you do?

If you're not willing to invest in yourself, no one else is going to be willing to invest in whatever it is you're trying to sell.

They're going to follow what you do. It doesn't matter. Your mouth can keep going and telling them everything. They're going to follow your action steps. The same goes for your business. What's non-verbal is equally if not even more important than the words that come out of your mouth but yet we focus so much on making sure we have the right words or the perfect things to say. It's about how you get to show up. It's a strange concept to understand.

Quite honestly, I still feel like I'm figuring it out. Years later and multiple companies later, I'm still figuring it out but it's the lessons that we get to continue to learn, who it is that we get to show up as and how we get to lead by example. Hands down in the uncertainty of the world that we're in, people crave authenticity more than anything else. They don't want fake, fluffy and pretend stuff.

They want real authenticity. That means being true to your word and being whom you say you are, not just on camera because it's like, "I'm like this on camera," but when your camera shut off and no one is watching, are you showing up and behaving as the person that you're portraying to be? When those match up is when you start to find so much more alignment with attracting your ideal people because it's not a façade, pretending or someone else.

I came from a corporate world. It was ingrained to teach you to be different. In the financial world, let's put on a very professional face. Everything is sophisticated and proper. Behind the scenes, you would be going out and having fun. That would be so not what you would project. It took me a long time to unlearn that and realize, "I get to show up 100% fully as me." That can feel scary and a little bit vulnerable but that is going to be the thing that's going to create the raving fans and the connection and be building those relationships, not when you're pretending to be someone else.

Being a recovering corporate person myself, I can relate to that. You had to be so buttoned up in front of those people. You can never be yourself. That's what I love so much about entrepreneurship. The more you step into being who you are, the more success you're going to have. Be yourself. Assuming the audience is on board, they're realizing there's a way to name it.

There's a way to put content out there where it's not like, "On Tuesdays, I post this. On Thursdays, I write," but giving people a clear pathway like, "Here's how to get the result you want." If they have all those foundations in place, how do they grow this thing? Tons of people say, "I'm trying to grow it as quickly as possible but it's a ghost town." What's the quickest piece of advice you can give about growing the group itself?

There are three ways to grow your group, free, joint venture and paid. Free is all the free stuff like blogging, being on social media, maybe free speaking and all the free things that you do. Free is going to be slower and take more time. That's why it's great. Most people aren't going to spend all the time to be able to do that. They can provide high-quality leads but it takes a little bit longer to build up the traction for that.

A joint venture is where you partner with other people who are already marketing to your ideal audience. It's one of my favorite ways of growing. It's tapping into partnering with other Facebook group posts and other people that already have an email list of your ideal clients getting on virtual stages and in-person stages. An affiliate joint venture partner is where you're tapping into already existing audiences. Giveaways can be great examples of that. Joint venture traffic is super effective and can be incredibly fast. Sometimes it can be free or paid. It could go either way with a joint venture but it's leveraging relationships. We're talking about foundation.

The third is paid traffic. You're sending people paid to advertise or paid Facebook ads. You typically would send them to an opt-in page and then the thank-you page and invite them to your group. You can't send an ad directly to the group but you would have them opt-in, get on your email list and then join your group. Those are your three methods of growth. If it comes to free, sometimes it's the thing that you can take action on to start getting a result right away and get started. Even though it is a longer-term strategy that continues to build over time, it's still something that you can apply and do immediately. I've got a little something for you on that as well.

I can't wait to dig in but I want to add that I love the clarity of the three elements. Everyone is familiar with the free piece. Some people have never heard of the joint venture approach and/or they're afraid of the paid approach. They ignore that whole half the equation. They're simply growing it for free only and struggling. I love that advice. What I love about a joint venture, it's my favorite, is when it comes to PR, getting your name out there or getting featured, you don't have to be featured by the Huffington Post or Forbes Magazine. Joint ventures are creating PR for each other.

How many times have you heard in the entrepreneurial circles, "We rise by lifting others?" It's almost so cliche that people don't listen to it anymore but truly, joint ventures are the embodiment of rising by lifting others because it's creating a partnership and PR for each other and not waiting for some third party to come and validate you but it's stepping up and saying, "Let's do this together."

What I love is that it comes full circle to what we talked about. It's all about relationships. That's super helpful advice. Thank you so much. You've referenced a couple of times that you have a gift that could help our audience to get started with their Facebook group. Tell us a little bit more about that. I'm excited about this bundle.

Grow Your Group bundle is something that we sell typically. It's yours for free. It's my special gift to you. Make sure you pick it up while it's free. We will have a unique link as well to join. Here's what you're going to get. Number one, we talked about naming your group. That's when people decide, "Am I going to click to join or not?" If they pass your group, you've lost them. We want to capture them. You've got that split-second to be able to have them make that decision. There's a naming blueprint, which has a fill-in-the-blank blueprint to make things simple. Who likes templates? I love templates. It makes things so much easier.

The second piece is the Perfect Intro Post. It's how to write that perfect introductory post. Sometimes it can be confusing, "How do I demonstrate credibility and likability at the same time? How do I not sound braggadocious? How do I be real? How do I be a human?" We get stuck on it. There's an example in there and a template to fill in on how to write that perfect intro post.

We have had students that have used this that had no engagement and then suddenly had dozens of people responding. It's something super simple and easy that you can apply. The third thing is you need to have members. There's a five-step mini-course for you on how to promote and tell people about your Facebook group to be getting those members in. You can go through that little five-step mini-course to start taking action on those pieces to be getting those numbers inside of your group.

I love it. What an abundant gift. Thank you so much. It truly gives people everything they need. Name the group, grow it as quickly as possible and welcome people in such a way that they start engaging from the very first day that they're in the group. That's awesome. Join us in the Facebook group. We're going to continue the conversation. You can hit the ground running growing your Facebook group. Join us there. Thank you so much, Christina, for your time. We so appreciate you.

Thanks for having me, Adrienne.

I'll see you in the next session.

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About Christina Jandali

Christina Jandali is a confidence-boosting, cash-creating Business Growth Strategist who helps online business owners stand out, get seen, and create 6-figure+ profits using a free Facebook Group.