Caitlin Bacher is a rockstar Facebook groups expert, a host of a group called Social Boss, and she shares her brilliance with us in today’s episode, around how to create, manage, and grow successful profitable Facebook communities – for both your free audience AND your paid programs. In recent news, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook groups are going to become a bigger focus on the platform – so this is very timely. If you have a Facebook Group, or want to create one, this is a must-listen.

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0:43 Caitlin Bacher is a rock star when it comes to Facebook groups but she wasn’t a natural when she first started. In 2015 she transitioned from social media management to consulting and then eventually into course work. 

2:15 After years as social media manager Caitlin grew tired of the work and found that her own social media presence was suffering because of the time commitments to her clients.  She just jumped into the course world and slowly learned how to create a product that was useful for her clients

5:00 Caitlin was able to succeed with her course because she took action rather than worrying too much about what other people were doing.  Her first course wasn’t very fancy – mostly text with a few videos.  Despite being rather low-tech people loved the course and it generated great testimonials.

9:45 Before she ever got her first client she started a Facebook group which helped her to develop interest in her product. The group also allowed her to better understand her potential clients and allowed her to tailor the course to those people. 

12:48 Caitlin believes empathy means putting yourself in others shoes in order to understand their needs.  Sensitive people are great sales people because it makes it easier to connect with clients.  Caitlin believes she has always had an innate ability to understand what people really want not unlike method acting. 

16:07 One of the big problems Caitlin sees again and again is people telling clients what they need instead of anticipating their needs.  You have to listen to what they want.  Listening is important. You have to understand what your community wants.  It’s not about what you feel like teaching.  If you’re spending a ton of time on content that no one wants it can be incredibly dispiriting.

19:23 Caitlin has a community called social boss on Facebook.  It took a while to learn but she eventually realized that she was the leader of the group and had to set the tone.  By creating a positive tone the group is mostly a drama-free zone

21:38 Caitlin has a few admins helping her with the Facebook group.  She mostly spends about 20 minutes a day on the group.  She wants to have her fingers on the pulse of the group.  Her admins are doing the same.  It’s surprisingly unstressful.  She is also pretty ruthless about removing people and deleting posts.  It’s up to you to set the tone.

25:17 In Caitlin’s paid group she is an open book.  People can literally ask her anything about her business and she will tell them.  She won’t do the same in the free group because her brain isn’t free.  She won’t work with you to solve your problem in the free group.  She saves that for her paid students. 

27:16 In her free group she has a daily prompt five days a week – the prompts are just easy questions that foster community.  She also occasionally livestreams into her group a couple times a month.  For her paid group it’s a whole other level.  She is much more personally engaged with her members there. 

29:27 Real engagement means real connection.  People can tend to go into autopilot by just producing tons of content.  You have to understand that people are looking for real connection because they are lonely.  If you are able to break down the wall and personally connect you are going to create a vibrant community.

35:05 Caitlin has tried to focus on stepping outside of herself and focus on her student’s needs.  She tries to think about how she can help the people in her groups or in her course.  Having financial success can be scary.  During her first year she decided to shut down her course for a while because her level of success was intimidating.  She found a group of online friends she could connect with in order to talk about problems like money blocks.

39:18 What people don’t understand about the online world is that it can be really scary to put yourself out there.  People in your real world won’t understand your problems so you have to turn to others in your situation.

41:09 She has tried different morning routines in order to up-level herself. Kamila talks about her morning routine and the use of meditation.

43:27 Caitlin talks about the use of journaling in stressful times. 

44:57 We all have a natural ability to connect with others, if you aren’t connecting it’s because you’re holding yourself back. 

45:42 Caitlin has a gift for listeners – a Facebook group roadmap that can be found at caitlinbacher.com/Kamila