Where is Wonderful Web Women?
Looking for episodes of the top-ranking video podcast Wonderful Web TV?
You can find 4 years of short and sweet Marketing, Motivation, and Mindset videos over here on Youtube.
Hey if you clicked on a link expecting to arrive at Cool Cats Video Marketing Academy or Wonderful Web Women (or anything that starts with Wonderful Web for that matter) and you landed up here, you are in the right place!
After 10 wonderful years Wonderful Web Women has closed and the website you are on now is the next stage in the evolution of this powerful tribe online.
Read on to find out The Wonderful Web Women story and watch or listen to the behind-the-scenes podcast to learn how the Wonderful Web Women brand built so quickly, why it won so many awards, and why on earth I chose to close my award-winning website and launch the Romance Your Tribe brand.
Wonderful Web Women. The Evolution of a Revolution
There are also many wonderful online communities of women supporting each other to create success in a way that builds on the strengths of women and defines success in a way that is meaningful for women who often have many hats to wear and roles to fill.
Yet, over 10 years ago the online space was very different.
It's hard to believe that women were hungry to find visible female role models creating success online. There were also far fewer online communities for women to find like-minded women creating successful business online.
Yet the reality is, 10 years ago online business was dominated by men (far, far more than the still male dominated industry in 2019) and women wanted change.
Wonderful Web Women became an early leader in that space.
Read on to find out more.
The Revolution Started in The Women's Toilets
Yep.
If you've ever been to a conference and tried to go to the Ladies toilets in the lunch break, you'll know what it's like. A long line of women with full bladders spilling out of the doors and into the hallway!
All talking!
It was at one of these conferences on Internet Marketing I started to notice a popular and passionate topic of conversation. The questions asked up and down the line of waiting women was:
"Why are there only men on stage?".
"I can't relate to all the testosterone"
"Where are the chicks?".
What if I could find successful women online and interview them about how they have created success. Would people want to listen? Can I make money from this idea?
I'd been burnt in the past by not researching a business idea thoroughly enough before investing years and all my savings and credit on growing the business. I was wiser by then.
So I spent months, attending Internet Marketing Conferences, and believe it or not, conducted my market research in the women's toilets using an MP3 recorder!
I knew without a doubt there was a huge demand and there was the potential to make this work.
I just had to find all these successful women, work out a way to interview them, build a mailing list, create a new website and work out a model to make business.
So I did the obvious thing: I set a launch date, announced it to everyone I knew then went flat out trying to work out how to do it!
The Project That Launched Fast
I'll cut out describing the months of lack of sleep (my kids were still young and in primary school then), the stress, the self-doubt, the scrambling to find things to sell on eBay to pay for website software (wordpress wasn't mainstream then for membership sites), the incredible support from my husband and the way I grilled everyone I met, on techy stuff, marketing stuff and business models. The money I spent on digital programs on "how to Interview" and "How to make money online".
A few months later this is what happened:
The Project That Turned into an international Business
The launch of Wonderful Web Women was a success by anyone's standards. Now the challenge was to turn it into a sustainable business. Again, I set some big goals and did some pretty gutsy moves, which I'll tell you about. Doing the scary thing paid off and the business momentum developed a life of it's own. Fuelled by "The Revolution" and the power of building a tribe around your business. Something that I have since specialised in helping my clients also achieve (hint: this website is called Romance Your Tribe!)
I mentioned before that I launched with an 8 week telesummit. The problem is, the 8th speaker was stuffing around on the dates (well her assistant was) and I was going live without a confirmed last speaker. So I did something a bit crazy.
I scheduled MYSELF as the final speaker and the topic? "How to build a targeted mailing list and gain instant credibility through the power of joint ventures and expert interviews- in 6 short weeks".
Good grief! I had a list of zero and literally spent my last cent in my business account the day I wrote that. It was the day before I did my first interview!
All talking!
Business success is about building and nurturing an engaged tribe and that starts with first of all identifying a tribe without a place to hang out. I found that in the women's toilets!
It is one thing to find and attract your tribe. The real magic happens when you immerse yourself in your tribe, listen to them and allow yourself to trust the tribe and open yourself to "go with the flow" with opportunities.
That's what Wonderful Web Women developed into and has been the basis for this next phase of growth.
The Market Changed... and will always change
You'll notice Wonderful Web Women was built on live interviews with a thriving paying community built on a simple model of people paying for access to an archive of recordings and transcripts.
Can you imagine that working easily now?
Of course not. (before you say anything, there will always be exceptions)
Signature Systems Create Leverage
As you can see, since the initial revolution things have changed. I found my tribe asking more for my step-by-step trainings and wanting more of ME, and less focus on spotlighting other female leaders online.
They were actually starting to say "You are no longer the passionate reporter Janet. Step up and claim your space as the expert. We want YOU".
To be honest, I resisted this for a while and could have seen the demand for this much earlier if I let myself. It actually took individual customers contacting me and saying "...girl, we need to talk". They challenged me to step up further.
See why I love them?
Congruency is Everything..... this is why I closed my award-winning website
You see how the last lesson I shared, was the sense of incongruency I started to feel about what the name Wonderful Web Women stood for, and what the business has evolved to?
I knew I was no longer true to my roots and this incongruency was starting to sabotage my confidence to step up.
The past year has been a true investment in Sweat Equity. It's been a lot of work!
Have you been part of the Wonderful Web Women community over the last decade?