Episode 42: Find Calm building a wellness community with Dr. Jody Stanislaw

In this episode of the Find Calm Here Podcast, Dr. Jody Stanislaw, host of The Type 1 Diabetes Crew, a Mighty Network, shares her community-building journey. She’s a Naturopathic doctor and a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist who has lived with type one diabetes since the age of seven. Through sharing her experience, she helps diabetics online through her consulting practice by teaching life-changing skills to manage type one and offers a premium program as well as online courses in her membership community. 

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Jody decided to make inspirational Facebook Live videos every day to share optimism and tips for how people with type 1 diabetes can stay healthy and positive in these challenging times. To date, she has done over 150 live videos since March 2020 which have reached thousands of people allowing them to learn of others who have type one. With the growth of her social media following and the success of her TEDx Talk, Sugar is Not a Treat, which has over 2 million views, she was moved to create a membership community to bring together those who are challenged with type one diabetes into a safe, online space. 

In this episode we discuss: 

3:33 Jody shares her community-building journey after getting tons of feedback from her Facebook audience that they wanted more content 

6:33 After the first 5 months Jody has 50 paid members and is considering discontinuing the free section of her Mighty Network which has 200 members who aren’t as active as she’d like.

13:49 Looking at what is working in the community and asking members why they are showing up to learn what members love about the network and what keeps them coming back. 

17:30 We have conversations about how much engagement to expect in the first year of launching a Mighty Network and working to build relationships with the members. 

23:35 The benefits of hiring a community manager or recruiting a “super-fan” to help Mighty Network Hosts to improve member contribution. 

26:56 Creating a safe space for members to feel that it is okay to share, connect, and ask questions to build the community culture. 

About Find Calm Here

I’m Deb Schell, creator, and host of the Find Calm Here Community, a Mighty Network.

Inside the Find Calm Here Community, I bring together Mighty Network Hosts who feel overwhelmed with launching a community, cultivating contribution, and creating an onboarding plan with the tools, resources, and support they need to find calm so that they can confidently create a community on the platform.

The FCH Community is now exclusively for Mighty Network Hosts so that they can find calm building a Mighty Network. Learn the tools & resources that I use with my clients to help you have a succe