How a Community Might Fit Into Your Business [Plus, a special invite]

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The OTPreneur Community is now live! 

In this episode of the OTPreneur Podcast, we announce the official launch of the Free OTPreneur Community designed to help you start and grow your OT business. 

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Can Your OT Business Benefit from a Free or Paid Community?

In this episode, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of free and paid communities, including the use of platforms like Facebook Groups, Heartbeat, Circle, and Mighty Networks.

We explore a few reasons as to why you might want to start a community as well as customization options, user engagement strategies, subscription costs, and the challenges of transitioning members.

Whether you're looking to support your current customers, generate new customers, or find the best community management approach, we've got the insights and practical tips you need.

Tune in now! 

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Thanks for tuning in! We'll see you next time

Transcript

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If you're on Facebook, odds are you are in more Facebook Groups than you can count. You've just, you know, joined them over the years. But communities do actually exist beyond Facebook as well. Today, we are addressing why you might start a community as part of your business, and how it might support or hurt your business. Stay tuned. Are you thinking about starting an occupational therapy business, but don't even know where to begin? Whether you're starting something on the side or going full time in your business, the OTpreneur podcast is what you need. This show will help you get in the right mindset and give you actionable tips to go from just an idea to OTpreneur. Let's go. I'm Jason Davies, and with me is your cohost and a former equestrian champion when she was younger, Sarah Putt. Welcome, Sarah. How are you doing today? I'm doing well, Jason. And yeah. I did. I it's not something I've talked about a lot on any of the podcast that I've been on previously. But, yes, I grew up riding horses and showed competitively. I rode in college and actually got to represent my university in nationals. And, yeah, there's there's there's a lot to unpack there, but, you know, we'll save that for another time. Another day, another time. Absolutely. But, Sarah, do you know what there are probably plenty of in this world when it comes to equestrians? No. Communities. Just like we are talking about today. Communities, Facebook communities, offline communities, every type of community that you can imagine. I am sure that there are plenty of them. Sarah, are you part of any equestrian communities at the moment? I'm assuming not, but who knows? Oh, that's actually a really good question. Specifically, no. I am not. Should be. Yeah. That is not why we are talking about communities. But today, we are actually talking about communities for 2 very specific reasons. And the first is that we recently received a question about starting a community as part of a business, and we'll get into that in just a moment. And the second, reason that we want to get into communities, which, Sarah and I are very excited about, is that right now, today, we are officially launching the free OTpreneur community for aspiring OT entrepreneurs. And if that sounds like something that you would love to be a part of, be sure to listen all the way to the very end of this episode where we will let you know how you can get started today and join us in the OT preneur community. And don't just skip to the end of the episode because during this episode, we're gonna drop some tidbits about like why we're doing certain things within the community. So be sure to listen in to the entire episode. Alright. Let's go ahead and introduce today's listener question. Amira, a longtime listener and superfan of the OTpreneur podcast. We love you, Amira. Amira asked I love you too. Her question is, is starting a Facebook group good for an online business? Or is this just me having shiny object syndrome? We have addressed shiny object syndrome back in 19, episode 19, and I know Amir's listened to that episode. And so we're not gonna go too far into that one. But we kinda wanna go through the process of deciding whether or not a Facebook group or another group might be good for an online business or even with a quote unquote brick and mortar physical type of business. So let's go ahead and get started with that. And I'm going to start off the conversation about communities with Sarah by asking her, what would you consider before making the decision to start a Facebook group? I feel like this is this is such a loaded question. There are so many different things that we could talk about. But I think the most important thing, if you're sitting there and you you have this idea or you're wondering if it's something that you should or shouldn't do, is really trying to figure out what is the purpose, what is the main purpose of having a community within your business, whether it is an online business, whether it is more of a in person direct client care business, maybe it's a combination of both. But really figure out, I mean, and we talk about this, like when we're talking about, like, what's the why of starting a business, right? Like, you always have to figure out what is that reason that you want to do it. Because if you're just like, oh, everybody has a community. I'm gonna jump in and I should have a community too. Yeah. That might not be the best reason to start one because as we're gonna get into it in a little bit, they do take they they can take a lot of effort and energy and time to kind of get started. So figuring out what is the purpose? Why are you wanting to start a community within your business? Is it for marketing? You know, are you planning on trying to make more money? And is it, you know, some sort of a revenue builder for your company or is it more just for support and collaboration? Right? Really figuring out why. What is the why behind starting this community in the first place? What do you think, Jason? What comes to you when what what comes to your mind when you're thinking about this this question? Based on what you just said, I realized that I've actually used community for all three of those instances that you just mentioned. And I'll kind of go through all 3 of them and which ones I've succeeded with and which ones I not so much have succeeded with. I'm gonna start with the community as a collaborative slash support mechanism. We were discussing this beforehand in a way to kind of establish this sort of call this as a supplemental to your services. And so I actually offered a course, the A to Z School Based OT course over at the OT Schoolhouse. And as part of the value for joining the course, you got access to a community of school based OT practitioners who went also taking the course. And so that was like a supplemental type of community to the course specific to people that had paid. Yes. It was a revenue source. Right? Because they had to pay to get access to it, but it wasn't the primary driver of that revenue source. The the revenue source came from the course. The the community was supplemental to the course, and not everyone who took the course joined the community. I've also now started a community for more the revenue side, where people actually pay a monthly membership to be a part of the community. And we host courses, we host other events and whatnot, and it is directly tied to my revenue. Every month, I have an anticipated number that I can expect to come in from that community because people are subscribed on a monthly basis or annual basis. And so I've done that as well. Both of those have been, I would call successful. The one that I have not succeeded in yet, and I don't know if I will, is using community as a marketing purpose. And that is what I see most Facebook Groups being used for. It's like that free tier. It's almost like a lead magnet. Come join my Facebook community and, you know, get access to all the people in there. I'm in there. I'll answer your ideas. But then we kind of also use that as a way where we can promote our own services to the people who are in in our community. Hopefully, that person is getting enough, interest or enough, value out of this free community that they will then step up to my paid service when I support them in the free community. So, Yeah. I I didn't even realize it until we you just said it that it was like, oh, I I've actually done all three of these. So, yeah. Interesting the way that works. When it comes to most people using community as a business, I feel like the primary idea is more from that marketing side. They're trying to get people into a community so that they can market to them to, to a degree. So, yeah, I've done all 3. They, they all have their own purposes, but let's move on. And I want to, you know, shift it back over to some of the reasons I mentioned a little bit about what they can be used for, but how can or how have you seen communities be powerful, Sarah? I think first and foremost, like, the the biggest thing that I've seen with communities would be that it brings people together. Right? It it really has this very specific community building where you have a specific topic. Right? Jason, your community is all about school based occupational therapy, but there are communities about anything out there. I mean, equestrian. Right? But not even just equestrian. We could break it down into hunter jumpers. We could do equitation. We could do western. We could do You're having too much fun with this there. Oh, gosh. I know. See? But, like, but we could even go into, like, quarter horse reining or whatever. Right? Like, there are so you can literally, like, niche down into any type of different community. And what what I've seen is just when people are passionate about a specific topic and then they get in a room or, you know, online or in person, room filled of people that are also passionate about that topic, it's just, it's palpable. Right? Like people get so excited and they just want to share and they want to ask questions and it can just lead into this, like, absolutely amazing thing just by bringing people and getting them all in that same quote unquote room together. And then that kinda leads into people supporting other people. Right? Not necessarily, it doesn't always have to be you, but they everyone else starts to kinda support each other. I think you're right on, Sarah. And I was just gonna kinda equate this to, like, an OT conference. And I think most of us, if we're part of AOTA or part of our state association, to a degree that is a community. And we go to our state or national conferences, not just because of the courses that are there, but like you mentioned, the people, right? Like we go because it's the only time that I'm gonna get to see Sarah this year because we both happen to be at AOTA at the same time or at OTAC or whatever it might be. And so there's a lot of that, like you mentioned, bringing people together, whether it's online or in person. Absolutely. The other thing that I will say about Communities is that it takes the sh, it takes the onus, I guess you could say, off of the one. It takes the onus off of you as the creator, you as the business owner. And it really allows other people to do some of the heavy lifting. It's almost like delegating to a degree because I now have my membership community, and it started off where I would be the only person to provide the support. But now, before I even go to provide support to someone who's posted in our community, 5 other people have already provided support. And that's just amazing because I know a lot, but I don't know everything, and and 5 other people know things that I don't know. And so it really allows people to get support from different perspectives. And also to kind of build off of that is once you get your community going, you can also, as a business owner, basically kind of pull out or allow your community to give you ideas of what resources you're going to provide, things you're going to talk about, ways that you can continue to support whoever it is, whoever your target audience is. Right? So it kind of goes both ways where, like, you can ask the questions or the the members can act ask the questions, and it just kind of can go back and forth of really figuring out how you as a business can best support the people that you are trying to support. There you go. That's another reason for it as, like, research marketing or marketing research. Right? To understand what your people want. And there there have definitely been times where I get stuck on, I don't know what to write for my weekly newsletter. And so I go into my community and I say, hey, what are people talking about? Okay. Let's let's dive into that a little deeper and and write some content about it or create a social media post about it. So, now I know we're kind of pumping sunshine and roses right now about communities, but We gotta be real. Right, Jason? We gotta keep it real here. Yeah. They're they're not easy. I mean, part of the reason that my marketing communities that were free communities on Facebook failed were because, A, I didn't really advertise them because that takes time. I also didn't respond to a lot of questions in there because I didn't really have a lot of incentive to do so other than the hope that one day they will join my program. But time versus energy versus money, you know, that that's hard to get in there. You have to make an effort to get in there. So they do take a lot of time. And now with my paid program that I have, because it is paid, people are supporting me and putting their money where their mouth is. You know, they wanna be a part of this. It has allowed me to actually bring on support in the form of people power to actually provide some extra support. So that's part of why that program is doing well. But like not everyone has that. And I think when it comes to Facebook groups, when you're thinking about it from a marketing perspective, you probably aren't putting that type of money into it where you're gonna pay someone to be part of it. But, yeah, I mean, these are not easy, easy things to run. Sarah, I think you might have tried some in the past. Like, what are some other considerations that you really gotta think about before you get started? To be honest, yes. I have created multiple groups. Some, you know, way back in the day, I did have a group for, like, the OT For Life podcast that was on Facebook. And I don't even know. There's probably I probably put 10 people in there, and I probably have hundreds of people that are just waiting in limbo because I just kind of stopped paying attention to it because again it was this it was a free group and I didn't have really a solid reason of why I was starting it in the 1st place. I was like, oh, it's I have a podcast and I need to have a place where people can talk, but I don't really know what I'm doing with it. And so it just kind of fizzled. And I I really do think that one of, you know, figuring out that why piece, but then also figuring out where is your target audience? Where do they hang out? And I think a lot of times that also can be maybe kind of misconstrued of like, oh, I feel like everyone's starting a Facebook group, so I should start a Facebook group. But if your target audience isn't on a Facebook group, which not everybody is, that might not be the best place for you to put that group. So, you know, it's it's that time piece. It's it's that kind of ongoing. Right? Once you have a community, you gotta keep it going. You gotta keep fostering the relationships and and the the support and the resources. But then also, like, knowing where your audience is and not trying to force them other places and showing up where it's already kind of natural for them. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's something that we should tie in right here. It's actually a conversation that you and I had just before hopping on to this very episode that we're recording now, and that was thinking about the value ladder. If we're using the community as a free tool, and again, you know, we just launched a free community. Stay tuned. We're gonna talk about it more. But I'll explicitly share our value ladder that we're thinking about for our free community. The idea is that we have this free community so that you all will join. And and I'm saying this so that you can basically copy or slightly change what we're doing and do it for your own business. But we are offering a free community. Our hope is that you get so much value from that free community that when we decide to offer a course on like how to develop a business plan or how to get your first customer or something like that, you will find our community so valuable that you'll say, hey, I'm willing to, you know, invest in Jason and Sarah with my money because I know that they will provide me support through this course or through whatever program it is. And and I think that's the idea that you really need to understand before going into a community, Facebook or off of Facebook. You need to understand what is the plan for each and every member that comes into your community? Are you going to just answer questions without ever pitching them a product? Or are you planning on saying every time to someone, hey, here's my answer. Oh, by the way, I have a program about this. We'd love to have you, you know, hop into our program. Are you gonna go in there and once a month run a webinar as a sales pitch, basically, to get people to come into your program? You really have to understand what your reasoning is for having people within your group. You wanna add anything, Sarah? I don't think so. I'm ready to jump into the pros and cons of Facebook. Alright. Let's do it. You mentioned one already. And that was I think you mentioned it almost actually as the con. But there's a flip side. Facebook, the pro, is that there's a lot of people on Facebook. Right? Like the the barrier to getting people into your Facebook is relative into your Facebook group is relatively low. There is a large base there. Now whether or not your base is there, that's definitely something for you to consider. Right? Like if you're looking for 18 year olds, Facebook is not the place to be because they're on TikTok. But, yeah, that that is a pro that there are a lot of people there. It's free to use. Anything else that you can think of, Sarah? I think it's also I am most of us, I'm guessing you listening and you and me, Jason, like, we are a part of other Facebook groups. So it's very easy to kind of go in and be, like, oh, what's this person doing? And kind of what you were talking about before, like, mimic and take bits and pieces and almost, you know, just kind of show up in things that, in the ways that you like about the groups that you like to be a part of and also not do the things that you don't like. Right? So there's, there's a lot of examples. A lot of us are already in there and it is relatively easy to just, I mean, we literally could do it during this episode and create our own Facebook group if we wanted to. It's very easy to set up. Yeah. It's free. I mean, people can see who else is in the group so you can kind of get people to direct message other people. So you have that cross connection. Obviously, Facebook allows you to go live. It has images that you can post. You can post recorded videos. You can post links to your sales page, group chats. They even have badges. I still don't understand completely how badges work, but, they've got badges, you know, for, like, I think top contributors and top fans and stuff like that. So, a little bit of gamification going on. I mentioned one of the cons of being, you know, the people that are on Facebook may or may not be your people. Some other cons that you've experienced there, Sarah? The biggest one is that you're heavily reliant on Facebook or, you know, to put it even higher up, Meta as as as a whole. Right? And if Facebook, which it does and it has in the past, if it goes down, if you have no other way, you know, emails or any other way to connect with those clients, you can't reach back out to them. You have to wait for Facebook to go back live or, you know, maybe it just decides to disappear one day, and now all of that is completely gone. So you're reliant on them as a company, and you also have less control over your group in general of what you can actually do with it. Because, again, you're kind of just allowed to do whatever Facebook and Meta want you to be able to do, and it just doesn't give you as much control as some of these other community platforms outside of Facebook would. And I also think reach too. Like, your ability to reach your people. I personally have been using email marketing for a long period of time. I have over 10,000 people on my email list. I also have around 10,000 people, who follow my Facebook page. Not Facebook group, but a Facebook business page. And I can tell you that if I post the same thing into an email as I do on a Facebook, page, I can get 50 to 60 people to open my email and to view my email. If I post that same thing into Facebook, I'm getting like less than a 1,000 impressions. So your ability to actually get your, you know, content in front of people, your message in front of people, I think is a little limited within Facebook. You know, you're you're fighting against all the other Facebook groups that people are a part of. You're fighting against all the ads. You're fighting against all the the algorithms that Facebook can't decide if it wants to show more of their friends to you or if it wants to show you ads or if it wants to show you new stuff that it thinks you might be interested in. So, yeah, like you said, that you just have a little bit less control. But that pro is that it's free. Right? Like, that's kind of what you're paying. You're you're paying in all those things that I just mentioned as downsides because it is free to access. And I think kind of in that same vein that because it is free, it does it it it sets up a barrier of being able to actually charge for any of that. So in order to charge, more often than not, you have to get people off of Facebook into doing something else in order to charge them for that. So there, again, there is that barrier of if you want it to be some sort of a paid community, Facebook isn't necessarily the best way for you to be able to do that because there are other barriers that it has in itself. Yeah. I mean, you could offer a Facebook group as, like, like we talked about earlier as a supplemental to something. Right? Like, you get forever access to this group if you buy my course. Like, yeah, you can do that. But it is really hard to make it into like a monthly payment type of of access because you almost have to have someone to basically check to see if someone paid off of Facebook and then boot them out if they didn't pay from Facebook. The other thing I was gonna say is that, like, Facebook has become synonymous with free. Like, Facebook is free. Instagram is free. WhatsApp is free. Everything that Meta owns is free for the people who use it. And so I can imagine if someone said, hey, I need to pay for a Facebook group. I would be a little turned off by that just because the idea that Facebook groups are free. Like, that's my impression of a Facebook group. And so now it's something else you have to overcome, you know, to people's objections. You have to overcome their object objection not to paying you for your product, but to paying you for your product that happens to be on Facebook. And I think that that could be a extra barrier that maybe you don't necessarily want to take on. So, yeah, I think that kind of, wraps up our pros and cons about Facebook. Let's briefly, we'll keep this brief. Let's briefly talk about other community options. We are hosting our community on a program called Heartbeat, and there are others out there, Circle, Discord, Mighty Networks, to name a few. If you had to take the cons from Facebook, honestly, most of them become pros when you get onto Circle or Heartbeat or something, because you can really customize it. You can make it look the way you want. You can brand it with your logo wherever you want. You can do a lot of different things. My personal favorite is the ability to give people access to only specific spaces within your community. I can literally, you know, set it up so that if someone is paying$5 a month, they get access to this. If they're paying$0 a month, they get access to this. If they're paying$400 a year, they can get access to this. Right? Like, you can really customize it. You can customize what notifications they get. You can customize the emails that it sends them. There's just so much to to customize around it. And that's why I love our group because we are making it free to everyone, and and we've kind of customized it, but we can also make it grow. So we can decide to add more spaces to it, or we can decide to add whatever we want to it. And and I know spaces is like a community term here, but basically, it's just another part of the community. So I just went over a ton of the pros for, you know, some of those off Facebook communities. And they also, you know, have their cons though. And so, Sarah, 2 big cons that that you've seen with the with the other community options. We've been talking about how a lot of people are already on Facebook, and you're already a part of a lot of Facebook groups. But if you are wanting to join a community that's off of Facebook, unless you have prior experience within that platform, it's a major con that you are trying to get people onto another community platform that they might not have experience with, they might not know how to use it, and it's also building the habit. Right? How many times do you, and I'm just going to over generalize here, but because I'm guilty of it, you open up Facebook and your groups will just pop up into your feed. Right? And you're not doing anything. You just refresh or whatever and you see it right there. You have this habit of, I'm curious what my sister is doing on Facebook. I'm gonna go see and then all of a sudden your group's popping up showing you all these things. Now, if you're on another platform, now you have to actually build that habit to get people to go on to that other platform to check-in. And that is a that's a big con because people are creatures of habit. And so when it's easy, when it's something that they're used to doing, it comes naturally and it happens and when it's not, you actually have to make the effort until it becomes that habit. And then similarly, if you don't have experience with it now as, you know, kind of as that community builder, as that as the business owner starting this community, you have to help people learn how to use it. You have to help people learn how it interfaces with different things and where to access things. So this could take a little bit more time to get people over there, get them familiar with it, and then when they have a question or they want to share a win or something, getting them to think, oh, oh, I need to go share this in the community. So it's, it's not quite as easy, but there's so many other pros, I think that can help that community and support it and grow, but also be aware that it will take time in the beginning. And every time you had somebody, it's going to take time to foster them, to build that habit, to be a part and to really think about using the community. Yeah. And, and I'll speak to that a little bit. 2 things, because one, other communities are not free. And that is the other con, I think. You gotta pay. And sometimes they're in the range of about $40 to $200 a month, you know, depending on the features you want. So there is a price to not having all the Facebook algorithms and ads in your way. That said, you also talked about kind of that onboarding and that experience and getting people used to your community. I will say a lot of these communities have built in features to help with that. For example, you can automate a lot of messages. Like for instance, we have it set up in our community so that when someone joins, when they pay and they first get into our community, right away they get a message from me. And it says, you know, hey, welcome to the community. We're glad to have you here. Here's a little place I recommend checking out in the community. Let me know if you have any questions. And then 2 days later, they get another email from me. And then 2 days later, they get another email from me. And it and it's really designed to kinda help ease them in a little bit. And so there are ways to get people kind of more accustomed with your with your community. Some communities have an app that people can download onto their phone, which again, makes it easier. But it is definitely a little bit more cumbersome for the people that are used to Facebook Groups, right? They're used to just seeing it pop up in their Facebook feed. That just doesn't happen with outside communities. So, every platform, every business, every decision we make has pros and cons. And it's all about deciding what that pro and con or how they outweigh one another. One of the thing that, that, that I want to add here is that it is hard to get people from Facebook if they're in a community. What I mean, like it is hard to get people from one Facebook community and then say, hey, we're starting a community over here on this new platform and getting them to go over. I have not had to do that, but I have heard just horror stories about people being able to get like 20% of the people that are in their free Facebook group into their free, not paid, but free community off of Facebook. So just keep that in mind in case you decide, you know, one day I'll I'll move over to another one. Well, yeah, you know, you might wanna weigh whether or not the investment is worth it now just to already have it on the the paid version of Circle, Mighty Networks, or something else. So Amira's question, Amira, we might have given you a little more information than you needed. But your question was, should you or should we as business owners consider having a Facebook group or is it shiny object syndrome? And, you know, without having a 1 on 1 discussion with you to go a little bit further, My one key takeaway, my one challenge to Amir, and I'll let Sarah, you know, give her one key challenge in a moment. But my key challenge would just be to identify, like, what is that purpose and what are you gonna do with people once they're in your Facebook group? Like, are they just gonna sit there or do you have a plan for, you know, somehow getting people in your Facebook group into a way that will generate revenue? I think that would be my one, my one big thing to think about. And, Sarah, maybe I took the easy one, but what's one consideration that you would, suggest that Amira consider? I think time. I I I think that's something that you gotta think about right off the bat of, like, how much time do you think that you can allot to getting this thing started and then getting it to continue. Right? I think and I am guilty of this. I think a lot of people think that it's easy. And once you start it, people are just going to come and it does take time and we're all busy and we all have our own things that we, you know, have to attend to. I'd really encourage Amira or you listening to think about how much time you have in order to get this going as well. Yes. Go back to why, what's the purpose, but then also, like, if if you only got 10 minutes, like, no, no. They might it might require more than that 10 minutes to get started. Now down the road, yeah, you might have it locked down to only a few minutes a day or a week or whatever. But in the beginning, it really does take time. And, you know, I'm talking as a as a business owner. I am talking as a mom. I'm talking as a spouse. I'm talking about all these other things. Equestrian. Right? All these other things that we're doing, you got to think about how much time you actually have to get this and turn it into something and not let it just kind of be one of those shiny objects that you start and then they fizzle. Yeah, absolutely. We 2 surprises. I mean, I'm gonna follow-up on our first surprise. Right? Like, we have a community. We are actually hosting our community, the OTPreneur community, on Heartbeat. That is the program that we have decided to use. And if you wanna learn more about Heartbeat, you can do so at heartbeat.chat is their website. It looks like their their services now start at $40 a month. That is what actually leads me to the second, quote, unquote, kind of surprise I wanna give you is that there are ways to find software for communities at lower prices. And I want to encourage you to already or to go follow, if you don't already follow them or learn more about them, is AppSumo, appsum0, dotcom, I believe it is. Because that's actually where we found heartbeat, at a one time rate. We do not we are not subscribed to heartbeat. It is not costing us $40 a month because we're able to find them on AppSumo. Unfortunately, you can't get our heartbeat on AppSumo anymore because it's like a limited time release type of thing. But they often I have been following them for years and I feel like once a quarter, they come out with a community type of, applications. So if heartbeat seems out of your price range, if Circle seems out of your price range, keep your eye on AppSumo. You might be able to find something there to, to help get you started. And then who knows where it goes from there. So, that, I think, is going to wrap up our conversation on Facebook Communities, Communities in general. However, I want to let Sarah clue you in a little bit to our community, which is, like I said, officially open today. So, Sarah, why don't you share a little bit about the community and why you're excited for it? Oh, gosh. Like, I I'm really excited that we're actually finally talking about this. This has been something that Jason and I have been toying with the idea with for a while and trying to figure out, like, when is gonna be the best time and how we want how we want this to look. And I have had so many people come up to me and they're like, I really, like especially, like, when we were launching our course, they're like, I'm not ready for the course, but I I really want more support and I really want this I I really wanna be a part of community. Right? Like, I wanna be a part of people that are like minded that are also looking for support and and building their businesses. And so after a lot of discussion between Jason and I and then hearing the feedback from people that we were meeting at conferences and, you know, people that are listening to the podcast, we decided we're gonna jump in, we're gonna do it, and we have started this free community, absolutely free, 0, no cost to you at all. I know Jason was talking about what it costs us, right? What it's going to cost us as hosting it, but it's free to you. It's going to be a way that you can connect with other OT preneurs that are on this journey with you. And I think I said this like right in the beginning of the episode, there's something really special about being in the room, quote unquote, being in the room with somebody. And that is what this community is all going to be about. Yeah. And, and not to mention, you know, a moment ago, I was talking about how these communities can grow with us. And that's what I'm really excited about this community because, you know, people are going to join at different levels, And we are going to be able to grow this community to kind of grow with people at different levels. And we're going to be able to host, webinars. I think some will be free, some will be paid, but we're going to add these webinars on top of this community to support each of you as you go through your OTpreneur process. And, to be honest, we don't know what the future holds for this community completely. And we might start having some small networking groups within the community. We might bring in people to speak other than us. We might, you know, start up like region based little networking groups. You know, people that are in New York can meet up. People in California can meet up. Who knows? But we want to provide this place for us to all come together, share what is working, the tools that are working, the systems that are working, the the marketing ideas that are working, and also share what isn't working. You know, maybe you tried something and it didn't work, and you just wanna let other OTpreneurs know that it's not working. This would be the perfect place for that. So, yeah, the the link that you can use to join right now is probably in this podcast description, but it is easy to remember. It is OTpreneur.com/community. All you have to do is head on over there, and you'll see a bright green button that says join the community now. Hit that button. You'll set up your profile and you will officially be in. We hope you will introduce yourself, share a little bit about, either your current business or the business you hope to start and how we can support you. We would love to provide some answers. And again, what I love about community is you won't just get answers from Sarah and myself. You won't just get answers from someone who started the OT Schoolhouse and someone who started, her private business and OT For Life as a podcast. You're going to get support from many other OTpreneurs that have been there, done that, tried things, experimented, and and are willing to help. So, we just ask that you, you know, put in as much as you get out of the community, and we'd love to support you there. So yeah. Like, come come join us. I I'm excited. I know Jason's excited, and we are we're just really excited to see what's gonna come of this. And so, yeah, come join us in our community and ask some questions and have fun. I I yeah. Like, bottom line, let's have fun with this and let's just continue to support each other and really make gosh, I'm gonna go I'm gonna go big here, but, like, let's let's make some big waves within the OTpreneur space. Yeah. I I'm just really excited to watch everyone grow together, celebrate one another's win. It's gonna be fun. Again, the link is OTpreneur.com/community. Find it over there, or if you can't find it for whatever reason, get a hold of us anyway, Instagram, Facebook, Pigeon, Carrier, whatever. Let us know. We will get you access to the community. And thank you so much for tuning in, listening all the way to the end of this episode. We look forward to our episode with you again in a couple weeks, and can't wait to continue supporting you. Remember, wherever you are on your OTpreneur journey, we are here to support you. Take care, and we'll see you next time. Here at the OTpreneur Podcast, we can't thank you enough for listening in today. If you're looking for a community of OT entrepreneurs, be sure to check out the website atotpreneur.com. At OTpreneur, OT means business. We'll see you next time. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. I don't know why I said that. We will be right back. You know, I do that all the time. I always I feel like there has to be something there. Right right in the right in the beginning. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. I don't know how to say that. Equestrian? What like, what would I call that? Would do they just call themselves equestrians? I don't know. Yeah. Yes. The plural of equestrian would be equestrians. Dang it. That would've been great if I would've been confident about it. I was gonna ask you, like, what are your thoughts on that? But then I feel like that's the same question I was gonna ask you when you said that's a loaded question. And then I was like, alright. Never mind. Okay. Alright. I got it. I got it. I got it. Hold on. I just had a thought. And then I just lost it because I squirrel. I started thinking about something else. Sorry. I just, like, took over. You wanna say any last words? I thought you froze. No. I did not freeze. I mean, I did freeze, but not like that. I was like, I think my brain was like, did he freeze? Did am I supposed to go? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. Yeah. I could jump in. Okay. Go for it. With that, again, the link is otschoolhouse.com. Again, the link is At least you caught it that time.