Women Helping Women: Christina Rowe’s Blueprint for Entrepreneurial Success

Speaker A: Foreign. Hello, I'm Martin Brown from Martin Brown's Marketing Bugle podcast, helping you market your business online. Thank you for listening. There are elearning courses and other bonuses that you can take for free which are associated with this series of podcasts. Visit my website martinbrown.com for details. That's Martin with a Y. You can also join my monthly magazine Digital Bugle, which is downloadable every issue by subscribing to my email updates. Today's guest is Christina Rowe, founder of Standout Media Group and the powerhouse behind the global community Women Helping Women Entrepreneurs, which brings together more than 2 million members world worldwide. Christina is also a, um, marketing expert, author and mentor who helps women entrepreneurs gain visibility, get featured and build businesses that uh, truly stand out. Through her platforms, Christina has built not only a thriving media company, but also a movement, creating opportunities and resources for women to connect, collaborate and grow together. Christina, it's lovely to meet you.

Speaker B: It is so wonderful to meet you, Christina.

Speaker A: Maybe we could start by just asking you to share a little bit about your journey into entrepreneurship and maybe what inspired you to launch Standout Media Group.

Speaker B: Okay, so it's interesting. I used to have a, ah, hair and nail salon back, gosh, in my other life I call it back in New Jersey with uh, my ex husband. And so that was like the beginning of being an entrepreneur. And then when I got divorced, we started sold the salon and I had such a horrendous divorce, I decided to write a book about it. And then uh, this was 2006 so I made a decision to self publish which led me to online marketing. And then other people started asking me, well, how did you do that? Because that's back, you know, in the beginning when everybody was just getting kind of getting started with all of the, you know, Internet stuff where there was no click funnels, you know, we were using front page back then. It's like the um, the dark ages, right? And that started me, you know, helping other authors and starting to coach them. But it was when I moved to South Florida and I met some other women and we um, started a women's organization and we started doing live events and helping women, which then evolved into me starting Women Helping Women entrepreneurs. That was 2016 and the communities is on Facebook just started growing like crazy. Uh, Facebook took notice of it. We were one of the Facebook commercials that they had back, you know, that were on like, you know, they were people playing them all over and on the radio and tv. Um, I got invited to Facebook itself to the Facebook community summit in 2019, which was amazing. So the community just kept growing and I, um, decided to create a space for women to be able to promote their businesses by borrowing my audience, and that's the standout online membership program. So this way they could grow their businesses from my platform and my audiences, um, across social media. We have time of right now where I've almost 900,000 in the group, but we have a lot of subgroups and maybe a million point two three, so we're getting toward the two million mark.

Speaker A: That's amazing. Such an achievement. You've obviously achieved so much in your career. How does it feel to have, as you say, almost 2 million members now in the community?

Speaker B: I mean, it's amazing to have so many women and, you know, the whole premises is women helping women. So, you know, we really want everyone to collaborate, not compete, because I'm a strong believer in that. And so I've had women who've been with me for years and grown their Facebook communities to 200,000, 100,000, 50, 80,000. And they've taken my model of allowing women to pay to promote in their group and giving the benefits. And, um, we've actually collaborated and done summits together. So I don't believe in competition. I believe in let's collaborate. And we've put our memberships together and sold it as a package. Um, and so I think if women and people in general start thinking like that about collaboration, you really don't have any competitors because someone is for everyone, right? So, like, you're not going to resonate maybe with someone, you, someone else. So, like being in this industry and, you know, instead of thinking that there's people out there, well, that's my competitor and that's my competitor. Think more in terms of how you guys can collaborate.

Speaker A: That's an old phrase, isn't there? Uh, that a rising tide floats all boats. And I guess that stands true, uh, with this as well. By collaborating instead of competing, it does mean that everybody benefits as a result.

Speaker B: It really does. You know, when you have that mindset, you know, you could be doing the same exact thing as someone. And, you know, I've had, even before the group, I partnered with women and we were doing the same exact thing. And like, they would. When I, when I used to have clients, they think, I got too many clients. This person be perfect for you, or I don't do this part of it, you know, take this client vice versa. So, like, that's really, it's really powerful when you can think in those terms. Um, it's like thinking in abundance instead of scarcity.

Speaker A: And if anybody's thinking of maybe taking their first step right now, Christina, what would you say to them? Because obviously since you started, times have changed. And as you say, click funnels is now a big thing. Is it easier or is it harder, would you say now than it was than when you started?

Speaker B: Again, it is so much easier. So when I started, like I said, there was no click funnels. There was, uh, it was this thing called front page, which was, um, we, we called the opt in page. You know, the landing page was a squeeze page back then. And there was no Facebook ads, you know, back in 2006. So there was a lot of tech you had to learn, you know, to like build things out. Now, especially with AI, I mean, it's so easy for people to start. Uh, you know, like, it just compresses time. You know, what took like, may take you years back then can now compress into months, you know, because you have all the tools, you have everything at your disposal, um, to start a business. I mean, literally, you know, Claude and ChatGPT and all these AI tools just do the work for you, you know, if you know how to prompt them correctly. And you know, back then we didn't have any of that. So definitely a great opportunity to, you know, to get involved in entrepreneurship and online marketing. But I would say the key is, and I've been saying this now, is that you have to AI proof at the same time your business and how you can do that is by starting communities. Because I cannot touch communities. It's going to get to the point and people are not going, they're going to want to be in communities. They're not going to want to be talking to robots all the time. You know, so as it invades us, more and more people are going to want to be in person, they're going to be online in feeling like they have that, that human connection. So, um, it's, you know, that plus your brand is going to be the most important thing. Because I like, I say too, we're like in this trust recession right now as it's not 2020 anymore, where, you know, everybody went crazy all Covid, everybody jumped online. You know, people were buying like crazy and now people are more like hesitant, little jaded. There's some bad characters. And so people just entering right now, starting out on online businesses may, you know, they're going to be like, well, gosh, how do I, you know, build trust? And by starting a community, it's a great way to do that.

Speaker A: I think a lot of people that I speak to say, uh, that when they start online, they feel invisible. What do you think is the first step that they should perhaps take to get noticed?

Speaker B: Well, that is the hugest problem, right? It's like crickets online. You're posting, you know, you're in a sea of people with, with the reels. And it's very hard to get noticed. And that's why one of the things I tell everybody and teach is, you know, to borrow other people's audiences. You know, Russell Brunson talks about the Dream 100, right? So you should create a Dream 100 of, uh, Facebook groups, school groups, communities, and not to go in with the mindset. Well, I'm going to go spam them all and try to sell them. It's to build the relationships and establish yourself as an expert in authority. And how you can do that is simply you got to spend the time, you know, there's no quick, easy fix. And people think, oh, gosh, you know, I'm just going to sit in my underwear, uh, you know, on a beach or in a bikini, and I'm going to like, be on the computer and make a million dollars. You know, you have to put in the work. And so if you spend half an hour a day, you know, like, answering questions in Facebook groups, just, you know, with, with your authority, people are going to notice that they're going to reach out. I've had members of my own group who do this, and they, they make money just by being authentic. This goes into the DMs, but they're not being sleazy. They're not like DMing cold DMing people, you know, and everybody's just so turned off to that. So if you want visibility, it's a way to start, is to start getting involved in communities and start talking to people and start establishing yourself with your expertise.

Speaker A: You created multiple platforms for women from media groups to mastermind. How do you decide where to focus your own energy, Christina?

Speaker B: So, you know, I tried to focus primarily, you know, with my members in my groups. And, uh, we also have a school community that is getting close to 10,000 right there in school now too. So I want to be able to spend time more. So, I mean, I post, but it's more important to be in the, in the comments, uh, than posting because, you know, people forget what a community is. And a lot of online marketers do this too. It's like they set these things up as like a channel to like, teach a guru to student and that's not what a community is. A community is a place where you know, inviting people to your house, you're having that relationship, you're, it's like a gathering. So you want to be part of that gathering as the leader and encouraging the members to be posting the members to be doing things. So if you're, you know, with from that you're just starting out, you want to also, you know, get in there, get into communities, but start your own community as well.

Speaker A: When I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was going to be interviewing you, she said to me the standout online system is incredible. It helps so much. Maybe you could talk us through Christina how you can help people get featured and get noticed.

Speaker B: So I, yes. So I created that because when my group is starting to grow and I was doing coaching at the time it says back like 2016, 17 and then I noticed I'm like, I don't want to compete like direct with my members. You know, I'd love to coaches. I'm like how could I let them borrow my audience? So that how that helps them is you can do posting in the group, you can go live. We have a directory blog post. You can borrow our um, our podcast and submit podcast episodes that we put up. You know it's on Spotify and all the channels. Um, and we do spotlights. Uh, we just started a new program called Match and Monetize. So we have like an AI software where you submit like your information, your niche, you know, what platforms you're on, what you're looking for and it'll match you with other like minded members and it send an email to each other and you can do email swaps, webinar swaps, Facebook group swaps, like shout each other out. Um, it's basically to form those collaborations from inside the membership with other like minded. So you guys are all collaborating together. Um, so we've had members with tremendous success you know with posting in the group and they're the only ones who can do um, promote promotional, we call them type posts where the other members it goes through the queue so they get pre approval in the group and the best use case of that in the group is to do like lead generating posts as opposed to trying to sell so giving high value, you know, free lead magnets. You know like I have you know 50 Canva templates that I made for you know, this nation who wants it or driving people to your own Facebook group. Like where are my, you know we have people say where are my Christian entrepreneurs? Or where Are my Muslim entrepreneurs? Where are my, you know, spiritual women? Or you know, I have a community or we're gonna do coffee chats and like people raise their hand in the comments. Then you comment with the link to wherever you want to send them, whether it's a landing page or your Facebook group. And I suggest the Facebook group a lot because you can get the email on the three questions when they're coming into the group and then you can send them the lead magnet, of course. But now you have them in two places. So now you've got them in your group that if they are active, Facebook is going to show the group in the feed. It's one of the few things, things have changed. Like right now, uh, all the platforms have turned to interest based. So it's not, it doesn't matter how many followers you really have anymore. It's about are people interested? They're matching the interests but they're still showing groups. So if they see that you've been in a group and you're like active, you will start seeing posts from that group in your feed. And that's the goal. So you want to be top of mind. So now you've just, if you just get the email, you know it goes to spam or they don't see it or ignore it. But now you have two places where you can get that attention. Because we're all like, you know, vying for attention in this culture, right?

Speaker A: It's amazing. That piece of advice alone is priceless. Where do people go to find out more about the standout online system and also about your other opportunities, uh, to work with people?

Speaker B: Well, sure. So the um, standalone membership is on um, standout online system and the group, the big group, if you're not in the group already, it's free. It's Women helping women dot group is the, the redirect to the Facebook group. And it's another little tip I tell people if you have a Facebook group and you're on a podcast, right, you're not going to be able to say that long Facebook slash, blah blah blah. So what, what you do is you can they actually have, believe it or not, like the dot group extension, you know, you can go to GoDaddy. So like that's what I got, women helping women dot group. So then I can say that it's easy, you know, so it's a little, little tip for everybody if you have a community to be able to do a quick redirect with the doc group and so that, that's absolutely free. And our school community is um, just if you look up Women Helping one Mastermind, it's, it's on school, which is amazing because we do, it's absolutely free and we do virtual coffee chats. So our standout online members are the hosts and they build relationships and the uh, people who come on can do a 30 second business pitch. It's like a traditional mastermind where you brainstorm challenges and gives and like, you know what's working. And we do those uh, coffee chats uh, through go brunch. So it's kind of what we have like these virtual rooms and we have like a co working space. We give a lot of resources. When you join you get like 10 free gifts and there's no cost for it. So that's been very popular and very active. Over on school. I uh, need to do a redirect for that one. But it's just, you just put in, in school. If you're, you know, go to the platform school and you put Women Helping Women, it'll probably come up a Women Helping Women mastermind and you'll see the school community, those are all, you know, those two are free. So for anybody and lots of value, lots of great people in there. Woman entrepreneurs, um, you know, and so those are good places to go. And in the big group which is free, you know, there's so many amazing members, are very active, everybody's talking. You know, you can, um, even if you're not a talent member, you can ask questions, you know, and get help from other women. You know, that's allowed. You know, we just, anybody's going to do anything that's lead generating or promotional, is a standout online member and they're just borrowing my audience, you know, and being able to promote their businesses and grow because we know how hard, you know, expensive Facebook ads could be, you know, especially for people starting out. Like, you know, if you want to hire an ad agency, oh my gosh, they could charge a fortune plus your ad cost. So like that's a struggle. I see many uh, women entrepreneurs having. Is that they like you said, invisible. They are, they don't, you know, they don't know what to do because they're like, how do I get into it to take notice? So by going in group that you can, if you can pay for to be in a group, um, find them then it's great. There's other women's groups now that do it too. Not so much I see in other niches. But I wish that would change because um, some are starting Now I believe I started this model back in 2017, 18, but I'm starting to see some now allowing opportunities to, you know, allow people to sponsor groups to be able to get in front of their audiences. Um, and I hope more niches, you know, start doing this because it just presents a little ecosystem outside of, you know, Facebook ads that we can all, you know, have that, um, that opportunity to get visibility.

Speaker A: Absolutely. And how important do you think it is or what importance would you put on personal brand? And particularly in your own journey as an entrepreneur, how important has that been

Speaker B: for you this personal brand is? So it's crucial because anybody's going to do business with you, right. They're going to Google you. And if nothing comes up or if your Facebook profile has a picture of a flower or your dog and you don't have any, I can't tell you how many times, you know, you check someone out and they, it's, it's not optimized. All of your social platforms should be branded optimized with links where you want people to go. And including this is. A lot of people don't know this, but when you're in Facebook groups, you have your own profile. It looks just like your, your real Facebook profile, but it's each group, you can edit it and you can completely change it for each with different call to actions. So I tell people, you know, make a banner. Like in mine, my group, I have a banner, you know, a separate banner for the group profile that leads to my school community. So if it says click on, you know, the image because that opens up on Facebook the, where you can put the link, you know. So, um, I use that in that way so you can modify and, and how. You'll notice if you go to any group and you click on someone's profile picture in the group, if you think they're on their, on their profile, but you're, you'll see their posts, but you have to click View Profile. So even if they change it, it's going to look exactly the same. So it's a little hidden way to have uh, a little more advertisement in groups by having your own profile. But for branding, I would say credibility that we're in it. Like I said the trust recession. You need to have that instant credibility being on the media, getting logos. And I'm not talking about the logos that everybody gets like msn. I'm talking about go to your local media. It's very easy to get in local media. It's just people are always like perceive celebrity or media as, as better or credible. Right. It's just our, our culture, especially in the United States. So you want to make sure, you know, you're on podcasts, that you have the logos up there, that you're doing that so people feel comfortable giving you money, that you're reputable. So if you're ignoring your brand, you know, get professional photos, um, start going on podcasts, try getting some local media, um, you know, build that credibility, um, and uh, make sure you're all branded across the board because it's going to be very important. Especially now with people choosing especially you do high ticket or what. You know, people are going to be looking at different people and it will turn someone off if there's like, okay, there's nothing on this person. How do I know they're legitimate? Are they going to rip me off? Right? So the more you can build your brand and have credibility, the better.

Speaker A: Is having a book really important?

Speaker B: You know, book, uh, having a book is a wonderful way to gain authority. I, um, think it was more important maybe a couple of years ago. I don't know if people search out now, okay, you have to have a book. It's still phenomenal and you can still do it extremely easily now with AI I mean, of course you want to edit it, make it human, but it could help you with your outline and everything. And you could self publish on, you know, on Amazon, print on demand and it gives you that authority. So I think having a book, yes, it's amazing. Um, and then you can use it, I say, as your business card. When I wrote my book in 2006, I had a well known author who helped me and he said to me, your book is just your business card. And I was actually like, what, what are you talking about, my business card? I put all this effort, it's my life, you know, my divorce and um, this and that. I wrote about my divorce and, and, but I understood what he meant. He was 100% right because that's the, you know, it's credibility. You can give your book away. You can, you know, it's definitely, I would say it's definitely thing to do. But don't stress if you don't have a book, you know, like, if it's, oh my God, how am I going to write a book now? It's, it's something you can do down the line. But if you, if you can do one, definitely.

Speaker A: Love that. Love that, Christina. It's a fascinating subject and I enjoyed talking with you about this. I know we could probably talk for hours, and I'd love that. But I know that we're pushed for time, so maybe you could just tell us again if anybody wants to find out more about you and how you could help them achieve their dream of an online business. Where should we go to do that?

Speaker B: So, obviously, I'm a Facebook Christina Rowe. If you put, um, that on Facebook. Um, I have my. My Main website's Christina Rowe.com, so that's easy to reach me through the website as well. Um, and that has basically all the ways you can reach me, and it has everything on there as well. Christina Roe dot com. So that's probably the best avenue.

Speaker A: That's great. Well, thank you very much for all your insights today. It's been an absolutely fascinating conversation, and thank you again for being so generous with your time. We really do appreciate it.

Speaker B: Oh, well, it's an honor to be be on your podcast. I really appreciate you having me, and this was so much fun.

Speaker A: For more online business podcasts and to request an interview for the podcast, visit martinbrown.com for details, uh, at smartam with a Y. Thank you for listening.