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Announcement: New Name - Same Mission for the Business Community

In this episode we share the launch of the Small Business Owners Community, marking a significant evolution from the previous Idea Collective. Our mission is the same, to be the support system for small business owners facing the inevitable the challenges and helping business owners beat the odds and survive and thrive past 5 years in business. The Small Business Owners Community aims to fill this gap by providing a platform for collaboration, feedback, and problem-solving among entrepreneurs. Transitioning from the Idea Collective to the Small Business Owners Community signifies a shift towards clarity in purpose of the community. Check out the SBOC with your 2 week free trial here: https://info.smallbusinesscommunity.com/try

Transcript
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It's a new day for small

business owners in the U.

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S., and today we're launching the fix for

the broken small business support system.

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And on this show, I'm

sharing the vision with you.

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Let's go.

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Welcome to Small Business Mornings,

a weekly live stream about

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the small business lifestyle.

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Give you the news we need.

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We'll look at the week ahead.

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We'll have a laugh or two

and we'll get things going.

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I'm your host, Pat Miller.

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Here's our situation.

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If you're a small business owner and

you're watching this right now, the

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odds are that you're going to fail.

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Sorry.

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Truth, 52 percent of small

business owners in the U.

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S.

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will not make it to year five,

according to the SBA, and only 5%,

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5 percent will ever make it to a

million dollars a year in revenue.

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The odds are long and the

risk is outrageous, right?

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And the missing link to help you

survive and to help you scale is

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so brand new that we're just now

getting it to market for decades.

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Small business owners have done this.

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They've signed an outrageous loan and

they go network with other business

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owners and they hope for the best.

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Well, the results speak for themselves.

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Do they not?

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Are you satisfied that half of

our colleagues and maybe even

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us are going out of business?

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I'm certainly not.

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What if we did something about it?

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What small business owners need is a place

to be surrounded by others that care.

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Others that understand.

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And others that will help you

without sending you an invoice.

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Now just think about this.

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If you're not in a small business

community, imagine asking someone at a

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networking event to actually help you.

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That doesn't happen.

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But it doesn't a community

because a community is different.

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A community is not an audience

of some YouTuber or podcaster.

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A community is not an

association or a chamber.

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A community is a group of people

who are on a shared mission.

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And on a shared mission, they

agree to support one another.

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And on that mission, they can grow.

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A business community Is one that agrees

to support one another through the ups

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and downs of the small business lifestyle.

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Now, this is uncommon.

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It's really not happening

in the small business world.

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Really, not at all.

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Four years ago, we launched

the Idea Collective.

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That was my effort to bring

community to the business world.

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And it was effective.

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For those of you that joined,

thank you so much for joining.

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We're so glad you're there.

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But it didn't grow big enough.

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For that powerful network effect.

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The network effect is when you get

so many nodes on the network that

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the value of the network rises.

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You meet people that you don't know.

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You have experience that you don't have.

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The community gets diversified

so you're hearing new voices from

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new regions with new expertise.

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That network effect is like when

a community can be supercharged.

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We have members all around the

country, we just don't have enough.

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Now why?

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I think it was hindered by a lack

of clarity and being critical.

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It was also kind of run with an aw

shucks kind of attitude like, Oh, well,

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if you need us, you'll find us, you

know, we're doing something pretty cool.

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It'd be a shame if you

missed it, but it's okay.

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If you don't join,

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I wasn't being aggressive.

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I wasn't out there.

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Say it with me running for office.

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For those of you that have heard me

say something that all changes today.

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Today, it's different.

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And it's never going to be the same.

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My mission is to serve small

business owners at scale.

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And I want to become an indispensable

part of their small business lifestyle so

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they can build a business that they love.

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And here's the real part and lead

a life that's fulfilling to them.

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Every single one of us

building a small business.

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We're qualified to go work for corporate.

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We've just chosen not to, because

that just doesn't fill us up anymore.

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We want to go do our own thing.

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We want to go build our

own small business dream.

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That's why we don't work

for someone else anymore.

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I want to see those folks succeed.

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And when you think about my mission and

the whole at scale part of it, meaning

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many, many small business owners,

that probably sounds silly to you.

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Kind of sounds silly to me.

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But if you look around the

country, it's kind of needed.

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I just shared the stat with you.

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We know that small business owners

need a community like this, and I

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know that they need it everywhere.

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Is that crazy?

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Is it wild to think that some guy

in his basement in some community

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like you, that we are gonna fix

the small business support system?

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Is that out of reach?

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Maybe it's too out of reach.

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Maybe it's just foolish.

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Maybe we shouldn't try.

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Maybe,

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but if someone like me and someone

like you doesn't dream that big, who

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else is going to step in and serve?

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Who's going to offer this product that

entrepreneurs just like you, but they're

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in Kentucky or North Dakota or Ohio.

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Those folks need what we have.

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If someone was going to fix this,

it would have been fixed by now.

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I'm telling you, right?

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If someone was going to fix this,

it would have been fixed by now.

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So dammit, I'm excited and

I'm on a mission now, and I'm

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glad that you're here with me.

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I'm excited to announce the

small business owners community.

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And you can find it at

small business community.

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com.

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If you're an entrepreneur that's

working to build your small business

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dream, there's now a nationwide

community that's ready to walk with you.

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And here's what makes it different.

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We're talking about business and we're

talking about the personal ups and

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downs while we build our business.

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I call that the small business lifestyle.

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Now that's a little bit unique

because there are support groups

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like emotional support groups.

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There are business groups, fine,

but we've created a space that puts

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collaboration over competition.

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And that's enabled because we've

banned the spammy sales posts and those

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referral sharks that infest other groups.

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When you come into the small business

owners community, you're going

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to get battle tested feedback and

experience and not a sales pitch.

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We're also available nationwide

with our online platform and in

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person, a growing number of cities.

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Plus, we host a big old conference.

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Our annual conference, our fourth

annual one is going to be in

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October in downtown Milwaukee.

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Now, as I got ready for this morning

show I had 25 pages worth of theory and

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reasons and stuff I wanted to share.

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And I was going to logic my way into

sharing this announcement with you

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and like giving you the reasons.

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Well, you know what?

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Nobody cares.

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You know what people care about?

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They care about their pocketbook.

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They care about their business

and they want to get further down

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the road than they are right now.

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That's really what we're

doing in the small business.

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How about we do that?

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There

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we go.

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So let's show you the community, shall we?

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When you come into our online

platform in the online platform,

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you're going to find an exclusive

home for you and your small business.

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That's on purpose, not on Facebook.

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Why?

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Because I wanted to have a private

conversation and I wanted to give you the

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chance to interact with other members and

not be one click away from your clients.

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That's why we're on Mighty Networks

and not with Facebook or some

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other public facing network.

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The other thing that we're

doing inside the community I

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think is pretty darn unique.

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Eight hours a month, eight hours a month.

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We get together.

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And we do something that

we call the idea slam.

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Now in the idea slam, we have folks

get time in front of the group

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to get experience and feedback

from other entrepreneurs that

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know what they're talking about.

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We're all sharing what we've seen.

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We're all helping each other grow.

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That's your chance to solve

problems and capture opportunity.

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Hey, has anyone ever seen this?

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Am I crazy?

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Someone would say, no,

you're, you're not crazy.

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That is how that works.

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In addition to idea generation

and problem solving, we're also

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getting into accountability.

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We do a weekly accountability call and

we've added new how to get stuff done.

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Calls called how's calls, which are

ways that we are getting after the

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day-to-Day steps that are needed

to make our dreams come true.

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So this isn't a place

where you post and pray.

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This is a place where you log in

and talk with other entrepreneurs

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and you get problems solved.

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And these action oriented sessions,

they're just different than networking.

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In addition to all of these meetings

that we have online, because it's getting

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up to be like 20 meetings a month now.

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In addition to all of that, we have

on demand classes, how to open, uh,

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get your email open rate up or how to

build your business through Instagram.

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And we have special interest clubs.

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A coaches club, a public speaking

club, a sales club, an AI club, loads

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of different small conversations

that are going on inside of there.

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And then we thought, okay, how

do we expand the benefit beyond

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just the online membership?

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Well, we've added something

really cool, brand new.

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We've just added a legal hotline

hosted by Athena legal solutions.

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So in addition to the online community, we

now have a free members only legal hotline

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because you've been there before, right?

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You get the letter and you're

like, this looks official.

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Do I need to do something with this?

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Now I'll just ignore it.

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And then 90 days later, it's like,

Hey, you didn't do the thing.

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You shouldn't have to take that risk.

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And you shouldn't have to start

the law, a legal taxi meter, just

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cause you need a yes or no question.

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So inside the community members can

schedule the time with one of our

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members, that's an attorney and get

questions answered free of charge.

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Nice.

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In addition to that, we're adding a

new directory for all of our members.

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We also added hundreds of

dollars in monthly savings with

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our deals and discount section.

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And we've beeped up the discount

for the annual conference.

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Members of the community now get

into the conference for 150 off.

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Other organizations like this,

some of them are like 2, 500.

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Some of them are 249.

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This entire thing, this answer to the

test, this support system that you

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need to grow the business 57 a month.

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It's less than a gym membership.

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It's less than one dinner out.

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And you're plugging into the business

support system that you won't

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believe you were working without.

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We even offer a two week free trial.

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Where's my free trial.

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There's my free trial.

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Come on up onto the screen free trial.

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It's not working this morning.

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There it is.

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Two week free trial.

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So for those of you that have been on

this journey with me, let's just review

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why we needed to change the name.

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Moving from the Idea Collective

to the Small Business Owners

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Community is a big move.

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So why did we do it?

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Well, we don't need to niche

down to a place or a person.

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This is needed everywhere.

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This need is immediate and it's important.

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And with a name like the Small Business

Owners Community, Small Business Owners

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will know exactly who this is for.

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And we can clearly position the

community as something different

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than the local in person solutions.

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And if you didn't know who we

were, compare this introduction.

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Oh, hi, I'm Pat Miller.

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I'm building the idea collective.

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Or hi, I'm Pat Miller.

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I'm building the small

business owners community.

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Like an immediate difference, right?

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Like that.

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You can tell right away

what the difference is.

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Our values didn't change.

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Our tagline of don't grow

it alone didn't change.

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Our pricing didn't change.

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The only thing that changed is that

we're getting ultra clear and more

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direct to help us cut through to

people who don't know about us yet.

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And, as I said at the beginning,

we're taking a leadership

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position without apology.

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We don't need to hide or feel less than

by saying, Oh, well, we're the small

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business owners, community of Milwaukee.

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Maybe someday we'll

help people everywhere.

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No, no, no.

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For the last four years, we

have innovated a solution.

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And we've been testing what works and

what doesn't, we've been building this

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community behind the scenes and now,

today, it is our obligation to share

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it with as many people as possible.

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Nobody's claimed this, no one's

taken a leadership position, so

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today, that's what we're gonna do.

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And if you're watching this, and you're

building your small business dream all

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by yourself, I want you to know that

together we're building something bigger

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than just your own small business.

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We're building the small business

support system that should have been

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available this whole time and it wasn't.

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So if you're not with us yet, I'm asking

you to take the two week free trial.

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The link is right there on the screen.

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Because if you don't, you're

going to log off and you're

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going to have a conversation with

your cat about what to do next.

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Or you're going to guess about, geez,

did I, did I price that high enough?

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Or, wow, do I need to

make that investment?

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You're going to try and engineer

all of these ideas in your own head.

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You're going to try and solve

your own problems and you

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can't see your blind spots.

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And you're going to try and make

decisions outside of your areas

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of expertise and experience.

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It doesn't have to be that way.

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If you're doing it by yourself,

you've put business on hard mode.

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And that's not a U.

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S.

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business support problem.

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That's a you problem.

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As of today.

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So join us because we want

to be a part of your success.

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The small business owners

community is live and I'm

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pretty darn excited about it.

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I'm Pat Miller, founder of the

small business owners community.

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God, that feels so good to say I'm

excited that you joined us this morning.

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I hope we get a chance to work

with you inside the community.

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And I promise next week, we'll

have a full blown small business

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mornings to share with one another.

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But today, big announcement

couldn't be more excited.

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We'll see you in the community and

we'll see you right here next week.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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About the Podcast

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Small Business Mornings with Pat Miller
The weekly morning show for small business owners

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About your host

Profile picture for Pat Miller

Pat Miller

Host of the Professional Photographer Podcast and Founder of the Small Business Owners Community. TEDx Speaker, Event Organizer and champion for entrepreneurs! Learn more about the Small Business Owners Community at https://www.smallbusinesscommunity.com