Community Builders Speak: Finding Authenticity between your Professional and Personal Persona

This Community Builders Speak Series was inspired by the first article I wrote a couple of weeks back on The What, Why and How of Community Building. I have had the privilege to meet amazing people in the fitness and wellness space in the last two years and I wanted to highlight what these self-employed individuals understood as Community Building and how they were building Community in their respective businesses.

I am hoping that by speaking to these entrepreneurs/business owners and sharing their story, it can bring greater relevance to others, and will inspire and motivate others to understand the true meaning of Community Building, from a non-social services and non-sales angled approach.

Many are already building Community with their client and follower base, but they do not even know it! This series is for you to learn how you can learn from different individuals in different practices, and apply it to our own situations, and hopefully reap the benefits from it.

Beata Justkowiak – Psychologist and Life Coach

Today I speak to Beata Justkowiak who is a Psychologist and Life Coach. Beata and I co-share the same space at Core Collective and I have noticed how she has steadily grown her clients and also pivoted the messaging of her business a couple of times for the past 1.5 years. I was very interested to ask her what Community Building meant for her and her business and am so thankful that she was open to “meet” and share with me!

Our conversation with some edits has been transcribed for you below.

Tell me a little bit more about yourself.

I am a psychologist and life coach. My goal is to make everything I know to be practical for others to understand and apply. One of the areas is on focus and concentration because very often individuals are too impatient to see the results they are after.

I want people to engage in long-lasting change which will be the motivation necessary to drive their actions. Through these, they will be able to build confidence and the sense of purpose as to why they want it (purpose) and how they can get it (purpose).

I want people to feel authentic. And this means that they need to feel their struggles and setbacks and not sweep problems under the carpet. I want to empower them to face their own challenges (and fears) and overcome them with their inner strength.

I have been in Singapore for 7 years. Before I came to Singapore I was already a practising Psychologist and Life Coach in Poland with a good passive clientele. But since coming to Singapore, I have had to be more active and up-play my “uniqueness”.

Apart from the physically differences where I am non-Singaporean, female and blond, I am different because of the energy I bring not just when you meet me face-to-face, but also in the content that I share. I am always challenging the status quo and asking thought-provoking questions to encourage deeper thinking and conversation.

I also make that conscious effort to be as authentic as I can with my communications. This starts from the photos and graphics that you can see on my website and other digital platforms. The feedback that I have gotten always is that my online communications and persona is aligned with my physical one, so I know I am on the right track.

Why did you choose to brand your business under Energising Goals and not your name?

Energising Goals is Beata! There are a couple of reasons why I decided to go in this direction.

For starters, my last name is not exactly the easiest to pronounce, so it was definitely one of the key reasons. Another practical reason is that as a psychologist, we have been trained not to share our personal lives, so we need to be slightly detached from our personal brand and persona.

There definitely is a fine line between the sharing of my professional and personal life and this has also been something that was somewhat of a challenge in the initial stages of establishing Energising Goals. The challenge and struggle was that of authenticity on what to share and what not to share.

The data from the growth of my social media following and what people were engaged with showed that my time spent with family and my baby were the most popular. But I knew that the content needed to be more relevant for my professional offering. I eventually found the ideal way to share content based on trial and error. This was a process of understanding what the key things people knew me for to make sure this was in alignment to support my values and personal brand. There is a fundamental difference in sharing a picture of me and my baby as opposed to sharing a neutral image, but using myself and my baby as the content and copy of discussion.

I have come to the understanding that although we might not be experts in what we are sharing/doing (ie. Parenting), the sharing of our unique experiences which others might be able to relate to, have the power to influence how others feel, think, act and react.

How do you define Community Building for the work you do?

Community building for me is providing a safe environment and sense of trust for people to have the right of self-expression on their own struggles and reflections.

Can you define your Community?

My community is anyone who consumes the free information I put up on my digital platforms, from the website to Instagram to webinars and up until Covid happened, my Fit-Chill Out retreats as well.

50% of this community want to get some ideas and tips on how they can self-manage their struggles and challenges but cannot afford the one-to-one consultation and coaching. 30% of this community want to see psychology being practical and they want to identify growth areas in their life and how they might be able to get there. I see my collaborators and partners coming from this 30%. The rest of the 20% are my clients who have met me in person before for their one-on-one sessions.

My goal is to remove the stigma associated with mental wellness and about feeling doubtful of one’s own abilities and self-worth. There is absolutely nothing wrong if you are struggling with work, relationships, and life in general, and not knowing the answers to your problems.

I want to have that unique connection through my various touchpoints and build authentic relationships with my community. I very much value quality over quantity.

How did you start Community Building in the first place?

To be honest, building Community was not something I had planned and was definitely not part of my business strategy. And there is also nowhere on my communication touch points for Energising Goals that I mention building Community in my vision, mission or values. The Community just grew and developed organically on its own.

This invitation you extended for me to speak about Community building has actually helped me realise that I AM building a Community and this should be communicated explicitly on my communication touch points. You’ve actually provoked me to think deeper into how I define my Community and how I can continue to engage and grow the Community, with something like a call-to-action – “Join me if you believe…”.

Thank you Alex for provoking my growth!

Is Community Building necessary? Now that we have had this conversation.

If you are asking that if I could turn the clock back before starting Energising Goals, would I have put more structures in place to allow for it to have been a conscious effort…

The answer is Yes.

But this stems mainly from misinformation about Community Building from the onset because I understood it from research that it was the means to garner more sales and conversions. That idea did not sit well with me and was against my vision to provide information and help without the “underlying motive” to convert a sale.

Another reason was my initial fear of not being able to provide relevant content and information for those who were engaged. This fear diminished along the way as I faced the challenges and found my own momentum.

I am now ready to build my Community because I have overcome my fears, understood my WHY, and how I can deliver value to the Community.

What are your growth plans for the Community?

My goal is to set up a repository of sorts for my Community to have access to the multi-channel resource and information I have shared previously. This will take away the hassle of me having to navigate and moderate different platforms and also to consolidate the Community onto just one source.

It will be a space for self-expression as well as self-reflection. It will be a space for other like-minded individuals wanting the same information.

I want to continue to stay present and listen to the Community, to grow with the Community and understand their needs.

It will be Energising Goals making Psychology available to more people. 

Do you have any tips for someone who wants to start their own business and wants to build Community?

It is always good to look inwards and notice what holds you back from building Community and why. If you are not able to do this on your own, it will be helpful to have someone ask you the right questions to help you understand and put you in the right direction.

For me it was to face my own fears and grow the confidence and ego and to then take action. I knew it was a situation where “the right time will come” as I settled in.

Last words

My main aim is to transform the way we think, work, exercise … and essentially live! I want to make Psychology accessible to all and provide valuable content for consumption.

I want to provoke people to think; debunk false claims of myths; examine common beliefs that could be causing us to feel trapped; and to open people up for self-reflection and self-expression.

Anyone who is looking for the above is my Community!

About Alex Loh

I am a business and life coach, business owner, loving husband and doting father.

My compass is guided by the desire to help people. I coach individuals and business owners to find purpose. Together we unlock fruitful solutions, experience growth and achieve targeted success. Having successfully built and maintained communities over the years, my focus is to help businesses and organisations harness community as the vehicle to connect, and build credibility, trust and authentic relationships.

Come speak to me about Finding Purpose, Building Communities and/or in Optimising your Life!

Photos from www.energisinggoals.com

Watch Full Interview here!