Community Builders Speak Series: Living with an Abundance Mindset because… A River only Flows when it is going Places!

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 from different individuals in different practices, and apply it to our own situations, and hopefully reap the benefits from it.

Danielle Van De Velde – Meditation Teacher, Healer, Speaker, Writer and Mentor

Today I speak to Danielle Van De Velde who is a Meditation Teacher, Healer, Speaker, Writer and Mentor. I first met Dani when I was General Manager at Core Collective and she was doing packed full-day Intuitive Reiki sessions at Core Collective. She is of course still doing what she does best, but I have moved on from my roll and am running my own business.

It was actually Dani that pushed me to kickstart this Community Builders Speak Series, after reading that first article, so I really have Dani to thank for being that energy catalyst!

Below is our conversation that has been transcribed and edited for you. 

Tell me more about yourself 

I am a qualified meditation practitioner and teacher, and Usui Reiki Master. I have lived six years in Singapore and am originally from Sydney. My initial time in Singapore was mostly spent assimilating and understanding the wellness space in Singapore, then the strong calling for relevance and meaning to support people’s inner practice kicked in. The energy healing scene was very vibrant, and I discovered that although Singapore had much to offer in the wellness space and in meditation, there was no one offering what I was looking for, which is a good mix of meditation, energy healing and energy practice backed by science and research.

So… I decided to set up my business, offering meditation courses and healing services. I set this up from a purely meaning and purpose motivation with no commercial impetus.

But… a couple of years down, my initiatives and desire to open the doorway for busy individuals to enter into living consciously and having a transformative life, have exploded beyond what I planned. My work now primarily is to help people cultivate a rich inner life, heal and maximise their experience of life. A large part of this, in such a fast-paced city is around relieving stress, improving sleep, and bringing homeostasis to their central nervous system.

In addition to my one-on-one intuitive healing sessions, I develop courses, workshops and talks based on what the Community asks for. I hold retreats and women’s circles, and work in collaboration with different brands and individuals.

Because my work does not require a fixed physical space, I am on the move at different locations and also on-site for corporates and schools.

How do you decide how much time to allocate to each of your activities and service offerings?

There is structure to the different activities based around windows between school holidays and also activities like the women’s circle for example happen only once a month. The courses are organised around high demand or low demand seasons. It helps that I have a big subscribed Community and therefore when word gets pushed out, the take-up rates are normally quite high.

I write all content for my courses, but the good thing is that once it is already done, it can be easily replicated, and I do not need to reinvent or reformulate the content. If there is a request for a particular topic, I will put it out to the Community to see if it was something others would be interested in as well.

I am currently working on a survey to get some data feedback from the Community on what they want. Now that my services are very broad, and since I have managed to move a lot of offerings online, I find the need to prioritise the roll out of offerings according to what people want and need.

It will be interesting to see trend data and what people are thinking, especially now that client base is expanding outside of Singapore and also from the impact of Covid. I hope that the data will be able to tell me what kind of content and topics people are seeking. I love to write, so this will really help me prioritise and optimise the online content.

What does Community Building mean to you?

People like to feel like they belong to a like-minded Community. They like to feel that they are heard. There has to be sharing of experiences and philosophies, but most importantly, an alignment with values. This is what Community building means to me and the Community that I wanted to create when I first started this business was for people who wanted to understand a different tilt and perspective on meditation, healing and inner practice.

I realised that it is all about the content you generate and push out and I have been consistently pushing out inspiring content to capture that sense of belonging.

Community building also involves partnering and collaborating with like-minded brands who are aligned with your same values and have their own Community that would be interested in your content and service offerings as well.

How would you define your Community? 

My Community consists of my private healing and mentoring clients, ladies who come for my women’s circles, and people who come for my courses. I also work with corporates, organisations and schools. They range from practitioners looking to equip themselves with exercises and frameworks to heal others, to individuals seeking to open up their intuitive ability and to learn to heal themselves. They could be anyone from corporate coaches to psychotherapists to practitioners trained in other healing modalities who are already helping other people but who want to deepen their offering and add something else to their toolbox.

The demographic of the Community is roughly 30% locals and 70% expatriates. Of this number, around 30% are men and 70% are women. I have noticed also that more men sign up for the online sessions than the in-person groups and a higher percentage of men opt for private one-to-one sessions.

How have you managed to grow your Community?

The Community has grown organically from day one. The word-of-mouth factor in Singapore is very powerful. And I think that because Singapore is small, there really is nowhere too far that you cannot travel from or travel to for my service offerings. I have not done any paid marketing since I started.

What is your secret formula?

I make sure that I give every single person who comes for my private or group sessions a fantastic experience, whether it be a tiny group of two or a large group of hundreds. This focus on “experience” has allowed me to capture the Community and also create interest through my newsletters for those who have not engaged my services before but are interested to know more about what I do and offer.

Can you share any road blocks along the way?

I am a self-professed tech-phobe! So with the isolation brought about by Covid, I really had to transform and move my business online. I have an amazing small team helping me with the website and optimisation and they are based out of Australia.

My greatest challenge was concern of not being able to create or replicate the beautiful group experiences/circles and group courses that my Community knew me for. I had to supplement with new course formats, ways of online connection and guided practice recordings. This also required very clear communication of guidelines on sanctity of the circles. These included the real meaning of “standing witness”, respecting people’s feedback, sharing not advising and only sharing relevant experiences.

I was pleasantly surprised when I started the online groups and meditation classes via Zoom to see the high level of engagement and vibrant activity. I was also attracting more people based outside of Singapore and had heard about me from their friends. It really was a case of humans just needing some form of connection in a time of extreme separation!

After getting over that initial tech-phobe hurdle and having good support to teach me, I realised that it is easy and not as difficult as I had imagined. In fact, now I look forward to the sessions because the online format allows a lot more flexibility, creativity in formats and it’s all recorded for reference and additional support for participants.

How did you start building Community in the first place?

It all starts from strategy and process, which are instincts that have never left me since my corporate days. At the start of every year I vision the direction and what I want to achieve for the business and deliver for the Community, which translates into the business plan. It is a Community-led strategy and business planning process.

A big lesson for me is simply to ask for help and not try to do everything on my own.

Now that I have a decent-size Community, I must admit that I am a real mother hen of the Community!

Do you have any success stories to share on your Community Building journey? 

I believe that positivity begets positivity and one of the things that I have always done is, “give back”. A big chunk of the business revenue on a monthly basis goes towards a good cause. Some activities and events are entirely dedicated to a cause or charity. My Community’s support is mainly directed to underprivileged women and children in the region. Every month of May I also direct funds to reforestation and adopting endangered animals. 

This core value of the business to “give back” resonates very well with the Community and energetically it is highly magnetic and generates flow. The collective benefit definitely helps to build Community and although I do not splash it out there to inform the public, my clients are happy to know where the money is going and what good they have done by expanding their inner practice. This altruistic focus has helped to attract like-minded individuals to be a part of the Community. 

I practice the abundance mindset… because a river only flows when it is going somewhere. And I am very conscious of role modelling this principle of abundance as a teacher and mentor.

How do you measure success of Community? 

The main quantitative measure is the size and growth of my “list” of those who subscribe to my website. This shows me the number of people who are interested in my content service offerings and what activities and messaging triggers and increase in sign-ups.

The qualitative measures are the engagement and vibrancy in exchanges during courses and also on my closed Facebook groups, the number of recommendations and referrals from people within the Community, the number of approaches and engagement with like-minded collaboration partners, and invitations to speak and share on other media platforms like your Community Builders Speak Series for example!

Can you please share some tips for Solopreneurs or Self-starters who are starting their journey to build their own Community?

Don’t worry about starting small and focus on always providing that fantastic experience, not just the first experience, but every single experience. This translates into a fantastic quality of Community experience and word will get around on how awesome you are.

Starting small also means not spending beyond the means of the business. I know this is not always possible for some, but I made a commitment when I started my business that I would use the revenue from the business to fund its own growth and would not borrow money from savings or family to grow the business. One of the things I did initially was barter meditation coaching for services and resources that the business required to grow. This was also an excellent way to grow and build the Community because these were individuals who were interested in the service I was offering, and it helped build alignment and a following. Growth was slow but steady and the with limited overhead and expenses the business turned a profit about 18 months in. The timing was aligned with my Community growth and loyalty. 

Staying playful and flexible is important so that you can move and try different things and pivot if you have to. I love to roll with people who are similar in vibration. They must have great service ethics, be integrous, and be open to connection flow and expansion. Of course, having fun while doing work at the same time shows that you are passionate about what you do and it’s a much better vibe for creativity and innovation. This alignment works the same when engaging paid external services and help for the business.

Content is King… so writing and producing writing that is your authentic true self is important for your clients to read about. I have come across professionals who are not expressing their authentic voice and when they speak and write, I can feel that there is absolutely no voltage in their words. On the same note, do practice what you offer. The quality of your work should be a reflection of your own experiences and how you have navigated through them. In short, you have to be able to do it and know it to be able to offer it well.

Parting words for everyone 

Be your authentic true self and understand that positive energy attracts positive energy. Adopt an abundance mindset and watch your river flow!

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.unsplash.com.

Find out more about Dani at www.daniellevandevelde.com.

Watch Full Interview here!