Community Builders Speak Series: The Success of my Clients is the Success of the Community

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 stages of their entrepreneurial and Community building journey, and apply it to our own situations, and hopefully reap the benefits from it.

Danielle Van De Leest — Founder, Active Women.

Today I speak to Danielle Van De Leest, Founder of Active Women. She is a personal trainer focusing on women’s health and helping women get back in shape post-partum.

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

Tell me more about yourself and your business

I am from the Netherlands and moved to Asia six years ago. I started out in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur when my then partner had the opportunity to relocate for work. I spent two and a half years in Malaysia and was in a company that specialized in market research. I have always done fashion modeling on the side, so I was able to continue doing that while also managing well the full-time market research position.

I have been in Singapore since 2016, because my husband (I married my then partner!) had the opportunity to relocate once again. When we moved to Singapore, I wanted a change of work environment, so I decided to change my specialization entirely. Fitness had always been a huge part of my life, having been active due to the demands of being a fashion model. Having a keen interest in the power of nutrition, which was a great combination with fitness, I made the decision to become a Personal Trainer. It seemed like quite a natural fit and progression because I was already giving advice to close friends who wanted to exercise and eat better.

The journey started out with me joining a reputable commercial gym as a personal trainer, which had me working there for one and a half years before I left to start my own company. Expecting my daughter was the life-changing moment and wanted to spend more time with family and be there for her every step of the way. Working in the commercial gym would not have allowed me to do so because the hours were long, and the shift allocations were also sometimes not very ideal for my responsibilities as a mother.

It was also during the pregnancy that I decided to devote my time and expertise to help other mums going through the same experience of pregnancy. This included the pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and post-partum stages, where I wanted to help women enjoy their journey, and continue to be fit and healthy, with the different challenges that they might face as mums-to-be. This is the reason why I started my company called Active Women Singapore in October 2019.

What was the inspiration behind the company name?

This was an ideation process that took many weeks. It was a conscious effort to call it Active Women and not have the company named after my name or anything related to me because I potentially see myself growing the company and working with and hiring other trainers who were obviously not me. There were many iterations, but some names were too “strong” or “powerful” that I felt would be off-putting and not all-encompassing with the work that I do. I looked at my existing clients, and the potential clients that I wanted to train, and Active Women was something that struck the chord the best.

The word “Active” is representative of my client and potential client base because it is women who want to move to achieve fitter and healthy lifestyles. I want to cater to different women with different needs, and with a word that is easy to understand. I always use the examples of a mother being able to run after her child and not feel exhausted, or simply being able to carry groceries in one hand and the child in the other.

Active Women does not just involve physical activity and personal training, but an all-suite programme of goal setting for nutrition, sleep, injury prevention and optimization. This is what the business stands for and the brand values must resonate not just for my clients, but anyone else that will join Active Women as a partner or trainer.

What do you understand by Community Building?

I think that Community building should be done on two levels.

The first level is the professional Community, of like-minded professionals and practitioners. They could be business owners or individuals who will form the support network for your client to be able to train better, eat better, sleep better and be able to live that Active lifestyle better. This is important because I acknowledge that I am not able to cater to all needs of every client and there will be times where the expertise might move beyond my subject-matter knowledge. Of course, you must first be aligned with these professionals and practitioners to make sure that you will be placing clients in good hands.

The next level is the client Community. Building my client Community comes from getting good organic referral clients but also having a relatively good reach through social media. I have a few in the existing client Community who started out separately on Personal Training but have now also started attending group classes together. There is support for one another because they have commonalities like their place of residence or if their children attended the same school. I did not provide the platform for them to interact, but they organically got together, sometimes even for weekend family outings. This is one aspect that I am still working on and facilitating it to be more deliberate.

How do you define your Community?

90% of my Community are ladies. The 10% come from the partners of women who like to spend time training with their partners. 70% of these women are post-partum, and they could be from just one-week post-partum to even a few years post-partum. They might also be managing pain to do with the pregnancy and parenting, ranging from shoulder pain to hip imbalance to pelvic floor issues.

How did you start building Community?

I did not have a plan to begin with, but I always had in mind that I needed to have a strong social media presence to engage my Community. It is important for me to be able to represent myself and Active Women with the right brand voice and relevant content.

Everything has been happening fairly organically so far. I have been able to provide a good support network for my clients through a closed Facebook group. This will be a safe space for people who are interested in the same thing. The Community will support one another but I will also be there to facilitate.

What are you doing now to continue to grow the Community and add value?

I am active in giving online talks, and before Covid, I was also planning on conducting face-to-face luncheons and events for women in their thirties to forties, to allow for the Community to meet and interact. Just a nice session to get to know each other (and me) better. I know that Community doesn’t just include clients but also followers and others who are consuming the information I put out on social media.

How are you measuring the success of the Community?

It is always great to know that I have added value to another person’s life. The engagement with the likes and comments are good to have, but the best is to receive a direct message to tell me someone enjoyed an article I wrote or found a video I put out exceptionally useful. This is one measure of the success of Community for me.

Another measure is the number of new mums or clients contacting me online where I had no prior connection to.

Lastly, seeing how clients have transformed their lives sustainably is a clear measure of success of the Community. The success of the clients is the success of the Community.

How important is building Community?

In my opinion, building Community is crucial to my business. It is the best network for me to get my message out. The message of being the solution to women wanting to be Active to get fit and healthy, and of course women looking for pre and post-natal support.

Apart from being able to spread the message, the Community is also the supportive network. With so many things going on for a pregnant lady, from sharing fears on what cannot be done, to talking about different journeys on how better to do something.

Do you have any success stories to share?

The success in the stories are always in the journey. It is inaccurate to show “before” and “after” photos because we are not able to determine if the client will be able to continue a sustained fit and healthy lifestyle. It also does injustice to the commitment that the client has gone through to achieve success.

Success stories for me are clients who now start feeling good in their own body, parenting without experiencing any pain, and even fitting into a dress or jeans before pregnancy.

Tips for someone coming out to do their own thing.

How you brand yourself or your business is important because it puts you through the process of discovery on what you stand for.

Even though starting a company in Singapore is hassle free, there is plenty of admin to be done. Do not underestimate time that you will need to put into pricing, contracts, systems and your Community building strategy.

If you are leaving a job to come out on our own, you would need to have already built a sizable number of followers in your Community. Build brand even before your company starts because you will need time to transition out of the job.

Check for any non-compete clause in the employee contract and enjoy the process of coming out to do your own thing!

Parting Words

It is important for you to have a professional Community that supports you and want the best for you. If you are in the presence of individuals who tend to present you with negative comments or energy more than you need it, that Community is not serving you well. As a business owner and solopreneur, you need positive energy and comfort, because this is the type of support that will take you on the long run and towards success!

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.

More info at www.activewomensg.com