158 - Entrepreneurs Need Community More Than Networking

158 - Entrepreneurs Need Community More Than Networking- Youtube
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to the "MaYapinion" podcast. I'm your host, Maya Roffler, and this is a show where I give my opinions on entrepreneurship for women. And today I'm gonna talk about something that is very near and dear to my heart, and it's something that I have been really pushing and growing and evolving with.

And today I'm gonna be talking about why entrepreneurs need community. And in my opinion, I think community is one of the most important things that an entrepreneur can find. I have seen entrepreneurs find specific communities, specific groups of people, and literally just thrive after finding them.

Because the reality is, entrepreneurship is really lonely. It's something that we don't talk about enough, but it's isolating, it's [00:01:00] lonely. It is not something that we go into thinking about. We don't necessarily think like, "Okay, I'm going to become an entrepreneur. I'm gonna start this business. I'm gonna launch this product.

I'm gonna launch this service. I'm gonna launch this community," whatever it is that you're launching, and you know that you're going to be lonely. Like, no, you don't. You think you're going to have all these customers and all these people supporting you and all these things happening, and in reality That doesn't happen till later.

It happens sooner for some of us, but in all actuality, it's a very lonely road, and it can be really tough because building a business feels very isolating, and especially when you're doing it by yourself, which most of us are. Most of us are building something [00:02:00] on our own, and so that is why community becomes so important, because you need other people to understand what you're going through, and your circle of friends or the, you know, your corporate group that you used to hang out with, like, they're not going to face the same challenges that you're facing.

They're just not. And I will share just personally, and I've talked about it on other episodes, that was one of the most surprising things for me in entrepreneurship when I started to embark upon this route versus my corporate career. I really thought that, like, my friends and family would rally around me and support me.

Oh, how naive I was. And it wasn't that they were not supportive or weren't encouraging or weren't like, "Oh, that's cool," but they had no idea [00:03:00] what I went through on a day-to-day basis, and the real super highs and lows of entrepreneurship, where you sit there and in one day, and I talk about this all the time too, but in my opinion, this is so important to talk about.

In one day, you can wake up and feel like, "Oh my God, this isn't working. I'm failing, I'm failing." And then by lunch you can feel like, "Oh my God, I just, I just got an email from someone, like I'm on top of the world." And then by 4:00 that day you can be thinking, "Oh my God, but my website crashed and I'm not really sure if this is gonna get back up today before the close of business."

It's a lot of highs and lows, and people who are not involved in that type of business or community, like they just don't understand. Which is why I realized going into my entrepreneurial journey, as I started to meet other, especially women, that [00:04:00] were going through the same types of struggles as I was or had been through them, or maybe I had gone through some and like now they're going through them, it was so refreshing because I was connecting on this deep level.

I could either share some advice from what I had gone through, or they could share some advice about what they had gone through and how like I could improve or how I could make it through that moment. Or maybe we're going through the same thing at the same time, so we're kind of like hand-holding each other.

There's one gal that I work with quite often, her marketing agency refers me, I refer her, and 'cause our event firm doesn't really do marketing per se. It does event marketing, but not marketing per se. And oftentimes her and I will be going through some of the same, just challenges in business, and that was one of my first really true tastes of community and connection and entrepreneurship, and I'm so grateful.

We're still friends to this day. We [00:05:00] still refer each other clients to this day, and I've talked about her before on the show. Maybe I should have her come on. Let me know if you wanna hear from her. That's been really cool to have that relationship. And I think just to continue the community conversation, that would be cool.

And I love when I'm doing these episodes and I kind of just start to think through, "Oh, how can we evolve and share more on the show?" So that's food for thought. Let me know your opinion on that. But I think the other thing that I would touch on here is women will often, and this is maybe every entrepreneur, but I talk to you guys, uh, you know, my women entrepreneurs here.

You'll keep things to yourself, like if you're having a slow month or if you're having a difficult client interaction, or you feel like you can't make a decision with something, or you're feeling indecisive, or you have this brilliant idea and maybe it's not, it's not working. It's not working. And [00:06:00] it doesn't mean that it's not a great idea.

Maybe it's just something that's going on, and I think that's-- I think as women, we're more inclined to keep it to ourselves than men And I think that is shocking to some people, but in my opinion, I do think that because we as women don't wanna feel like we're failing by sharing our challenges, we have so much more pressure and additional pressure to win and succeed.

Like it's okay, I feel like it's okay for men to fail, and it's not okay for women to fail, and that's such a setup for so many things, so many failures, and so many imposter syndrome moments for women, and also to create that lack of community for women. There have been much stronger communities for men in entrepreneurship for a very long time [00:07:00] Compared to women.

And that is one of the many reasons why, because I feel like as women, we're supposed to juggle it all. We're supposed to look like we've got it all covered. But everybody's faced business challenges. Everybody's faced the business challenges as they've grown, as they've scaled, as they started, as they've whatever, fill in the blank.

So why do we feel as women that we have to hide it? That's why community is so important, so that we can be in a safe environment where we can share and say, "Hey, I just launched this new product, and it's not doing as well as my last product, and I thought it would work, and I'd love your feedback, and I'd love to hear why."

And when you're in these safe environments and communities of women entrepreneurs, we can do that. We have to have these safe places for this. And I didn't realize that until a few years into my entrepreneurial journey. [00:08:00] I did exactly what probably most of you have done, and when people ask me how things are going, I'd always be like, "They're great.

They're wonderful. They're amazing. Yes, I just sold a condo to fund my business, but things are going amazing. Things are going amazing." And I regret not having more community, but I figured it out. I did figure it out, and I did find my community, and I did find communities to belong to. But we've have this pressure to make everything look like it's going perfect and it's going great.

And just because things are challenging on one side doesn't mean that they aren't going to be successful, or doesn't mean that you aren't succeeding. And so that's why we stay quiet, and I wanna break that for us. I wanna break that. I don't want us to be quiet, because in the quiet, [00:09:00] that's where the anxiety lives.

That's where the fear lives. That's where the isolation lives. That's why entrepreneurs feel so isolated, because we don't talk about all of these things. And I wanna break the stigma that if we're talking about a business challenge, then our business must be failing. And I am the perfect example to tell you that that is not true.

You might be stunted at a certain level of income. You might be stunted at a certain amount of products being sold. Like, you might be stunted in certain spaces, but that doesn't mean you're failing. It doesn't mean that it's not working. If nothing's happening, if nothing's moving forward, and you're not, you don't have a business, like that's a whole other episode and a whole other conversation.

But the reality is two things can be true You can be succeeding and also be having challenges. And success looks different for everybody, and I want to normalize that. I wanna break down these [00:10:00] barriers, and I want us to be loud. I don't want us to be quiet. Now, I'm not saying that we need to air everything out there.

In my opinion, that's not the best thing to do for business. But I do think it's important that we have safe spaces and communities for us to share, because it's so powerful what we can learn from each other and help each other with, but also empower each other to be really honest, because that is much more inspiring.

I don't know if you feel this way, but in my opinion, it's way more inspiring to hear these stories about, you know, people being rejected a million times or failing or, for, in so many different aspects failing, because failure is a part of entrepreneurship. So it boggles my mind that we're so afraid to share our challenges.

They're just challenges. It doesn't mean that we failed, and [00:11:00] the most successful entrepreneurs out there have failed a million times. So why are we so afraid to share our challenges? Because we don't have the right community around us, in my opinion, and in my experience, I didn't feel like it was a safe environment or a safe place for me to share, which is just so silly, because if you're around other women building businesses, they're going through the same things as you, or they've gone through, or they will go through.

So wherever they are in the cycle, you're gonna connect. You can either teach each other, help each other, learn from each other, or go through it together. It's kind of these three trifecta things, 'cause you're either going through the same challenge at the same time, one of you has been through the challenge already, one of you will learn, or vice versa, which is so amazing and incredible and invaluable, because you're gonna save so much time and so much pain by learning from each other or going through the fire together, and then maybe it bonds you for life.

Been there. [00:12:00] Have a couple of my girls that I've done that with. But what a community will give you, and gives us, and gave me when I started to find some of these really amazing communities, is a place to share, like, the real challenges unfiltered, without being afraid of being judged. Because who cares?

Like, it's ridiculous, and you can hear useful perspectives, like I mentioned, kind of those three different areas, either someone who's gone through it, or you've gone through it and you can give back, or you're both going through it at the same time. I think that's a big message from this episode And I think what I love to see in communities for anything, because I don't just lead a community for women entrepreneurs, and I haven't been just involved in entrepreneurial communities.

I've been in other communities too, which you guys know that I lead with other [00:13:00] podcasts and other things that I do. But it's when people wanna help each other, and it's just so genuine and pure, and it's just about building relationships, and that's invaluable. Most of the business that I've done for my event business is referral-based.

It's from meeting people. It's from having relationships, and genuine relationships, not transactional. And I think sometimes people don't understand how those happen, and they happen in community. When you're in a community, it's better to give more than to get, because the more you give, the more you'll get, of course.

But when you give You get so much more than you ever, ever would have imagined. And that's why I'm such a community junkie, which is why I'm surprised I've never done an episode on this. And as I was looking at the schedule, I was really excited to do this, especially [00:14:00] going into the fall, because I feel like fall, winter, we start to really isolate ourselves, especially as we're prepping for the next year, we're planning for things.

So I just wanted to geek out on this a little bit, but it's... Community is everything, and as humans, we want to feel like we're a part of something. And if you think about that, entrepreneurship is so lonely and isolating, and I'd love to see that change, and I'd love to see that evolve, because as humans, we crave connectivity.

We crave to be around other people, and we crave connection. We want to know that we are not alone. We want to know that someone else has been through this and pulled through. Think about all of those entrepreneurial stories, as I was talking about earlier, that inspire you. Like, if you're a woman in your 40s and you're still figuring [00:15:00] it out, you're inspired by, like, the Huffington Post that wasn't founded until she was, like, in her 50s and 60s.

Those stories are inspiring, and that's why community is inspiring, because when you meet a woman and you're 40 and you're like, "I'm making a major life change. I don't know if I can do this. I wanna start this business," or, "I am starting this business and I don't know if I can do it," and you meet this woman who's 45 and she launched her first business and it took off, that's inspiring to you.

And that's what community is about, is supporting each other, giving to each other, but also inspiring us, inspiring each other, and letting us know, like, it brings the reality of, "I did it so you can do it." I am always so excited when I hear from women just like you, and they're like, "Maya, I didn't think I could do this, and then I listened to this woman on your show," or, "I listened to your story and I did this."

And that's [00:16:00] amazing. But that's community. That's also community. Listening to the show, being a part of the show, being a part of this community, that's community too. And I think that's what's really wonderful about social media, podcasting, all these different aspects, is we have different facets and outlets to build community and build connectivity depending on what you prefer to listen to or watch or participate in.

But I think, you know, something we also have to think about with community is it presents a place where we can have real conversations. We can have practical support from people that have been through the things that we're going through or vice versa. But , I wanna touch on this big topic about community, because I've been going to, you know, [00:17:00] networking events, all of those, all of that stuff, right?

Networking events, virtual, in person, for a very long time. Very long time. And I know a lot of you go to them as well. And for me personally, the ones that I disconnect from the most, this is just my opinion, and I think they're the least effective, is where you go and you just pitch. You pitch and you pitch and you pitch.

You go into a room and you pitch and you say, "Hi, my name is Maya. I run an event logistics agency, and we work with corporations and nonprofits." Big flipping whoop-de-doo. Who cares? You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. Sure, I can tell you I've done this for 18 years. Sure, I can tell you all the clients that I've worked with, unless I have an NDA.

But [00:18:00] the reality is, like, who cares? Who cares? And I get a lot of slack for that because people are like, "Oh my God, well, networking is so important. Networking is so important." I never said networking wasn't important. This whole episode is about community. But I want you guys to remember something. I have built an entire event business on Community, not networking.

There is a difference. And networking is just going out there and meeting people, and that's great. But for me, I need depth. I want something deeper, and that's community in my opinion. Community is deeper than networking. And those people that I meet out at these networking events, I can tell the difference.

I can tell the difference now after doing this for so many years, whether someone really wants to build a connection with me and wants to be a part of a [00:19:00] community with me, whether it's that community we're in, in the moment I'm visiting their community, they're visiting my community, or if they're just there to say, "Hi, my name's Maya.

I run an event logistics company, and we focus on..." Corporate and nonprofit events. Great, cool. Who cares? Do I like you? Do we have a relationship? Do I trust you? Do I wanna do business with you? That's what I wanna see us tap into more and more and more, and those are the most successful communities because women do business with people that they trust.

People in general do. They do. That's why referral-based businesses work really, really well. They just do. I have one, I know. It doesn't mean that I don't do cold pitches. It doesn't mean that I don't go into rooms trying to tap into clients that I want to work with. Of course [00:20:00] not. But the reality is, that's the power of community, and that's the difference between just blind networking and community.

It's getting into a room together, and it's also not just talking about like, "Well, hey, what did you do this weekend? Cool. Where's your office? Oh, that's cool. I'm at..." Like, I can't do that anymore. It's boring. It's boring. I don't care. And I feel like it's really... I- it's exceptionally boring because of everything we were forced to do during COVID, and so I feel like networking needs a refresh.

And the communities that do it very, very well lean into not networking per se, but it's community. Like, how are we going to help each other? So what I mean by this is taking it a step further. So when you're in a room virtually with [00:21:00] people or in person, I meet you, you meet me. Let's say I'm talking about my event business, and you're like, "That's amazing.

Tell me more about, you know, who you wanna work with. What's exciting for you? What are the challenges that you're dealing with right now, Maya?" Like, those are amazing community-building questions. And then if I were talking to you, and let's say that you had a marketing business, I would say, "What kind of clients do you work with?

That's amazing. Like, what are some challenges you're dealing with? Who would you love to work with?" Like, getting deeper. Like, "What do you love about what you're doing? What do you hate about what you're doing?" Like, that's building community, but it's building, like, a relationship. What challenges are you dealing with right now?

Because if somebody shares a challenge with me, and then it's something I've been through How deep do you think that relationship is going to get if I have an opinion, which we all know I have my opinions, but if I have an opinion [00:22:00] about how they could potentially solve that, or I have a way to help them with their, with whatever challenge they're dealing with?

Don't you think that they're probably going to come back to me in the future and want to grab lunch? Or they're gonna say, "Oh my God, that Maya, she really knew what she was talking about. I'd love to work with her in the future." So in the back of their mind, they're always gonna be thinking about people that we could work with together.

I'm telling you right now, that networking gets me bored to the bone, and also I don't see results from it. I just don't. And that's why I just don't go to the generic networking things that are posted all over the internet all the time.

And I'm a part of some really great communities that do it different, because they're about building relationships, and that's what it really should be about. Real conversations, giving each other practical support and connecting, and then pulling those [00:23:00] relationships out of the community so that you can have these one-on-one bonds, because that's really important as well.

'Cause you're not gonna connect with everybody in a community. If it's the right community, you're probably gonna have a, a connection or something will resonate with each person, but you're gonna connect deeper with other people, and that's when the relationships start, and that's when it gets exciting, and that's when you really see the evolution in the building, and there's something really beautiful in that.

But it's... I mean, I hate the pitching. I hate going into a networking event and everybody gets a two-minute pitch and look, I hate it. I absolutely hate it because we're in 2026 and that's not how business is done. It's just not It's not. Now, if you're at a startup event and you have to pitch your event, or pitch your, you know, product, your service, your, you know, whatever your-- Of course I Freudian say event.

I've been doing events for so long. But [00:24:00] really though, if you're pitching something, fine. Everybody's there with that expectation. But when you're at a networking event and we're just pitching ourselves and like, we're beyond that. We've evolved past the generic networking event. And what's so interesting to me is that in the community of entrepreneurs that I am building, I'm building a new community.

Talk about that in just a second. There's a lot of you that are like, "I want networking, I want networking, I want networking." And I message every single person that says, "I want networking," and I say, "Why? Why?" "Well, I want more clients," or, "I need more sales," or it's always the same answers. I get it. I get it.

That is typically the number one thing that women come to me and say to me: "I need more sales. I need more clients. I need more leads." I get it, but I promise you, you will get that [00:25:00] from non-traditional networking, which is community. Community is the wave of where things are going, and they've been here for a minute.

It's not new, but it's about reframing how we think about this, because let's say you have a service that I don't particularly need. It's not something that I need, but I know someone who needs it You're in my community, we have connected, we've made genuine connection by being a part of the same ecosystem.

I'm gonna think of you first, and I'm gonna refer you to that person. That's how that works. Instead of you or I or everybody else in the community standing up for two minutes and just pitching our business, I'm gonna trust you because I've gotten to know you on a human-to-human basis. Woman to woman, 'cause sorry guys, [00:26:00] this is a woman entrepreneurial group that I'm growing.

That's just how it goes. And that's just such a powerful thing because you've got that trust and you've got that relationship. And I just want everyone to know that's why I say that, and that's why I inquire, and that's why I say, "Why networking?" I always wanna know, and the answer's always the same: sales, leads.

But we all want more sales. We all want more leads. We all wanna grow our business. But how do we do it on a deeper level? How do we grow as a company, as a business, as a person? Because we're all just people doing business with other people, and that's how we do it, through community

Community is really important. Community is the evolution of networking, because once you show up to networking events and you're a part of that community and the [00:27:00] relationships go deeper, that's what you're building. So next time you ask for networking, really think about that, because I think you're actually asking for community that will refer you, that will come to you, will respect you as the expert in your whatever you're doing, right?

Like your service, your product, your field. That's what you're looking for. You're not looking for networking. You're looking for something deeper. You're looking for a community that will show up for you, that will connect with you. And I know because I've been there. And in my opinion, I think community is more important than any other sales funnel in entrepreneurship and business in general.

So I want you to think about this, because when you have a community And you're going to that versus going to like a networking event. You can bring your business challenges. You can [00:28:00] bring things that you've been struggling with. You feel comfortable with those people and talking about that. That's so much more powerful than having that anxiety about going in front of like a networking community and you've got to pitch for two minutes and ugh, I hate all that.

It's so outdated. In my opinion, that's in the past. It's not how we do business. It's not how we do things. So to warm you up for community, I want you to tell me what's one business challenge that you've been carrying by yourself? You can send me an email, hello@myopinion.com

You can message me on social, right, @mayaroffler. That's on Instagram or on TikTok. Or you can do @myopinionpodcast on Instagram. We're there, we're all over the place. We're everywhere. Or hopefully you're in our Facebook group for women entrepreneurs and leaders, you can drop it there. Or of course, we have [00:29:00] our community that we're building.

I've built a few communities in the past, for women leaders. This is strictly for women entrepreneurs, and we're meeting, we're talking about challenges, we're building community there. It's on school. It is in the link in the show notes. Check it out. Come join me. We're doing live events, live challenges where you can come bring your business challenges.

So bring them. Bring them and talk to me about them because I wanna hear it, because that's what community does. It's a step deeper. Oh God, it's probably 10 steps deeper, right? Than networking. So bring them. I wanna hear them. Or message me privately if you don't wanna send them to, school, or you can just drop them in the school community.

It's a really safe place. So I invite you to join us over at, Women Entrepreneurs on School, hosted by "MaYpinion," hosted by yours truly. Come over there. We're starting to meet [00:30:00] again, and our, quote-unquote, "networking" is not networking. It's community building. So when you come to our live events, whether you're bringing a business challenge, 'cause we're gonna do some of those events, whether you're coming just to meet each other, it's not networking We're building community.

So I invite you to come over there and join me, and let's build together. Let's connect together, and let's become referral partners and build a relationship, something deeper. Because I don't want you coming and doing a two-minute pitch. I want people to know you and know why you do what you do and why you're the best at what you do So I'll see you over there.

And thank you guys so much for listening to the "MaYapinion" podcast. Don't forget to follow us. We're now live episodes on YouTube at "MaYapinion Podcast," [00:31:00] and obviously follow me at Maya Roffler on Instagram and of course on TikTok. And you can follow at "MaYapinion Podcast" on Instagram as well, and join our private Facebook group and of course our new community on school, which already has over 100 women in it.

It'll be and counting depending on when you listen to this. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you back here next time on the "MaYapinion Podcast."