Building Community

Speaker 1 [0:00] It's about the connection that we make and having conversations and saying, what is missing?

Zac Ruiz [0:04] We'd like to take a moment to thank one of this month's sponsors, Sabrina West. Sabrina West, a local mortgage expert with guaranteed rate, will provide you and your clients with real talk in real time. Sabrina is a mentor, investor, and money mortgage expert who provides customized individual consultations with a behavior finance approach and education to help build wealth through real estate. She believes in clients for life, so reach out today, Sabrina.west at rate.com, or give a follow on Instagram at Sabrina G rate.

Speaker 1 [0:34] All right, good evening, good evening. I hope you all are doing wonderful, and thank you so, so much for coming to our AVLmeetup this evening. If you have not met me, hello, my name is Ray Ray Hicks, I do, I do, if I have not met you, I hope to later this evening. And every time we mention it, because it's that important, we are bringing together Asheville's movers and shakers. And what is that? Well, that means an influential figure driving change. Woo, woo, shaping industries. That's right, and making moves with bold decisions and impactful actions. So I would think that all of you would raise your hand if I ask you to, if that described you. Let's raise our hands. Yep, let's do it.

Be involved, love it, love it, thank you. All right, so how does one become a mover and shaker? Well, you can look around, ask other sitting around you, 'cause there are plenty of them here. But first, what you can do is embody our very own net profit philosophy. Everything we do, if you don't know, is based on networking, education, and transactions. So do you know anyone like that? We have someone in mind who's been doing this extremely well in her very own way. So we want to shout out our very own Elena Cobrigan. Is she here yet? Yeah. Bing. Yay, anyway. So she will be featured on Emmy nominated and Telly Award winning TV show, The American Dream.

So, if she were here, this is what I will say. So when she gets here, we can tell her. It's been awesome to know her. She's been with us since the beginning, and it's been an honor to be a part of her journey, and she does the things very well. She does her own version and a lot of networking. She also does education and, clearly, to make it on TV. Plenty of transactions. So, let's pull the room, raise your hand if you are a realtor with us this evening. All right, solid, solid. All right, how many investors do we have? We typically have a crew of you. Ooh, I like this. This is high. This is high. All right, and how about lenders? Where's the money at?

Okay, look at the hands, there's money, there's money. And service providers. So are you a plumber? Are you insurance? Love it. Okay. Are you some sort of GC inspector? Awesome. So all those hands raise? Let's do what we do and network after. And non real estate personnel. I see some newer persons, not personnel. I see some, all right, raise your hand, raise your hand. I see a lot of new faces tonight, so welcome, welcome, and glad you're here. Yeah, round of applause. New people, new people. And as always, I'm always positive, but guys, this we don't do enough. tag us. Tag us in your stuff tonight. Tag us as you're out in the community, so stay connected, and please tag us.

Next, we focus on education. So right down here, you can see we have done since we've been born over 4,000 hours of education. And a quick shout out, the T shirts you see us wearing are from our net profit summit. This was super fun, was anyone there last year? Okay, couple of you. All right. We have speakers in the room. We have sponsors in the room, actually from last year. It was a two day summit, where we had speakers from all over come in, and talk about how to build your business, grow your business, sustain your business, make financially sound decisions, and also some new ideas, if you could potentially break off and start a new business. It was a great time. So quick shout out.

Next, of course we focus on transactions. So we want you to do transactions together. We want you to do transactions out in the community. That's what we're here for, right? To do business, meet people, do the things. So raise your hand if you've done a deal with an AVO, meet up member. All right, this is improved. This is improved. Love it, got hands in the back if you didn't see them. Awesome. So, speaking of which. So, last month, our topic was Lee Jen. We had three expert panelists similar to what we'll have tonight, right? And we heard from Jordan Lockabee on Lee Jen. So let's talk about Jordan just for a quick second. She is an AVLmeetup member.

This is her performance in the trailing 15 months, 17.3 million. So what she talked about, I would say, would be good advice at this point. You don't call me crazy. And also, shameless plug, REMC.co. This is one of Zach's software, so pretty fantastic. Ooh, ah, right? Okay. So, and her number one source of leads to do that business. Does anyone remember you can shout it out if you do? Someone say referrals? Okay? That was part of it, yes? What else? It's okay, I'll tell you. So, it was her community. So she really focuses on the relationships that she has, and building new ones in order to be that go to person within her community. Very, very wise decision.

So community is a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. I think we all share a similar goal. Whatever we're due, our goal is to do it well. Rubby's on our community as well, represent our families well. So we can say we have common goals, and attitudes. I will say, I'm sure some of you are negative Nancys, but this summer, we're going to be positive Percys, okay? We're going to have a good attitude about business and about building community and relationships. So, speaking of which, please come out July 11th, same time, it is a Thursday.

Note that it is a Thursday, not a Tuesday, but we will be having our 2nd annual AVLmeetup mixer 530, drinks and fun at Capella on 9. And I know it's seeing these pictures. You're super jealous if you weren't there. And you're super excited for the shout outs if you were. So please join us. It'll be a great time. Beautiful people, beautiful views, great conversations, and just a good time. Okay, so today, we have the experts on building community, and I'm very excited to hear from these ladies and gentlemen when they come up for the expert panel. So, a couple things on how do you build community. So clearly, you're in the right spot for that. Thank you, Avion meetup, you've came.

So this is just a couple shots of us in our crazy and fun community. And just a couple other things. Maybe it is sporting events, big church events, coffee with your favorite people. It was a coffee talk. Pouring into the community. This is a group of youth, right? Pouring into the youth and the community, volunteering your time, resources, money. Maybe you're just a festival person, and you get your people, and you go festival, and we'll then have fun and build community. It could be just hanging out with your friends, doing life adventures together, having a good time.

And maybe you're pouring into the community in a different way, teaching the community, establishing yourself as an expert in an area. So when something comes up, they say, hey, this is who I'm gonna call. I know that they'll help me, and you know what? They've taken the time to pour into me. And what I needed at that time. So let's give them a call. Okay, leading into our 1st table question of the evening. Which community in Ashville has had the greatest impact on you. Five minutes and go. Yes, we do know the answer. Thanks, Crom. Yeah. Hi, everybody, my name's Kimmy with American Eagle Home Inspection.

We are your local one stop stop for all your home inspection needs in Western North Carolina. Do me a favor, pull out your phone. Find us American Eagle Home Inspection on Instagram, give us a follow. You know what? There's only so much I can tell you about us in 30 seconds, but I promise you, you will not be disappointed if you check out our content. It's very entertaining. It's gonna tell you all you want to know about us. So check us out on Instagram, and we'd love to be your one stop shop resource for your home inspection needs in Western North Carolina. Check us out.

Rodrigo Afanador [8:41] All right, all right. So, I hope everybody got to share a good little story there. We have a great panel tonight for building community in Asheville. And... And one of the things that we're excited to talk about is that Zach and I have some personal curiosities for this panel, about community. And so, before we get to the panel, we wanted to take an opportunity and just set the stage about the journey of AVI meetup, January 10th, 2021, through June 4th, 2024.

So, in that time, we've done 29 events, and for those people who have registered and signed into the events, we've got over 4,000 hours of education and networking, 1,400 plus people have attended, and we've got 76 expert panelists that have been on our stage, and have, you know, spoken to all of us. So how did we get here? As you can see, this is a screenshot from the first website we ever had. And this might sound familiar to you, but on our first website, first thing we ever put out was, our goal was to bring together the Movers and Shakers in the Asheville community.

And our, the way we were gonna do that is by bringing a panel of local experts, and then have a really good networking with the attendees, right? Create meaningful connections with other members of the AVL business ecosystem. So, sound familiar? We still say pretty much the same thing today. We wanted to create an event that we were excited to go to personally. And that event needed to be data driven, with actionable insights and hyper local focus. And we wanted it to be free. So, we didn't want a pitchfest, and this is where we're at today, which meant it had to be a labor of love.

Zac Ruiz [10:33] And so on the... Hello. So on the labor of love part, you know, we have to fundamental beliefs about how a great event would go. One of them is that we believe that great events require great systems and processes. And so you'll notice a trend here. We started working on those on day negative one. Even during ideation. We were like, how do we do this at scale, basically, right? So we started this on the Fremium stack. If you want to start something similar, There's an article on its way, but this is all we use. Google Forums, Google sites, Google Sheets, Google Slides. We still use that one. Male Chimp and Zappier, to kind of connect it all and be scrappy, right?

So, uh, this is what our first website looked like. You can see on the right there, every one of those was an update to make it work. And it wasn't fun. And in between events and speaker updates, and RSVP is constantly updating a site. So we moved off this eventually. You'll see that was what we're about. And then very much like our website looks today. This was our little speaker panel, unfortunately, for Jay. As we were figuring things out, his head isn't the greatest head. Right? But our cartoon heads did get better over time. And then we had the meeting schedule. Again, it'll kind of look familiar to you, right? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

We usually do a market recap, today's a little different. And then we have our panel discussion, and then we let the community do its thing, right? So...

Rodrigo Afanador [11:50] Yeah, so great events require great speakers. And so we started reaching out to the speakers, day, negative one. And we were taking the Gary V model, which is, host the party, right? But the dilemma was, we didn't want to just host a party. We wanted to host a party every single month. And that meant we had to have that balance between quality and quantity. We've had 76 speakers that have shared with us. After tonight, it'll be 79. And that's been a continuous effort. Thank you. Thank you. That's been a continuous effort of connecting with people in the community, because as you'll notice, the majority of the speakers are local to Asheville.

They live and work in Asheville, and they're also at the top of their game. They're all people we can look up to. The best parties, as you guys will know, are the ones where you meet somebody, you feel confident, you can party together with them again in the future. Or in our case, you can do business with them in the future.

Zac Ruiz [12:46] Right, back to that net profit philosophy. So finally, we believe that great events require great attendees. So, we started reaching out to these attendees on day, negative one. Back to the fact that we did all this for free. Here's a little trade secret, right? So we used Gmail, Google Sheets, and free to me, REMC.co. You guys would have to pay for it, but it works for me. So, look, we put together a mail merge. So, we grabbed all of the data, all of the transactional data, and we sent out these data driven emails, essentially, and they look just like this. The point is, Hey, you were one of the top 25 realtors in one of the surrounding counties last month.

We're filling the room with people at your level of the game or higher. We encourage you to be in this room. We are only doing the movers and shakers, help us make that possible. So from day one, that's how we started doing it. Then we reached out to our personal network, our community and sphere, and that's how we got here today. Right? So we built AVLmeetup on these three ingredients. We believe that you need great systems, great speakers, and great attendees. And on the great attendees thing, the other thing is, right, from us to you, we just wanted to say thank you. If you stop showing up, we would stop showing up, too.

So, uh, we're very grateful that everyone has continued to support us, so just wanted to say thanks for that.

Rodrigo Afanador [13:57] So every story has growing pains, and we definitely had some. So long story short, about a year ago, we actually got coaching on a community. We woke up, and we realized that AVO meetup had become a lot bigger than we ever thought it was gonna be. I think our dream at the beginning. I was like, if we could get a consistent 20 to 30 people to show up, like, that would be winning. And we felt like there was a responsibility for us to, like, take it a little bit more seriously. So, we had somebody to talk to. I'd been there and done that before.

Zac Ruiz [14:28] Next, we outgrew all those free tier systems. Immediately, Zappiers were getting too many zaps. Male Chimp was sending too many contacts, all of that. So we outgrew that, and we ended up building our own custom events software. So if you liked the check in form, seeing it all update. If you like the RSVPs, everything that changes, we built that from scratch. And what I'll say about that is, I hope you don't outgrew the systems, because it's been three years of coding and fun, which is great, right? But try to try to use existing solutions.

Rodrigo Afanador [14:56] Yeah, so we also threw a very massive, very ambitious to us event. It was a two day event. We called the net profit summit.

Zac Ruiz [15:04] Side note. So big events need big teams and big budgets. We learned this the hard way. We were humbled. It was a great event, but was it a great time in life? I don't know. Um... Questionable. Questionable. Questionable. However, we were saved. We found ourselves a chrome and a ray ray, and they're here tonight. If we could just get a round of apprause. Like, they basically worked for food and drinks, and Ray Ray doesn't drink. So it was great for us. And they showed up. It would not have been possible without them. And finally, pardon? Well, we're good. Finally, the middle stage here, right? before we got here, we had the venue shuffle. And what is a wallum? What is a wallum? Well...

Rodrigo Afanador [15:45] Well, we started our first meeting, we did it at the White Art Office in East Ashewell, Aircraft, was the broker at that time. He hooked us up, let us have it. Then we moved to archetype downtown when it was still archetype, and we were there for almost a year, something like that.

Zac Ruiz [16:01] We were there a while, but then we couldn't be there one night, like, with, like, two days' notice. So then Sean and Eric had a hatch, saved a day. That's the age there.

Rodrigo Afanador [16:07] And just to clarify, it was not archetype's fault.

Zac Ruiz [16:10] The city said, You can't host an event 'cause your deck doesn't look good enough. But, like, on Monday, and our event's on Tuesday, right? So, people showed up, uh, saved the day, then we went to Lotsar, if you guys were familiar, Atlanta Skye, we held, uh, uh, like, symposium, or whatever you'd call it, with the Mayor of Canton right after the paper mill clothes. Then Hatch hooked it up again. We were at high wire for a little bit, until finally, we got here. Yeah, thanks to Alexi, who's somewhere. There you go, but he's somewhere. Trust us. All right, so where are we now? Where are we now? Um, it's still free, but we do have sponsors. So fun, we managed to do that, right?

Rodrigo Afanador [16:43] So, thank, yeah, so, thanks to any of the sponsors that are here. All of the sponsors, just quick note. They're all personally, like, people that Zach, Ray, Ray, or I have worked with or have done business with. So definitely personal recommendation there.

Zac Ruiz [16:57] We also have a venue that everyone loves, I think, right? So a quick shout out to the mule. Buy another drink, tip your bartenders. They have been awesome to us. There's, like, this is the Goldilocks place in Asheville. There's parking, there's food outside. I hope you guys go to the food and there's drinks. Come on, right? Um, we've also added infrastructure.

Rodrigo Afanador [17:16] Yeah, so we have, all of these are now on YouTube, you can listen to it on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We have Instagram, that's much better than when Zach and I were trying to do it. It was terrible. We have our website that's newly, you know, updated and designed, and a lot of you in the crowd, we have the volunteers who help each event run smoothly, and do a lot of the heavy lifting to have a great experience when we show up to these. Yep.

Zac Ruiz [17:40] So what's next? We're closing up here. What's next? We've been asking ourselves that question a lot lately for being honest. A lot, right? And kind of a symbolic picture. I'll let you guys decide which one of us is Muhammad Ali. However, uh, we're kind of wondering, what would it look like to pass the torch, huh? We'll just drop that ball and move on. So, quick question for you. Rays of hands, these were our first five meet up. Was anybody here at the first five meetups? One, two, three, four, five. Look at this. All right. Amazing, amazing. Thank you for coming back. Right? So we wanted to create an event that we were excited to go to, and the topic of tonight, right?

We ended up with a community that we were proud to be a part of. That is just a fact, right?

Rodrigo Afanador [18:18] So, safe to say that, for Zach and I, this has definitely been one of the most fun things we've been part of in the last three years, despite it just being a hobby.

Zac Ruiz [18:29] When we went to the coaching, they were like, What was your number one thing? Where, like, it's gotta be fun. And he was like, All right, not the best business model. But here we are. It's been a great journey. So on that, and the next coming up is the panel, right? Five minutes. Thank you for coming back respectfully. We'll love that. If it's your first time, find somebody, or maybe this is your favorite AVI.

Speaker 1 [18:47] Or talk about a different community, they've got good memories on it.

Zac Ruiz [18:49] Right? But what is your favorite AVLmeetup story? Five minutes, we'll be joined by the panelists. Thanks. Oh. Well, it's supposed to start.

Unknown [18:57] Five minutes. Yeah.

Zac Ruiz [19:01] If you're a general contractor looking to build a spec home, or a real estate investor wanting to build a rental property, a duplex, or even a small multifamily property, then you want to talk to John Sarver or Craig Peters with Alfie. Alfie is well established in the real estate investing community and is funded over $4250000 in loans to real estate investors over the last 9 years. The team is community focused and has helped 100s of real estate investment projects, including both Rodrigo and I. Even bought drinks for everyone when we had to switch venues last year.

Craig and John regularly attend AVLmeetup, so try to say hi since they're always ready to answer construction financing questions. On the other side of their business, Alfie Investors is a private debt fund that accepts investment capital from accredited investors and puts it to work in the communities across North and South Carolina. Alfie is a collateralized and defensive investment option that has historically provided predictable and consistent returns to their investors. Alfie is currently accepting new investor capital, so please reach out to John or Craig at Alfie to request a prospectus or set up a meeting to learn more. You can find more at alfieloans.com, ALFIEloans.com.

If you could please find your seats, we are going to move into the panel discussion of the night.

Unknown [20:17] Yeah, thank you.

Zac Ruiz [20:21] We've got some fans in the audience. That always helps. Awesome. All right, all right. All right. So, I believe all the mics are on. We are ready to rock and roll. You want to kick it off? All right. Yes. I would love to.

Rodrigo Afanador [20:37] All right, thank you guys so much for being here, by the way. As you kind of heard as we explained in the beginning, just setting the stage. We started AVLmeetup because of something that we wanted to see, and was just wondering if you could answers, like, what was the spark, or what was the aha moment for you to be like, Okay, like, something that I want isn't there. It's time to go create it. And then just whatever context around that that you feel like would be appropriate. And, yeah, ladies first.

Hannah Kitt [21:05] Okay, I'll start. I'm Hannah Kitt, co founder of Power of Women, um, and CEO for Keller Williams across Buncombe County. So, in a nutshell, Kim can tell her version of it, but I have two daughters, a five year old and a three year old. And when I came back from my second maternity leave, I stepped into the position of CEO at Keller Williams. And I thought, Okay, I'm gonna be 100% mom and 100% CEO, not realizing I could not be 200%. So pretty quickly, I felt like I was failing everywhere. And my business partner is Jeff Stewart, and he said, in a really nice way, Well, women have done this before you, like, reach out to someone who's done it and see how they did it.

And so I called Kim Winters, because Kim, in my mind, had built a massive empire in lending, and she's also the mom of five. So I'm like, Okay, well, Kim's done it. I only have two kids. And we started talking, and I think I just, quite frankly, said, how'd you do it? And she said, with a tribe, right? Like, with other women, and men, we have men we love in our lives, too, but it wasn't alone, and I think a big piece of it is giving yourself grace, and I didn't, that wasn't even on my radar. So it was... I think you summed it up. Perfectly. Yeah. Kim was my inspiration.

But I think what I'll say is the community was created because of a gap I felt in my life and an inadequacy that I felt in my life. And I think, obviously, that can be men or women, if you're suffering or you're feeling at a loss or whatever, someone else's too, right? And that's what we've found through power of women is, we have this massive community, which is not near as organized from a system standpoint as this community. We're inspired. Yeah, we're inspired. Awesome. But if, yeah, like, I think vulnerability creates connection that you would never have otherwise.

Zac Ruiz [23:06] So Kim is being a very conscientious panelist, but for the folks at home and listening, there was an audible, Ooh, with five kids and making it all happen. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. I was part of that. Yeah, if you didn't hear that at home, that's impressive. So, I don't know if you're gonna add anything otherwise.

Speaker 1 [23:21] I think Hannah pretty much summed it up. What I would say is that, uh, one of the things that, if you want to start a community, I think, is important is to sort of surround yourself, and we, our first meeting, we just invited, like, 10 women, and we said, This is kind of what we're thinking. Does this have some legs? What do you think? And I think that really was kind of how we got started.

Hannah Kitt [23:43] Yeah, being specific. Like, you guys invited the top 25, we picked 10 female head turner real estate agents. And we gathered them. So I think we didn't want to be exclusive, and there's some real value in being specific in who you want to create a community for.

Rodrigo Afanador [24:00] Well, maybe old digital nomads is a pretty specific name on that note. Rick, what was the aha moment for you then?

Ric Pratte [24:08] So, uh, when we talk about AVL digital nomads, We're talking about remote workers. Also, to clarify that it's location independent. So, could be hybrid, could be solo entrepreneurs, could be freelancers, could be realtors. Could be anyone who doesn't come into an office. So, where we started was, there's a lot of isolation, when it comes to working alone and so forth, you lack community. And so I've been working remote for a long time. I'm a software entrepreneur. And when my wife and I came here, I was looking for friends. And I heard, Hey, it's about bringing your job with you. So to me, that meant remote. I needed some friends. I'll start a meetup.

Unknown [24:58] Boom.

Ric Pratte [25:00] So it was not as thought through as you. We just... It only sounds like that right now.

Zac Ruiz [25:07] Let me be clear. It was a really great wrapper on a story that was haphazard.

Ric Pratte [25:12] That's pretty true, though. And so we grew, but again, it was all around, how do we help people not feel lonely, not feel remote, and bring them together, to have, not just community, but make some friends, and, I'll go deeper later, but that was the whole Genesis, was creating some connection for people who didn't have connection.

Zac Ruiz [25:34] Well, you know, there's the quote, what is it, if not me who, if not when now? Our next question. When you were thinking about what you wanted in this community, what was the North Star? Like, did you have a framework? Like, you guys identified a population. But did you have a framework for kind of making the community? I know you guys have a tremendous amount of different events. Maybe smaller, but coordinated by the community and supporting those different subgroups within it? What was your North Star framework, or was it just kind of, you know, just kind of happened? Uh, me first, right? Yes, sir. We're gonna go back and forth, just to let you guys know.

Ric Pratte [26:05] Originally, our mission was creating a social community for remote workers. So that was in about events, pure social events. We did not want business networking, we didn't want press the flesh. It was, got to get out of my house, meet some people, make friends. And let's do that. And then we evolve further to now, our mission is helping remote workers thrive through connection, collaboration, and community impact. So now all our events are around those three areas.

Rodrigo Afanador [26:44] We're gonna skip Kim and... and a first second. Because our next question is about this, and so get ready, is, like, is your mission still the same when you start it versus what it is today? And so, you obviously mentioned that there's a little bit of a shift, and just, maybe, can you double tap on that and explain, like, what happened with that evolution?

Ric Pratte [27:03] So we have grown a lot. We're only three years old. We have 2,800 people. Last month, we did 23 events. With 700 people.

Rodrigo Afanador [27:26] We won't be doing that in Navial meetup.

Ric Pratte [27:29] So, around that, though, as we shifted, we were growing so fast, so much, we learned that things, different people needed different things. We couldn't just do this all the time. We've been here, we've had 200 people here, which is great, but we have a lot of introverts. So, we found other ways to reach different sets of people, with a lot. So we do lunches, brunches, book clubs, small events, big events, and then we've expanded to topical things. So we have education around AI, what we all call collaborative learning, AI, two AI events. Getting a point. We're getting a point. Uh, leadership, marketing, uh, fractional execs in, uh, tech connect. So, a lot of different stuff.

And then community service and workforce development and a lot of stuff.

Hannah Kitt [28:25] I have to ask, Rick, do you go to all of these events?

Ric Pratte [28:28] I had questions. I had questions. Oh.

Unknown [28:31] No. Okay, good.

Ric Pratte [28:33] We've evolved. Good, yeah. Yeah. We have now 35 organizers who do the bulk of the work. Leverage.

Speaker 1 [28:42] I would say our community definitely sort of changed a little bit. We wanted to do something rooted in personal growth and not make it. I mean, it's networking, but it's not like we're trying to sell you something. Initially, we were targeting a collection of women in real estate, but we really quickly realized that all women were hungry for this. It might be a stay at home mom, it might be somebody who's completely in a different industry altogether. We do not have that many members. I think we probably have over 100 members at this point, but it definitely grew and we do something once a quarter. So you are inspiring us. Yeah.

Hannah Kitt [29:27] We host a quarterly event, and it's $49, or you can be an annual member, I think, for $249, and that comes with some other perks, but Oh, dear. Um, we're back. We started by inviting the top 100 real estate agents that are female, and 88 of them showed up. And that's when we realize and realtors are busy. So that meant a lot to us. We're like okay, they want it. And so we did our first few events, um, for realtors only, and really quickly realized it was not specific to real estate at all, so all women everywhere are welcome to come and be part of our community. And it started to evolve, and we have what you all have, business coming from it, and connections coming from it, friendships.

Like, it's been really neat to see that evolve. And that's not what we expected.

Zac Ruiz [30:13] So kind of a follow up question, but like on the framework. So maybe we didn't do the best job of explaining this to start. But so you guys are you guys are a paid membership and event. You are free and kind of like group managed, essentially, right? Like, does someone raise their hand and say, I want to throw one of these events, or... So that's the question. Well, I hear laughter from some people. Um, that's the, the framework question.

Rodrigo Afanador [30:37] I just kind of want to. like red it in real life, right? If you get enough votes.

Ric Pratte [30:40] Is that a good analogy? Uh, from our side, yeah. So, a whole lot of group, right over here. So they're laughing here, uh, 'cause the joke is, Don't look me in the eye. 'Cause you'll end up running something. Or it's a lot of people, it is from within. It's ground up. The community runs the community. So people have, Oh, I'd love to do a lunch, or we should go to the ball game. Great. Set it up, baby. We'll help you. Yes. So, we do foster it all from within... So, it is not top down.

Rodrigo Afanador [31:18] You all want to borrow your powerful gaze, apparently. That's a good skill set. Just look at somebody, and they do things. That's good.

Zac Ruiz [31:24] When I was a younger man in the Marine Corps, there's this fun thing called a working party. It's not a party. They need someone. And they'll be like, I need six bodies for a working party. You go, What's it for? I need five bodies for a working party. Like, you just volunteered, so it sounds like you guys... Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 [31:39] We initially, for the first year, it was free, and we were just getting sponsors, but what we realized is that to host 100 females who would like to eat breakfast or something at a nice place. Yeah, it costs some money. So after a year, I think we sort of, um, had our audition, and people were like, Wow, we really find value in this. And so we just, basically, it's revenue neutral.

Zac Ruiz [32:03] So you threw four, like, quarterly, four events on the house, and at that point, you were, like, the house is expensive.

Hannah Kitt [32:10] Right, the house got expensive. And we, that's when we also realized we didn't want to just have realtors in there. We wanted anyone, any woman to feel welcome.

Rodrigo Afanador [32:19] All right, so as you were building this, uh, did you have any, like, communities or other communities, sorry, communities you've been part of or communities that you've seen that as it started gaining traction, You're like, okay, like, we need to model this after something, or was it just guesswork and swings, misses, swing, connect, you know, how did that process go? Any inspiration or just, you know, trial error?

Speaker 1 [32:41] We would just say here. We just were sitting over there saying we need to get our infrastructure together.

Hannah Kitt [32:46] You guys, yeah, yeah. We have, um, you are an inspiration, but, um, the book, The Wolf Pack by Abby Wombach. It's incredible. It's like this big and maybe that wide. It's not long. But that book talks about the importance of a tribe. And that, although it wasn't framework around building a community. It was inspiration to create the community. And we have failed forward many times. We don't have systems, and we say that jokingly about you being inspirational, but we mean it, right? And we will have that conversation with you. Because what this community can become with some, with more energy in it is limitless.

We've created what I think is an incredible community and we've not put a lot of energy into it. And I think that's a testament to how much it's needed. So again, if you need or want something in your life, I guarantee other people need and want it also, but someone has to start, right? Like everybody's scared. Oh, why me? What if this happens? God knows we've been through it. But if we hadn't have continued to fail forward, we wouldn't have what we have. And I am a better mom and a better CEO because of that community. And the women that have walked the path before me. So I think that's... I would clap. can't.

Zac Ruiz [33:59] But yeah, that was good. So part of our welcome questionnaire was, would you be willing to start a community? And there were a lot of yeses, so listen up. Let's do it. How about for you, Rick?

Rodrigo Afanador [34:11] Kim, do you want to chime in on that as far as... think Hannah did a mic drop there. Okay. So, Rick, when you got started, was there any a community that you're trying to model or just replicator?

Ric Pratte [34:22] No replication, no model. Uh, we did intentionally discuss all about experimentation, that we are very open to experimentation. Let's just try different things. And as I mentioned, different people would come up. And I learned pretty quickly the more I tried to control, the worse it got. So just letting people take things and do it, and we see what happens. We did have a few foundational things, which was very intentional that were building community. So, the name tags, somewhat of a joke that I'm kind of anal about them, that everyone having a name tag. Um, but it does. It helps, right? Introductions. Who are you? Remembering, kind of never remember names.

So it helps, but very intentional on warm and welcoming, helping people make introductions, seeing anyone drifting around, bring them in. So that was always very intentional, but we didn't read it anywhere. We just did it.

Rodrigo Afanador [35:24] You guys talked a lot about, or you mentioned that there wasn't anything you were modeling after, but is there any hard nose that you had? Like, for us, one of the things for us was like, we never want there to be pitching from the stage. That was like a hard no for us. Were there any hard nose that you had when you were, you know, kind of going through this growth process? And whoever wants to jump in, go for it. It's not specific.

Speaker 1 [35:44] It's power of women. That's kind of a hard no. I mean, not that we I feel marginalized, but...

Zac Ruiz [35:52] I feel marginalized. I can make women powerful. Let's go.

Hannah Kitt [35:54] Right. I don't think there were hard nose. Um... Yeah, yeah, I actually don't have an answer for that, because I guess the one thing is, no matter what, our topic is always rooted in personal growth. We do not talk business. I mean, yes, you may talk business at your tables, but again, it's not pitching, and I don't think we realized we were not doing that, but same. We've copied you. Rick, how about for y'all?

Ric Pratte [36:21] Um, we didn't mention this, but, uh, clarify. We did not want old school business networking. We didn't want press the flesh. Here's my business card. Let me sell you something, that sort of stuff. It was... No, we're here to make friends, and go that way. So we never really had to enforce anything, because it was what we built, and it just came to be that way, but that, for us, was the hard no.

Zac Ruiz [36:48] So that's interesting. I was talking to Mike from Mosaic, and one of the things he brought up, I was like, How did you even start your business, and he was like, It's around the psychographics of Asheville, basically, like, who comes to Asheville? I figured, like, let's market to this person. And I find it interesting that of the three more prominent groups in Asheville, we kind of, we've all hit on that, right? Like, we're not here to come shake everyone's hand and make sure, Oh, this is my job, this is what I do for business. Like, that doesn't seem to work here. So, interesting that we've all fallen into that. All right, so, next question.

Can you guys share an example of initiative you tried that did not go as planned? What happened, and how did you pivot? And I guess... I'd like that you guys are looking at each other.

Unknown [37:27] Oh, we're starting? Oh, apparently. Oh, man.

Hannah Kitt [37:30] What Well, here, this is ironic. I guess, I don't know if this is... Our website is not working right now. And as a bootstrapping company, here we are on this stage, and we want as many women here as possible to be involved, and we don't have a website to send you to. So what we did wrong twice was hire someone in the Philippines or Malaysia, or wherever we were, someone we didn't know and couldn't communicate with, because it was cost effective, and we got what we paid for. So I would encourage anyone out there that wants to build a community, either do it through a free platform, or find a true website builder, to build website. That's been a big fail for us.

And now it's cost us more than it would had had we just paid.

Unknown [38:08] Rick?

Ric Pratte [38:11] Again, it was experimentation. Absolutely. I can't say that it was failures. It was a lot of small learning. Didn't go as planned. Yeah, well, so in the very beginning. It was like, oh, we could do some programmatic stuff around, oh, how does it feel to be remote? What was what your office look like? People signed up for stuff. It would landed as flat as flat could be. Just no one was interested. They just wanted to socialize. So we just, oop, put that to the side. But other than that, it's just been constant iteration.

Zac Ruiz [38:45] We actually have, like, a good problem to have that every time... Actually, today, you guys have been an incredible audience, but usually, when we try to bring people back from the table question, it does not go well. But that's great, 'cause you're trying to get them to network, so it's kind of like, well, we're winning, right? Like, everyone's here having a good time, but... If you have a solution, please, come and talk to us afterwards.

Rodrigo Afanador [39:06] But, uh, yeah, no, so, with, uh, the communities that you've built, I think, three years in, right, give or take? So we got a similar trajectory. As you know, we've been asking, like, what's next for us, at least. Do you have an idea of what's next for you all? Like, is there a longer term vision than just one more month or one more quarter?

Speaker 1 [39:27] I would say, for us, we've had so many women, outside of Asheville, in our collective networks, who are like, wow, we love this. And so Hannah and I looked at each other, like, we might be onto something, right? So, um, we now have a power of women in Boone. I think we have one in Charleston. So for us, we would like to create a collective that is bigger than Asheville. And I think that's something we didn't really expect.

Zac Ruiz [39:59] Are you looking to pass the torch?

Hannah Kitt [40:01] Well, not here locally. Well, someday, because we both want to move to the beach. Which is why we opened Charleston, power of women. Nice. But we want to, we can't say franchise, 'cause we quickly realize that triggers all kinds of texts or all kinds of things, but we want to, we have chapters that are opening up in other markets. And so our intent is to see this go across the country because why not? We can, we've built a business that we can put in a box, and if we have the right who in each market, there's no reason it won't be as impactful and, you know, effective as it has been here. So our goal is to grow.

Zac Ruiz [40:36] Nice. I like it.

Unknown [40:38] Sir.

Ric Pratte [40:40] So, uh, locally, uh, we're looking to go on the third on the leg of that stool, more community service, get more involved, get our members more involved in community service. What are the other two lakes? Connection, collaboration, communities. you go. Community impact. Three C's. The three seed. Oh, there you go. Uh, so there's that. But we also have started... We're nonprofit. We are a 501, C 3. We have started united digital nomads, and are going global. So at the start of this year, we have brought on Raleigh Durham, Dayton, Ohio, Chicago, and just Wilmington, and we're planning to expand through the U.S. and then the globe after.

What we're trying to do is build communities of remote workers, because, again, remote workers are thought of as nothing. You're independent, you're in the woods. No one even measures you. You are not part of the workforce. The workforce is built by employees who work at a company. In this area, over 25% of the working class work remote. And we don't count. I didn't know. So we want to bring us together as a community. We have more power together. We can influence things if we're united. What kind of things are you...?

Unknown [42:07] I was also, yeah, absolutely.

Rodrigo Afanador [42:11] What kind of things are you wanting to influence? Like, that's, uh, you know, it's very stated objective there. What does that look like?

Ric Pratte [42:20] One to be counted. That helps to go a long way. And to have a voice in local politics, if you will, I'm not a politician, but to have some influence in how things work in an area. So we're now in a workforce development coalition, locally. We have our members there. So they know that we exist, and we're at the table for discussion.

Unknown [42:47] Cool, thank you.

Zac Ruiz [42:50] So we have another question, I guess, has to be clarified. So I'll read it, all right? So it goes, looking back. What role, if any, has starting your community played in your life? And so I'll give an example. For example, one of the things Rodrigo likes to say is that your only one conversation away from your next deal. It was more than one conversation, but Rodrigo and I own some property together now, right? I am an extroverted introvert. My favorite places, not here. Um, and yet, I know a lot of you, and it wouldn't have happened without this, right? There are some people over there from 2020 builders. I'm the keeper of the data is the data nerd, and they're like, We need a data nerd.

And so now, I'm collaborating and working with them a bunch. So how has this community kind of impacted you outside of the room, so to speak, outside of the community, if at all. Like, for example, Hannah, you said, Change your life, maybe. It has changed my life. Yeah.

Hannah Kitt [43:38] And I think it's drawn a whole lot more women to me, and I now get to be the one that helps. Not that I have any idea what I'm doing, but through experience, through being a mom through leading people now. I get to do, for others, what Kim did for me. And then imagine the ripple that comes from that. And same for you. Like, we've, it's so fun to be, oh, Hannah, she's the women empowerment person. I'm like, oh my god, yeah. Like, that's a cool title. Oh, Hannah, she's KW or she's whatever, you know, like, I'm proud with my for my job. But I love being that woman that's known as the one who empowers others.

Speaker 1 [44:14] I think one of the things that was kind of an unintended consequence, but in a good way, is the influence that came from creating a community or a collective of women where I can reach out to someone that might not have ever answered the phone or knew who I was. Um, because they feel like I have something to say or to give or to share. And I think that was something that we weren't trying to create, but just sort of happened unintentionally.

Zac Ruiz [44:46] So if I can kind of jump on that. So, like I was saying, maybe we didn't do the best job of introducing everybody, right? But so, Kim, you do a couple mortgages, right? So if you're unaware in the crowd, you power of women aside, power of humans, you do a lot of mortgages, right? And so, did you have anything like this when you were coming up, or did you just kind of forge ahead and make it happen, and now you're...?

Speaker 1 [45:09] I think that Hannah probably chose to talk to me, not just 'cause I had five kids, but I always say my motto is, I get shit done. And does. That's a fact. Um, I had created, um, a community that recognized the top 100 realtors. It's called AVL Top 100. It's a separate business. And so, um, yeah, I think that, really, that was my only kind of practice for this, if you will. And so, Hannah is the people person. I am a closet introvert, just like you, Zach. So I was the person who was saying, we need to have a business account. We need to have, you know, an LLC. I need to. I was the person who was, like, getting shit done, right? And you're the big picture person. Correct.

Hannah Kitt [45:58] And I think that it's so important to note that none of this could be done on just two shoulders, right? Like, the person you partner with is crucial in the success of what you're doing. You have like 35 people. It sounds like now. Like, I think, right, here. Um, We couldn't have done any of it if it wasn't for each other. And then the people now in our community. So, yes, I agree. She gets so much shit done.

Zac Ruiz [46:22] So the question was, just in case. Right? Uh, how is starting this community impacted your life outside of the community? Or within, however you want to answer.

Ric Pratte [46:30] I'm trying not to look at my wife here who's making fun of me. Uh... So I started by saying when we began, It was like, oh, I want to make some friends. I got a shitload of friends. I have unbelievable friends. The makeup of our community is the most diverse set of career you've ever met. Intellectual capacity like you've never seen. The conversations, the friendships, that I know only I have, but I know everyone else has, really energizes me. Chris makes fun of me because she, you know, it's become my life. And, yeah, okay. But I love it, because I know we're making a difference, and we're getting somewhere, and I just love these people. So. So on that, yeah, please.

Zac Ruiz [47:23] So, our events are slightly different, but I always laugh that I feel like everyone in the room probably knows more people than I do, because, like, it's their, I walk people up to each other. I make sure I connect, but they get to interact and talk to one another. How are you guys meeting everybody? What's happening here? How are we meeting? So, how... when... So your role, when you're at the meetings, you're out in the crowds, mingling, making the thing happen? Or...?

Ric Pratte [47:51] Sometimes? Uh... We typically, whoever hosts is their role to be inviting, making sure name tags are available, doing that host job. But by nature, I'm filling in, and, you know, meeting people, but that whole party of what we do of making those connections, very intentional, like I said. Hannah's got an answer for sure. Hannah's the people person.

Hannah Kitt [48:19] Well, right, but I kind of feel like I'm like you. I just kind of flitter around, and I don't create deep connection at any of my events, but what comes after is that. And I find so much joy in connecting people. Absolutely. I think it seems silly, but name tags are so key. And what we've started to do, too, is kind of what you do with table talk and give some sort of prompt. Like, what's your favorite candy? I don't know, just something? Because people were really, especially after COVID, not comfortable approaching other people, it was neat to see tonight, how many folks just walked up to each other. And it also made me realize how little I see that happen.

Like, how often are you in an elevator and you just kind of stare at the door, right? You don't say, oh, hey, how are you? You have no idea if that might be your next business partner or your spouse. I don't know. I just think we've gotten whether it was COVID or not. We've gotten into this space of like, just be on your phone, don't connect. And so to see what I saw tonight, and what we see at power of women is so fun, because at the end of the day, people want a sense of belonging, and that comes through connection.

Speaker 1 [49:21] I think one other thing is when we're at these events, we have Hannah's mom. Like we have we have circled the wagons to get people to help us so that we can be as present as possible. We've also been so intentional on the speakers. That's one thing that's a little bit different. A lot of the speakers that we've had. We've had to pay, and they come from outside of Asheville, but they're really relevant to the topics that we have. Thank you for support. accepting no payment tonight. Right. Right.

Hannah Kitt [49:51] I will say, almost every speaker we've reached out to, they respond and say their rate is $15,000. Somewhere in the speaker handbook. It says, say 15,000, we have never paid that much money for a speaker. So if someone tells you a price, know that it's probably something you can negotiate.

Rodrigo Afanador [50:06] When we were doing the net profit summit, we had reached out to this MC guy, and he was like, 25,000, we're like, Yeah, we're on a budget. It's like 12,000. We're like, ugh. It's like, just tell me what you'd do it for, and I'll try to come. It was like... Wow, that was a really quick, like... You know, it was, like, the cardinal rule in sales. Just, like, be patient, don't say anything. Just, who can hold their tongue the longest? Usually gets the better price. Like...

Speaker 1 [50:32] So did you have that MC? Yeah.

Rodrigo Afanador [50:34] We had cross. He was much better. way better, but it was just a funny antidote to that. I was like, that starting price is not really the price.

Ric Pratte [50:40] But someone might go for it. Yeah.

Zac Ruiz [50:43] Hey, I would start higher, right? Why not? Um, just a quick shout out to Crom. We told him we would buy him and his fiancé/wife soon to be, yes. Any concert ticket they want. And he turned us down. He was like, I had such a great time doing it. So if you want to meet a good guy, go meet Crumb. There you go.

Rodrigo Afanador [51:04] All right, so, lightning round, before we get to audience questions, get your questions ready? Lightning round, just to clarify so we don't have to interrupt questions, like we've had to in the past, unfortunately. It's quick answers. All right, what's your favorite book that has helped you build your community, or otherwise, if you don't have one that's community specific? And, uh, Brooke, we'll start with you, go back down.

Ric Pratte [51:28] The platinum rule. which is takes the golden rule, and it's about them, not you. Interesting. Kim?

Hannah Kitt [51:37] Wolf pack. Yeah, I have to say the same. That is what inspired our community. It's called Wolf Pack by Abby Wombach.

Zac Ruiz [51:43] Awesome. We will have that in the show notes for everyone. Coming back now. The hardest part of growing your community was...

Hannah Kitt [51:51] How quickly our events roll around. I don't know how you do it once a month, 'cause I swear, I feel like we just did our March event, and our next event is June 14th next Friday. And so I feel like they just, I'm like, Oh, it's time. That's hard.

Speaker 1 [52:02] I would have to agree logistically trying to keep up, and also have a day job is kind of tough. You guys know that, right?

Unknown [52:10] The day job.

Ric Pratte [52:12] The day job will catch up. Day job, yeah. I'm gonna just lay there.

Rodrigo Afanador [52:16] Labor of love, right? There you go. That's a good answer. What are you the most excited about in the next six to 12 months for your community? Rick, starting with you, yeah?

Ric Pratte [52:25] Expanding across the country.

Hannah Kitt [52:28] Yeah, now I want to be global, because you said global. Why stop in America? I'm excited to expand here. Because we have so much opportunity. Our space, we do it at the Asheville Country Club or the Biltmore Forest Country Club. Both can hold, like, 200 people. We usually cap our events at 100. So we just, we can have more women. What was the question again?

Rodrigo Afanador [52:47] What are you the most excited about in the next 6 to 12 months for your community?

Speaker 1 [52:52] Um, I think tightening our systems. I'm really excited about that, because I think that has to be a foundation, so we can grow.

Zac Ruiz [53:02] Awesome. So even though it's lightning, don't feel rushed to answer thoroughly here. How do people connect or get involved with you?

Ric Pratte [53:11] Our website is avldigitalnomads.org.

Unknown [53:14] Nailed it.

Rodrigo Afanador [53:16] No website, but how do you guys want to get connected?

Speaker 1 [53:19] Well, we do have a website. Well, we have a podcast. It called Finding Your Power. We've finished 2 seasons. There's some amazing women who we've interviewed both locally and globally. And our website is powerwomen.world. Just don't go there till next month. Coming soon. All right, so...

Hannah Kitt [53:39] Finding your Power podcast is our Instagram handle. Yeah, did I say it wrong?

Unknown [53:43] No, I think you said it right.

Zac Ruiz [53:44] Well, and just, since you guys are on the stage, the day job, is this something that people might want to get in charge with you with, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No? No. Nailed it. But I know these two ladies. Gotta get in touch with you for the day, Josh.

Hannah Kitt [53:56] Yeah, the Kim Wintersteam.com. If you need a mortgage. And HKit at kw.com.

Zac Ruiz [54:02] There you go, if you're trying to hang your license somewhere.

Ric Pratte [54:04] Well, if you're gonna go email, Rick Pratt, at gmail.com. Nice.

Rodrigo Afanador [54:09] Okay, but that email doesn't help us know why we should email you, though. Because you want to connect. There you go. He's got a lot of friends people. He wants more friends. All right, awesome. So, we'll do audience questions if there are any. If not, we'll go back to questions, but audience.

Zac Ruiz [54:25] So we're gonna, we're gonna... We throw you a mic. This is a mic that will be thrown at you. It's soft. It can fall on the ground, too, but just speak into the mic as normal. There you go. Boom. Well, the mic will be on in a second. So both organizations are trying to scale up, grow, digitally. But hold the mic near your face.

Rodrigo Afanador [54:46] Sorry. Globally, does that mean hiring administrative help? Does that mean, what does scaling up mean to you all?

Zac Ruiz [54:53] So the question is, what does scaling up mean from an operations and logistics standpoint?

Speaker 1 [54:57] I think that, yes, we have somebody that we have really, really, really part time, that we probably need a little more halftime, I guess, because there's no way that we can grow without creating an infrastructure and having some support. I think Hannah would like to do this as a day job. I think that's our dream.

Hannah Kitt [55:17] Well, I do only 'cause I could travel, but I do love my current job so much. We, with our chapter membership purchases, that will allow us to bring someone on and actually bring on a lot of people, I think, because we are charging, and there's no shame in that.

Rodrigo Afanador [55:36] Do you have a follow-up? Because I have a follow-up, actually.

Zac Ruiz [55:39] Did Rick, your infrastructure, how might that change?

Ric Pratte [55:42] So, good question on scaling, in our situation, it is enabling other communities, and finding similar type of organizations, and then helping them, uh, grow to where we are and use our similar type? So it's identifying and growing each other community, and as well getting our own systems in place. I'm glad you mentioned that. Thank you. in place. So we can also enable that. And at some point, we will need some staff, but right now, we are 100% volunteer.

Rodrigo Afanador [56:14] I'll hold my follow up if there's more audience questions. Anybody else? All right, great. Question. So, you said the chapters. Are you guys charging per chapter, or is it the membership fees at each chapter that will happen? So if I wanted to open, if I was a woman and I wanted to open up another city, would I be paying you guys like an opening fee or is there just the revenue from the members at the new location? And variation of the question is, how are you making sure that the new cities are actually following in step? But part two.

Speaker 1 [56:46] We have a chapter agreement that's very specific. So we make the chapter director invest, an initiation fee. And then we are trying to be, and I don't know, I guess they're probably charging the same thing. We're trying to be mindful that as this grows, like what might be affordable in Asheville might not be affordable in New York City. So that's something that we negotiate. It'd be more expensive? Be too affordable? Right, right, right, right. Um, but we aren't taking any part of their, um, of their monthly membership fees at this point.

Hannah Kitt [57:23] It's an annual and an initiation fee and an annual fee and whatever they make. It's on you.

Unknown [57:27] Yeah.

Rodrigo Afanador [57:28] Awesome. And then, Rick, how about how are you guys vetting new member organizations, sir?

Ric Pratte [57:33] Or a new chapter to come part of United, there is a 6 month fee that they need to cover. It's kind of skin in the game, sort of thing. And we're learning still a lot of what makes a good leader in a good community. So we're taking it slow, unfortunately. Um, 'cause I have to. Is that the attorney in the front row? Yeah. We do have a board. They're there. I have to say that.

Zac Ruiz [58:02] So, if I could have my own... I have a follow up or no? I mean, someone else have a question. I don't want to... Yes. Oh, all right, so, I can't think of the name of the movie, right? But it's the story of Ray Croc with McDonald's and how they're trying to scale on everything, right? So a big important part of that, and of any business that's trying to scale, is how do you ensure that the new location that's away from you, right? How do you ensure that, like, the culture, and what you guys stand for and believe in, is also embodied by these new places? It sounds like none of us have solved this just yet, but, like, what are your plans?

Are you not thinking about that necessarily, and you're kind of like, do your thing under our umbrella? Oh, Kim's got strong opinions. It's true. Kim has got strong opinions.

Speaker 1 [58:41] No, no, we have an interview process, and we are trying to provide resources to help these chapters be successful. The, I think, the hardest thing to identify is who is gonna share, and what is it that you're gonna talk about? And depending on, I mean, you know, some denominations of churches, you could go to any church at any time, on a given Sunday, and they're gonna have the same homily. So we are trying to give it a theme, so that we can lighten the load, if you will, on trying to set it up, so it's not so overwhelming.

Ric Pratte [59:20] From our side, we're still learning very new to all this, of course, on the expansion side. You know, we've been developing best practices, book to help out, so forth. We also want to enable something that's special in Chicago that's different here. And so, they may do something that we're not. We just had Raleigh Durham, a set of people from there visit us last week. They do trips. They do, like, remote coworking as a trip. And so they came... Oh, interesting. Here, we don't do that. Right. We can pick that up. So, we wanted a lot of learning between all the chapters. We don't know everything. We don't want to pretend we know everything. What it...

Zac Ruiz [1:00:06] Is there an audience question?

Rodrigo Afanador [1:00:08] Look, you know how many people come up to me afterwards, like, I had a great question. Can you toss the box, one table, to the... Please raise your hand with the question. Oh. Oh, Ray Ray's taking the box.

Hannah Kitt [1:00:20] I want to say, well, we're looking for the box. Um, one thing that I've recognized through this is there are a lot of women groups. So don't think that your group already exist, or that, oh, there's enough of that. Like, there's so much space in all these different communities for more communities. So I want to be sure that you all don't not start because you think it already exists, or that it's already done somewhere, and so it's not necessary. It's necessary. If you want it, somebody else wants it to. So don't let that hold you back.

Unknown [1:00:50] Cool. All right, question. Hello? Okay.

Ric Pratte [1:00:53] This is a question for Hannah or Kim. I work in the field of personal growth and transformation, and I would love to hear from you a little bit more, because you said that's kind of like the foundation. What does that mean to you? How do you bring that in? If you can talk a little bit more about that, I would love to hear that.

Hannah Kitt [1:01:10] We could talk till next Saturday. Um, I think a lot of it, it starts with our themes, and all we're doing is creating curiosity at these events. So, like, one of the themes was boundaries, the power of no to protect your yes. My yes is my family, my dad's here. My children, um, but, but we can't teach women boundaries in 90 minutes, but what we, our hope is that, yes, they connect with each other, and they leave there more curious about what's possible, and taking ownership of their life. Like, it, there's just, I think there's so many people that, I shouldn't say that.

There are people that live the same year, 85 times and call it a life, and they don't have to, but someone has to be in their community or in their world to say, hey, you're better than that, or you're, the people that have shown me, reminded me of my potential are the reason I am where I am because I don't see it in myself. Still, so my journey is just beginning at 40, But it'll never end. And so I don't know if that answered the question, but I think, yes, we want to create curiosity.

Speaker 1 [1:02:18] Well, I think to your point, it's about the connection that we make and having conversations and saying, what is missing? You know, we've done, we've had meetings with people who, we're gonna talk about money this time. We've done that, but with a different spin. The money talk this time is about the mindset of money, but we've had, like, somebody who talked about women and how, you know, money was a shameful thing, and we've talked about, um, so many different topics that are really not related to what we do day to day.

Hannah Kitt [1:02:49] The most popular topic was menopause. Holy cow, we could have stayed at that event.

Zac Ruiz [1:02:56] Coming to a Navy, I'll meet up soon. There you go. You're right.

Hannah Kitt [1:02:59] You'll have the biggest family you've ever had.

Zac Ruiz [1:03:01] Next May, Menopause May, we are ready, so... Sorry, we didn't mean to cut you off with our joke.

Rodrigo Afanador [1:03:08] Did you get your question answered? Sorry for interjecting. All right, we got... we got Mr. Caleb.

Zac Ruiz [1:03:15] Where's the box?

Rodrigo Afanador [1:03:17] Where's the next question? Oh, cool.

Zac Ruiz [1:03:20] Luso Realty representing here. There we go.

Rodrigo Afanador [1:03:24] Yes, wonderful. My question is for Rick. Uh, 2,800 people in the community is pretty impressive. Um, what amount of time did it take to do that? And what method did you use to reach all those people?

Ric Pratte [1:03:42] We are based on meetup.com. Uh, we bring at about 80 people a month to our group. through experimentation, started to figure out algorithm, like what worked. And for us, it was making sure there was always an event posted. Um, even when early was once a month and got more and more afterwards, so we were very conscious about that. And what the part we then knew we were missing was people who were not on meetup, but who just lived in town. So we do the website, very active on social media. So he started to track people that way, um, in, but it was just more or less organic to make that happen.

Zac Ruiz [1:04:34] So, do you guys run ads or any paid at all? None. Any blog SEO? It's just purely from...

Ric Pratte [1:04:42] We don't have a blog. We have a podcast, relatively new for us. From our social media. There you go. Uh, and, uh, but that's going pretty well, um, because we like to tell stories of the different people who are in there and experience and just bringing it in. Did I answer your question?

Zac Ruiz [1:05:05] Yes, that was very hello. Okay. Thank you. you.

Rodrigo Afanador [1:05:08] Thanks, Eric. All right, who's next question wise?

Unknown [1:05:12] I promise it's someone. Oh, man.

Zac Ruiz [1:05:18] All right, everyone wants a drinking network. So if we could please get a round of applause for the speakers and for their time. All right, there is some closing up right before we let you guys go when the clicker cooperates. I should start clicking it beforehand. All right, here are three things you can do between meetups, all right? You can volunteer with us or with your community. That's how you do the net profit thing. If you want to volunteer with us, you go to our event page, you hit the volunteer button, it'll tell you what to do. You got some options. Set up, tear down, facilitator, welcome table. Do you want to meet people or you just want to be a body that helps?

We need all of that. Right? Invite a friend. The community exists because you invite like minded people to come. And then make sure you win. We like acronyms. Make sure you win between meetups, right? So watch something to sharpen and or expand your mind. Right? Invite someone, like we just talked about, let's hammer that home. Uh, and then network to help grow your sphere and impact and your community. So, two things. Yes.

Rodrigo Afanador [1:06:13] So, you don't have to do a show of hands. But show of hands, if you own an LLC, right? If you have an LLC in any sort of combination... A lot of hands. And if you have your hands raised, are you aware about the fin sun beneficial ownership requirements of this year? Sounds boring, but very important. So if you are not aware, then you need to come. We're doing a lunch and learn with Mary Hart, who's one of the speakers for the net profit summit. This is a new requirement. Anything I say might be totally wrong, since it's very new, and I'm not the speaker. But I'm gonna be there.

So if you own an LLC, for any LLC that you have any sort of ownership in, there are new reporting guidelines that you have to do for Finson, which stands for financial, something, network, security, whatever, government thing, that's gonna find you really badly, if you don't follow the rules. And so that's going to be in an email. Hopefully tomorrow with the details. It's two weeks from Friday. It's gonna be two hours. It's gonna be totally free. We do need our SUPs to make sure we can have lunch for you. Our sponsors don't know this, but they are sponsoring this event.

It's part, since we don't have a July meeting, we are gonna give them a different place to give them the platform, so hope to see you guys there, if you own an LLC, and you've not heard of this before, you don't want to get fined, so come to a free lunch and learn with a very, very, very good speaker.

Zac Ruiz [1:07:31] So if you guys have read the book, Rocket Fuel, you've got the implementer and the vision area, right? So we've got Kim shaking her head. So if you're the Kim, you want to be there. And if you're the Hannah, you should be like, Oh, man, I should send my Kim. You want to go there, go there? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Meet people, not take notes. Yeah. And then, look, it sounds like this crowd's more interested in that. Summer mixer coming up. This is Capella Online 9, excuse me, super good time, nothing for sale. All you gotta do is show up, right? So RSVP, have a great time, and network with the community. It's gonna be super fun. And that's it. We end at 7:30, We get you home every time.

We're sharp. Boom. You're starting. Thank you guys. Have a great night.

Rodrigo Afanador [1:08:08] Oh, can somebody start throwing the box this way? Whoever's got it, we can do, like, crowd surfing up to the front, thank you. My drinks. Tip your bartenders. See you guys last time. Hey, guys, Rodrigo here wanted to say thank you for taking the time to listen into this month's panel conversation. We hope that you join us in person at next month's meeting. You can find out more at AVLmeetup.com. We primarily meet on the 1st Tuesday of every month, but be sure to check out our website, AVLmeetup.com. You can also watch this conversation on YouTube at AVLmeetup. Well, also, I have a quick announcement. We started a property management company called Vesta Property Management.

So if you're looking for third-party management for long-term rental. We'd love the opportunity to talk to you. Our goal at Vesta is to turn houses into homes and investments into returns. If you're looking to work with a third-party management company, that will allow you to have peace of mind and experience freedom around rentals, reach out to us. We can help make that happen for you.

Zac Ruiz [1:09:15] Best of PM.com. What's going on, everyone? Zach, here to close it out before you sign off for the day. If you liked the data driven portion of today's meetup, then I'd love to take a moment to tell you about the Ruiz Report and RMC. If you're a real estate professional, then you know that you should become the local economist of choice, but you're probably unsure of how to learn the skills required. That's where the Ruiz Report comes in. We offer customized marker reports to promote your business, training videos so you'll learn how to interpret the market data, and monthly quizzes to keep you sharp.

Learn more at resreport.com and sign up for a free account to watch all of our training videos at no cost. If you're more interested in the live data and some data and analytics dashboards, then I highly suggest you check out ramc.co. REMC.co is the 1st of its kind, data and analytics dashboards for the real estate industry. Now you have to be an active participating member of the MLS in order to sign up, but it is unparalleled data on every market participant, whether that's an office, a listing, or one of the realtors. Again, you can find out more about REMC.co at REMC.co. As always, thanks for listening, and we hope to see you at one of our next meetups.

If you can't make it and you still want to be part of the movers and shakers, then sign up for a free account at AVLmeetup.com and get yourself into our member directory. Thanks again. See you next month.