S2/Ep13: Heather Anderson – Learn How to Build Community as Your Superpower

• Heather runs a Group of over 31 thousand mothers, called The MamaHood, which is a connection of mothers in the Bay Area. She also has a club called The Club for mothers. 
• Heather is a serial connector, she believes it is all about who you know. This episode will allow you to learn about networking. 
• Dena asks where her passion started.
• Heather loves bringing people together, and she has always been the person throughout her life who gathers people to do something.
• Everything unifies around bringing people together and trying to create something.
• Dena asks if she has ever deviated from this gift of gathering people?
• Heather says yes, she never turned them off but she went down the path of day-job land where her gifts were sidelined. 
• She relates to people who are stuck in a day job that does not resonate. 
• Colleen asks about Heather’s roots and what led her to be a connector.
• Heather was born in Connecticut and then her family moved to the Bay Area. She has been in the East Bay Area ever since. She has one younger sister and she also has kids. 
• Heather is a loud person, cheerleading type.
• Heather’s number 1 superpower is connecting people. 
• She does not like the word networking, because the word brings to mind a self-centered way of thinking. She likes to live and grow communities in more of a natural way. She wants people to look at it as building relationships and having great people and friends in their life. She wants people to take the business aspect out of it and instead simply think about who they want to spend your time with. 
• Making friends is the key and then sharing what they want to bring into the world next. 
• Instead of networking, she likes to use the word community building.
• Heather’s dad was an entrepreneur and created a bank. She ended up working there 13 years and it definitely was not what she envisioned for her life. At night she had a band that she would market for and play for at night. This and the bank gave her a background in community marketing.
• Facebook groups were just beginning.
• Heather just had a baby and she didn’t know any other mothers.
• She began meeting mothers at breastfeeding classes and such, she created a group chat to keep in touch with them after. 
• She had the idea to create the Facebook group for these mothers.m
• Over the next 6 years the Mamahood blew up. 
• Heather applied to go to Facebook’s community summit; over 5,000 applied and they chose 500. She also was selected as 1/12 to present. 
• Dena asks when Heather accepted that this was her life course, and asks if she had to make a choice between this and music. 
• Heather says that sometimes the universe pushes you down a path and in hindsight you look back and realize things. 
• At first, she resisted the idea of Mamahood being a business. 
• Heather did not want a business around being a mom; it did not excite her. She loves her kids and loves being a mom, but she did not want to make a business about it. At the time she wanted to write songs and wanted her band to be successful. 
• The Mamahood still began to grow, and she had 5 kids so she had to take care of them.
• She had a realization one day, and she still wanted to create a women entrepreneur community as an offshoot of the Mamahood. She became excited and passionate again.
• The way she made this realization was through being quiet, self-care, and listening to her true self. 
• Dena asks if Heather had to bring someone into her life to help her with her business?
• Heather says yes, she has a virtual assistant. 
• Some advice she is giving is imperfect action, baby steps, and not worry about perfection. Everything in business is about getting the ball rolling, and the first efforts are very difficult. Once the ball is rolling though, it has its own speed.
• Daily action is another metaphor she loves. She wants people to “toss three pebbles in the pond a day.” 
• Don’t get hung up on details. She just wants you to get stuff going.
• Dena asks if she had friends help in the beginning?
• Heather took a big risk in the beginning, which she does not recommend doing. She supported her family from savings and jumped into it as a full time job even though she did not have any money from it. In terms of hiring, her advice was “do it yourself until you don’t have time to do it yourself anymore.”
• Heather hired a virtual assistant in the Philippines because they are paid well which truly makes a positive difference in their lives.
• Heather says to figure out where your passion lies within your business, and get a virtual assistant for everything else. 
• Colleen asks about the Mamahood
• Heather explains that it is a free support group for moms in the Bay Area, they have a Facebook group which has 32,000 moms in it. There are breakout rooms for other forums as well. They will be launching regional chapters in 2021. 
• There will be a new platform called Ujamaa. Both are free. 
• The Club is a paid membership for women entrepreneurs who do not necessarily have to be moms, but they do have to be a founder or creative. 
• They also have a resource directory called the M list on a web platform that links The Club and The Mamahood. She created this because all day long people recommend things in the Facebook group, so this directory has lots of resources. 
• A perk of being in The Club is it can intersect with the Mamahood. Separately, business and personal development is covered in The Club.
• Heather says that starting relationships and friendships is the secret sauce. She wants to bring joy, life, and connection back to busy entrepreneurs who would not have that otherwise. This connection truly helped these women. 
• The Club does not have any promoting, it is more about support, guidance, and advice.
• One can save 20% if you pay in advance, it is $500 for the year or for $50 in payments. 
• Colleen asks if there is any area in The Club that allows for promotion. 
• Heather says there is one main forum without promotion, and then she has others with promotion that goes to the Mamahood audience. There are also breakout rooms by industry. 
• Dena asks about Heather’s book she wrote
• Heather wrote a book about how she met her husband because she had a very weird love story. When she met him, he was a compulsive liar due to trauma, and everything he told her was a lie. After living together for two months, she realized everything was a lie. They made it through, and they have now been together for 14 years. Her book is called “Liar Liar Heart on Fire.”
• The book is about one hour. She wants people to learn how to be empathetic to people going through trauma. Be open to the possibility that not everything is black and white.
• Heather also talked about her band. They have been together for 14 years. They recorded their last album in 2016 and her 2021 goal is to record a new album. The album is called Blue Rabbit. She sings and plays guitar in the background. 
• Heather’s final words are that she is very excited for 2021. 2020 was powerful for her to get quiet and reflect. She feels much wiser and ready to take on the year. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS