Episode 220: Stop Playing Small and Start Claiming Your Worth | Krystl Fabella | Founder & Creator of Filipina on the Rise
What happens when you stop shrinking yourself to make others comfortable? Krystl Fabella is the founder of Filipina on the Rise, and she’s on a mission to help women of color reclaim their power, purpose, and visibility. In this conversation, Krystl opens up about the burnout that forced her to reimagine success, the identity shifts that came with it, and how she’s rebuilding with more clarity and confidence than ever before. We talk about career development, mindset coaching for women, redefining success, entrepreneurship, personal growth, and what it means to lead with intention in both life and business. Whether you’re navigating a transition, healing from burnout, or ready to stop playing small, this episode is packed with inspiration, practical wisdom, and permission to take up space.
“Filipina women have been told a singular story about themselves and their value for too long. I’m here to share all stories and help show all the possibilities. ”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Relationships, community, and the truth about digital ads
01:00 Why she started Cherry Creative
03:00 From social-first to full-service strategy
05:00 The myth of “Instagram will save your business”
07:30 The power of in-person connection
10:00 How she helps clients build loyalty
11:30 Patience, momentum, and the long game
13:00 What most people miss in their content strategy
14:00 Why cool content doesn’t always convert
16:30 Common gaps in small business marketing
18:00 The joy of seeing clients succeed
20:00 How she shows up as a leader
22:00 Why she believes you don’t have to be just one thing
24:00 Building a business that funds your creative life
26:30 Staying grounded through spiritual practice
29:30 How she landed her dream gig at the SAG Awards
34:00 The underrated power of showing up
36:00 Advice for aspiring founders
39:00 What she’s manifesting next
I need higher level conversations. I just need like people who are in the caliber that I desire because I need that. Like iron sharpens iron. I am in this place in my life right now where I don't wanna be talking with people who are just like in ideation phase and haven't really fleshed out their business where a year or two or done the work because I need to be around people who get
it.
That's Krystl Fabella. I'm Kara Duffy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Oh my gosh. Crazy. The last time I saw you, we were in Brooklyn. I know. And I was so happy that you got to come and be there. Like it just worked out timing wise.
I know. Yeah. The alignment of that. It was, yeah. And I was like, I felt like I was due to see you soon and every time I was in the OC, it just never worked out.
No.
Let's begin by telling everyone who you are, where you are, and what you're up to in the world.
Hi everyone. I am so excited to be on The Powerful Ladies Podcast. What a dream come true. My name is Krystl Fabella. I am the founder and creator of Filipino on the Rise podcast and media company, which seeks to uplift and spotlight Filipino women around the world, promote cultural excellence and celebrate what it means to be a Filipino.
Where I am right now is Austin, Texas in my apartment and what I am up to is wow, on a professional level. About six months ago, I decided to go full-time on Philippine on the rise and. Honestly, it's just been a lot of growing into what it means to be a full-time entrepreneur. Putting away what I thought was a priority and actually tightening up for the right ones and really working through my own my own shadows and insecurities in order to step into the leader that I have to be.
That sounds very vague, but what that really means is just continuing to cut out and do less, more and more. And learning how to value myself if I didn't get the results that I wanted. And now I've honestly, the past week have just felt really freed. It with a realization that it's actually time to do what I love again and what makes me passionate again, and find a way to light the fuel instead of just producing content to produce it.
I think so many people do that. And so Kara, what I've been up to is actually doing a lot of letting go and being okay with a wide open space. I'm hiring. I just found the person that I wanted to hire, which is so exciting. So receiving help and also getting ready to launch a crowdfund. And also getting ready to go to the Philippines in a month for the first time in six years.
So just a
few things that you're up to. No big deal. We had the pleasure of meeting a couple years ago when you were still working a day job creating this on the side. You already had a pretty strong following in your book club at the time. So when we met a couple years ago, you were right in the beginning of transitioning, Filipinos in the rise from something that you were doing out of pure love and passion for wanting the community to be seen and heard and connected to saying this is a business now.
This is really what I, how I wanna spend my time and how I want to earn a living for myself. What have you learned in that process from it being a passion project to now becoming your full-time business?
Yeah. Wow. So much. But I first wanna preface this by mentioning that Kara, you were my coach.
You were actually my business coach, and you had become really pivotal in that time of seeing, okay, this is a social media platform right now, but what does it mean to start turning what I was already doing into a business? And I was really intentional on being under somebody who had built something that I had already wanted to.
I feel like a lot of people go into, either they follow someone, they coach, or they are mentored. They're coached by someone or mentored under who hasn't really created something that's exactly with what they wanted. And I had the privilege of almost like knowing about you and then seeing oh, what I have is I want to build it towards that.
So that is honestly like a piece of advice that I'd give to anybody. And the people that you follow and learn from. Really just knowing what you're trying to build and then following the light, right? Because all the pieces of advice, whether that be professional, personal, logistical, emotional, it was something I knew is because you had gone through all this.
I really learned that it's really important to attach yourself to, to those people who are exactly where you wanna go. It takes a lot of what I've also learned is good things take time. I, I. Oh man. That is a big lesson right now. And a year ago is actually when I left my corporate tech role officially, almost a year ago, I think, June.
Wow. And I had made a plan. I was like, I'm gonna go travel for three months, and when I come back, I'm gonna hit the groundbreaking running. We are gonna be making this much a month, we are going to scale it to this. And I, little did I know that when I would come back, oh, there was a lot other work being asked to be done which was internal, which was, I can't EI can't even describe this past six months, period.
But it was really a lot of learning that I was. Putting a lot of time and effort and energy into the wrong things, whether that was vanity metrics, whether that was creating to, to create, because this is what people wanted from me. And then learning that I was getting into this dangerous place of showing up to my content to get the numbers to basically fill a role that I thought was expected of me.
And when you get into that place for a long time it's, nothing is flowing anymore. So I had to do a big pause and a big break and realize like, why was I facing so many blocks? Why can't I create like I did anymore? And it was honestly like a very. Sad and grieving period to, to feel so blocked when you finally did the leap.
Right? No one tells you about what it actually means to make that full-time leap and transition. You think that you're gonna start hitting the ground running. For the past six months, I haven't launched. That official thing that I wanted to, in, in the in-between, I was doing a lot of things.
I was still releasing podcast episodes, I was still doing fun workshops and that's just because I really care about my community. I really feel committed to to create what I feel is needed and represent Filipino women and our culture and their needs. But along the way, it felt like bread crumbing ultimately, and that this fear that I didn't know how to stop and create a wide open space because if I wasn't creating.
Then why did I leave my tech job? And if I wasn't creating and I left my full-time role then what worth do I have? So I think lastly that what I had learned was along with good things take time and you just have to plant seeds in the right places. That's really
what I'm doing right now.
The seed planting part is so important. We have to always be thinking simultaneously at the short term, the midterm and the long term. And often, especially for small businesses, we don't want to be patient because we want our ideas fulfilled Now. We've been thinking about them for so long. We need the money now.
Yeah, it's the
money. Oh yeah. Ahead. Oh I mean you mentioned that and it was just like ding because you asked the question, what have been some big takeaways? And what you've learned in the this process is, man, once you go fully in it, you get a real front row seat to your money story, to your financial framework for your life to realizing what money, financial story you have inherited and how it's still running your business, running your decisions, running your life.
And I actually have a I wanna turn the question to you 'cause I like doing this on people's podcast. Like, why do you think that is? Why do you think it is that going as a full-time entrepreneur makes you so exposed to that?
I think it's really easy in a traditional corporate environment where you have some level of security to just be in the system that.
Especially the American society wants you to be in. You work your ass off, you get a paycheck and that's it. You can't have more. You're probably not gonna have less, but you're stuck in this zone. And anyone who chooses to start their own business, you are doing it. Not just because you want more money, but you want more freedom, more impact, doing more of what you love.
And when you step out onto the skinny branches and it's all is being caused and created by you, and you're a hundred percent responsible for every dollar, every cent before you would just show up and do your job. And whether you had a bad day or a good day, you made the same amount of money. Yep. And now every minute that you're not doing what you know you're supposed to do, we're so hard on ourselves.
We're judging ourselves. Oh, if I wasn't on Instagram for 30 minutes today, I could have made more money. Or I could have done this, or I should have sent, one more email, 10 more emails. We put so much pressure on ourselves thinking that more equals more. Because that's what we're told it is, and that's not it at all.
I think also our money stories are deep and layered, and they're not just about money and what we've earned. It's tied into our value. It's tied into our worth. It's tied into what we're told we're allowed to have. And there's so many parts of it. I have clients that I've worked with for years and we've unpacked different layers of their money story at different points of their business.
You know this people, entrepreneurs ask the same questions about a $5,000 investment as a $50,000 investment, as a hundred thousand dollars investment.
It doesn't matter how much money you have or don't have, or you're playing with or you're making choices with, you always are asking the same questions.
The number just changes, or the number of zeros are changing.
Yeah.
And because as a business, you're looking at what you're spending and what you're bringing in and like I can't charge someone that, or I wouldn't pay that. And it's no, those aren't the right questions to ask. Yeah. Because if you, we think because we wouldn't pay it, nobody would.
Exactly. That's so
silly. Yeah. Yeah. And that is something I'm actually really learning, observing from my own community right now. I've, whether it's through podcast guests or vendors that I've had at the popups and events that I've thrown around the country is that like Filipino women often find this like hesitation, this big question around pricing ourselves and because like they've heard comments before of people from our own community saying like why is this so expensive? Why is this so much? And then there's that playing of if you are launching a product for the first time opening up a business, you want to feel the validation of people buying it or joining your, your membership or being a client.
So you wanna, you almost like, wanna price yourself low enough so that you don't feel that rejection. But then what ends up happening is that you're undervaluing yourself. And I would say also then cutting yourself short because you're not getting aligned to people. And then I've even had, I've heard comments of the Filipino people coming up to us and saying this should be cheaper because, like this, almost like we should be helping each other out.
When I actually just did a podcast episode on this with a friend who o, who launched this amazing restaurant in Hong Kong and she's been a big food, like host and traveler, and she says some of the biggest critics that she gets us from our own people. That's just why is this pricing so high?
And I think that brings in the bigger question of the big, the
bigger reflection of if it's from my own community and let's say like we've been
historically marginalized or financially, struggling, then you should be helping us out and pricing it lower. However, we, it's sad that we don't see it as like we should be valuing our own people at that same level, that we would pay other people's prices.
And I literally say this was like most of us are spending without even questioning that high amount for other people's products and services. This is even not even this. Contained to like Filipino women or community. I just think that it's interesting how we easily will spend x amount for other people's products and services when we deem it as valuable in quality.
But when it comes to, our own or other people's, like, why is there that question? Why is there that adjustment to, to mark it down to, to devalue it and stuff and it's such a hard like line or game to play with yourself, especially when you want to see a win for yourself.
But then I'm realizing like, if you ever really established what the value should be, staying strong in it and knowing it'll get less people, I think would make, would be even better for whoever shows up because
then you can show up knowing you valued yourself. Does that make sense? Yeah. I What, no matter what community you come from.
Yeah. Whether it if it's been marginalized in any way, by gender, by ethnicity, economics, all of the above. It, even our own family without any marginalization are often, are the people closest to us are often the ones telling us that we can't do what we wanna do.
And it's never because they don't actually believe in us, it's usually fear-based.
Like when people are saying like you, like, why are you charging that much? They're worried that we're gonna get rejections, like they would be worried about for their money stories. They're worried that they can't be included anymore because they can't afford to like, hang out and participate. They're worried that this whole idea of selling out or becoming bougie or all these things.
Yeah, it's like that is such bullshit holding people back conversations. A client of mine recently was like, you know what, I'm gonna hire a housekeeper. I don't, I need to spend those times on my business. I don't wanna clean my house anymore. Like it makes financial sense to do it. Yeah.
And she got called out by people saying oh, are you uppity now? And I was like, who are those people? I'm calling them right now on your behalf? Gimme their number. They're gonna get Mama bear. But I was so upset about it because that type of language is hold is to your point, it's holding people back.
It's not allowing people to rise. We should be celebrating people stepping boldly into these spaces. Yeah. And it's really heartbreaking that the crabs in a bucket analogy shows up where people just keep trying to pull you down where they are, and it's no rise up to meet, rise up to meet us.
You can be up here too. This doesn't have to be like, I don't need to be on this island by myself. Yeah,
I definitely face that guilt. I think of, should I be living like
this? Should I be, showing up with this? It's almost like I, I relate it to if you're doing work that's good and for the community you should stay modest and you shouldn't be so I'm going to the Philippines in a month or so, and I'm gonna be traveling while I'm launching this crowdfund. And this makes me really think would people support me and support, like funding financially, funding me. If I show that I was still living like this, if I was acting flashy, should I pull back?
And that's a really that's just a really interesting thing I've noticed in this experience of of how I am allowed to be living if I, if I am serving and asking things from my own community. I don't know if you've ever observed that before.
I think no matter what type of funding you're asking for, asking for funding.
Should have nothing to do with who you are. I know, because you and the business are so separate.
I know.
And this is the truth is people wanna give money to people who they can trust are gonna do something with it that's good and impactful and like regen regenerative. If what you're making has so much value.
So this is why we have to, almost the biggest way we get stuck with our money story, how we spend our money, how we use our money, like how much money we have or don't have. Is it good or bad to have money? The biggest mistake we make in business about our money story is that it's never about the money.
People say yes or no to your product. For 80 million reasons before the financial reason. Like money is the last thing. They step over the cost.
Do they like you? Do they believe in you? Do they want the product you have? Do they see a need for it? Are you solving their problem? Are what do you, what amazing things are you giving them?
You want them to be a yes all the way through, and then you're like, cool, it's 9 99, or it is 9 9 99. Yeah, whatever the number is. That's the last thing. But they should be a yes all the way up and then they get to make that final choice. And my experience with myself and my clients, the, when you ask for what your value really is, and you said it before, when you're attracting the people who want to play that game with you, it like it's easier to sell things at a higher price than a lower price every single time.
Yeah.
Yeah. So true. And something you actually really taught me during coaching is making sure people are saying enough yeses leading up to it and really feeling that. And then it shouldn't, by that point, it really, shouldn't matter. It's two, two separate things. Man, but it's been such like as I'm getting ready to relaunch the membership.
That's, that is what I'm at this crossroads about, of it's time. This is time. Now, are you gonna do it like you, you did it last year where you were playing it safe because you wanted enough people to come in the door and you wanted to feel like people needed you essentially, and you didn't wanna feel embarrassed.
Or are you actually ready to put down that number that you really believe. Matches this. And then being confident about that and like unwavering and just knowing that you are gonna bring a really good program and community no matter what. And I think I'm being really asked to use this next part of it's almost like universes saying let's see, what do you believe about yourself now?
How brave are you gonna be? How brave are you gonna be? And it's so funny how it's like a switch of a digit. One digit is me telling the world universe, this is what I believe about me and about my community. Oh. And it's just so once it's out there, obviously you can change anything you want, but once it's out there, it's out there and people are gonna go on that page and they're gonna stay on and commit or they're not.
But it's that's the point of no return and I almost feel like it's this frequency shift for me. So there we go.
No but it so is, and there's some tricks that we can do between where you are now to getting comfortable with that number. Like we can do some basic math of what's the value of everything that you're giving.
If someone else was selling all those things individually, what would that total price be per month? Look at the impact it can make. If you're working with a client as a marketing boutique firm, for example, and you're doing their social media, if they're making a hundred million dollars a year, most companies are spending between 20 and 40% on marketing.
Are you charging 20 to 40%? No. Cool. They're already getting an amazing deal.
So we forget the, like how we're helping people. If your membership is helping people. Land bigger jobs or create new connections or have more self-confidence, more self-worth, new friendships, new opportunities, what is that worth to them?
You can even ask them, what is it worth to you? I asking your customers or your clients, what it's worth to them is really interesting because of course there's gonna be people who are like, I'd pay a dollar. And you're like, okay, you're out. Like you're, no thank you. Yeah. But then there's people who would say, you know what?
This is priceless. Or I'd pay a thousand dollars for this. Yeah. Or I'd pay $10,000 for this. Wow. Because there's you, it's about what they're getting out of it and how they can't get it anywhere else. And how, especially for what you're creating with this community of empowerment, if someone's empowered to stand up for themselves.
And love themselves and believe what they're worth, and have other people supporting them in that space, they can literally go from there and do anything they want.
Yeah. Yeah. I love that because I haven't thought, heard of that question being asked of what do you think this is actually worth back to the community?
Because something I have been good at is asking the community, why does why does a brand or platform around empowerment in our culture matter to you? Why have you started this journey right now in your life? What kind of role is it playing? What gap is it filling?
What pain have you been feeling growing up that you can connect with other people? And just having them voice that, like, how has this podcast helped you? And having them share that, but then never that next part of just okay, what is this worth to you? What almost would you. Pay for this, given the results that you find or given the way that it's helped you grow or the connections that you've made.
And I think when I think of the question, the complicated part is that most people don't know how to actually and myself included, put a measurable dollar value amount to all these other valuable things that we're getting that's quantitative and not, that is, is that the right word? They're qualitative.
They're qualitative and not quantitative. And like for example, let's say like friendships, it's hard to measure that quantitatively. Or like content that we're consuming that's inspiring us, right? It's hard to measure that. But maybe there, there is an indirect line to oh, this video watching food inspired me to start making something in my home, which now is like.
Yeah, I don't know, like feeding me better and making me save money on going out to restaurants. So like creating this while it's not directly bringing value numbers wise to your life, there is that indirect way. That's really interesting to make me think of that because I have, I've released like questions and answers and surveys and stuff to be like, what does this, how does this kind of movement bring value to you?
I've even had people say oh, because of this podcast episode, I went for the I went for the job promotion, or I started this thing on the side, or I reached out and now I'm collaborating with somebody from your community membership. And those are all such great things. And I, it's inspiring me to, to have people look at what actual other numbers value does this program, does this platform mean to you?
Have you actually asked that question? And what has been the reception?
I think it's really important to frame it on something that you said and may not have noticed that you said, which is, yeah, what have you gotten out of this? And what is that worth to you? Because we have, to your point, people don't remember.
We're just like consuming, and going. So if you really wanna know the value of something, go ask someone who doesn't have it. If someone's not connected to their Filipino heritage, what would you pay to like really be connected and feel related to this heritage of yours if they don't have access to like women who they feel related to, what would you pay to have all these friends and supporters that are, at least whatever frequency they're meeting, hanging out and talking to you and seeing people like you.
Yeah. Like we, we use the phrase all the time representation matters, but what is representation worth to you?
Ooh. Tara, that is good. Sorry, I'm like in a coaching session once again. No, I love it because I'm taking notes. I always take notes. I like that because we forget that when we say like diverse representation and seeing faces that we can relate to hearing stories like this.
This is all great and said and done, but there's people behind it who are laboring and making things around it and have sacrificed things. And we wouldn't get all even with you, Kara given what you stand for and like bringing out powerful ladies and stories that what I see your brand as is like really bringing out the messy, the realness stuff that, of what's behind the scenes of what it takes to be a powerful lady, which is sometimes you don't feel really powerful or that you have these really like private.
Messy moments that no one is really talking about. The weakness or even this thing that I to, I put out there about sometimes I just don't wanna be powerful and I wanna disappear for a bit. And it matters that we're hearing these things 'cause they're not out there. So what does representation in your life?
Like what, asking people to see what role has it played, but what is it worth to you? If it wasn't around, like really seeing that this doesn't just come out of thin air, this.
No. And I think part of the, that behind the scenes element that you really wanna be pulling out and showcasing.
That can also be true for your own business. Wow. Yeah. Hey guys, it takes this many hours to prepare these workshops and these events and this is what I'm not doing. Oh, yeah. Because I'm doing this stuff because there's also the the substitution costs for doing things like, I can work at my tech job and make all the money I ever want because I was kicking ass.
Or I can come here and we can make something even bigger together.
I think sometimes we're so afraid to sell to people who are above us or even our equal peer group because we think that we can't have a membership or a community unless we're in front of the path. And the truth is it's so much more fun to do it with peers and to have a mix of people and it doesn't matter where someone's at, it's do you believe in this conversation and this community and this.
Yeah. Change that we're causing. Yeah. Because yeah, otherwise you're like, oh, I'm just gonna sell it to people who are, I don't know, 20 and, $5 a month is totally fine. And you're like, yeah, but what level of conversation are you gonna have? Yeah, exactly. And are you gonna be curating, not that 20 year olds can't have amazing contributions, i'm just picking on that age right now. Yeah. Yeah. So it's who, who do you wanna hang out with? Build it for them. What do you want? Build it for you. Yeah. There isn't this magical other person. And what would you pay for it?
If
you would pay for it, you're done.
That's it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's it. Yeah. I put myself in that seat sometimes. And actually a big lesson that I've learned is that here's a quick story I. I joined what I'm hoping is my last cohort business coaching group in February. I'm just like, okay, that was it. I'm done. And we finish it. Yeah, it's great.
But something I was really asking them before joining was like, can you tell me who's gonna be in this cohort? Because I wanna make sure what I'm investing in something that there are people that I really align with in where I am in my life. Like I need higher level conversations. I just need for not even in this like pretentious or superior way, I just need people who are in the caliber that I desire because I need that.
Like iron chi sharpens iron. I am in this place in my life right now where I don't wanna be talking with people who are just like in ideation phase and haven't really fleshed out their business for a year or two or done the work because I need to have these like higher quality conversations of people who.
When I'm joining this, it's not just for the tactics and the logistics it's to be around people who get it, who get me. And we can have these aligned conversations. I can be inspired back when I bring value that I'm gonna get that same value back from them. And I, unfortunately, and fortunately there ha I went into this, that experience and really not finding that part, although the program was really good in itself.
It didn't have the people around me that I really wanted. And then that's when I really realized how high in, in. Necessity and value that was to me. And it makes me really look at my offering, my community a little bit more seriously about who are the people that I want in this? What are, who are the people I wanna attract?
Who I want? People who are like in that beginning, that beginning stage. Or do I want people who are ready to have those deep conversations that are really committed to their growth, that are really committed to what does it mean to empower each other as Filipino women and to push each other into excellence because we've walked these paths, because we have done the inner journey ourselves and are ready to step into our power.
And that's who I want to bring now. And I had to learn that a little bit the hard way, but in, in a way I think it really invi, it reinvigorates me to be so like, almost like protective about yes, who gets in the door or not,
this has been a big conversation with a lot of people lately about who's allowed behind the velvet rope, who's allowed in this VIP space.
The hardest thing I have with my Thrive Group coaching is making sure that we're holding the caliber of conversation that we have to, and if I don't wanna have the conversations, no one else in the room wants to. So as the moderator and host and the coach, I have to be the one to know when to shorten someone's conversation and expand someone else's.
Yeah. And like really look at who's in or who's out. Now are we kicking people out of the group? No, that's not what I'm talking about. It's more about focusing on the offense of inviting people in who are contributing at a high level.
Because,
People hear about memberships and they're like does anyone talk like, to your point, is it all people who.
Wish things would change, but aren't taking actions. Have people in the work, have they not, are these people like in my, in mine or are these people who actually have businesses? Yeah. And it's yes, these are people who have all had businesses for multiple years from a couple hundred thousand dollars up to millions of dollars.
Yeah. And they're all here because it's, there's a difference how much money you're earning per month or per year is very different than the mindset you're bringing to it and the level of game that you're playing.
So it's
attracting who's playing a game that qualifies to come in and how you market your membership or group will tell people like.
Who's this attractive to? Like luxury hotels are totally promoting themselves to people who like luxury experiences, who are willing to pay, either they have the cash or they're gonna put it on their credit card and figure it out later, but no matter what, they're committed to that experience.
Yeah. And that's what you want people who are committed to this conversation and experience.
Absolutely. Isn't it so interesting, Kara, you have, more view under the hood of people like asking those questions before joining because you've either had many different cohorts or like membership launches and stuff, but that people will ask what kind of people are in here?
Who's gonna be there? Have they done the specific questions are like, I relate to how long have they been doing this? What place in their business are they at? What, how. How passionate are they? And to me, this is a reflection that people don't just join things for the curriculum, for the tools because we could all just look up a bunch of tools on the internet, on chat TV to be whatever.
We have all the information we want. People are joining things because we want connection. We want aligned connection. We wanna have aligned conversation. We crave being seen, we crave being supported by other people in this journey, this rollercoaster. And
it's almost like I, I feel really responsible for determining
that those people coming in, that they will find that the ones who are committed.
And it just reminds me of we think of heard of, so soho House social clubs. Oh yeah. Yeah. So there's a reason I feel like, versus just being like pretentious and elite class and so that people join those because they wanna know when they're, they walk through the door somewhere that it's just like their people,
yes. And it's not about price, it's about what environment are you creating? Where I know it's my people. Yeah. Yeah. And it's also why to get a really powerful membership or virtual community or in person community. So much of the selling isn't digital, it's direct selling, it's inviting people personally.
There's a tipping point where. I don't know, 50 members. A there's a tipping point depending on the game you're playing with your membership, where you need to have that solid foundation that you've personally invited people in.
Because that's, that foundation can then snowball into who they're referring, who they're recommending, who they're talking to about it.
Then all the digital marketing for things like that, okay. Can activate, assuming you want a high caliber community, and again, caliber does not mean bougie or makes a lot of money. Yeah. That's not what it means.
Yeah. When I think caliber, right? It, let's say in the context of this is a community around cultural reconnection, having a network of women that you relate to, that you can have healing conversations, right?
So what does Caliber mean here? A practice that I did once was. Reflecting on who were my favorite members of my last cohort. And I immediately knew, I like went to three people. I was like, Kim. She was talking about how she's never talked before in a group, and she just feels like she can open up to this one.
And she was just vulnerable. And she would admit that she was nervous, but she was here for it. And she was like in tech, but now painting pictures of Filipino islands and culture, like she was my favorite Second, oh, Elaine. She was always listening to people and pouring wisdom because of her life experience.
And then the third one was, everybody loved Vanessa because she was showing us her entrepreneurial journey and then she was reaching out to members all the time, left and right behind the scenes and like cultivating conversations offline and like creating those avatars of okay, those are those That was the caliber, that's caliber to me.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Yes.
And the other thing to pay attention to is people get so nervous that they're not, once you create the right caliber attraction, then there's people who you know fit and they're like, oh, I'm not good enough. 'cause we all have Yeah. Our worth story. So it's so interesting if you stand and create your program based on what you know it needs, based on what you know, how you wanna help people and who you went invited, like just make it for that reason.
Like it's, we dilute businesses and products and services and brands all the time. 'cause we start catering towards. Whoever's the squeakiest wheel. Yeah. Versus the integrity of what Yeah. A business is supposed to be.
Yeah. Yeah. And on that, there's the allure of scale of yeah, we need more in the door because that means success.
And I've had to really like humble my approach to this because if I wanna launch something, I want it to be successful. What does success mean? A lot of people join, what does a lot of people joining look like? Just getting more and more, more. And when you are talking about what is effective is that one on that personal invitation and that one-on-one and then the mass marketing after I.
I think about how this program, a membership is not like a coaching group where you have like n or 12 people or your client group, your co, whatever it is that has 10, 12, 15, or even if you're not like doing a, some kind of program, whatever clientele or customership means to you. I am wondering how to do that one-on-one ness approach.
When I'm like, oh my gosh, I wanna just open the doors and onboard 200 people off the bat. I'm like, I can't do 200 calls. So what is that? What does that personable approach mean and look like? And I'm getting creative because I know that there has to be some sort of that, I heard of the, I did this last time too, like a dream team of just having your your few, your super fans and then building on that.
But I'm curious what different. Approaches and you've had to, to this where it's not like 10 and maybe you don't wanna just have a bunch of people through without that, that welcoming one-on-one approach.
I would honestly start with what do you want for the whole year? What do you wanna offer?
How many group calls, how many in person events? How many whatever? And figure out what that's gonna cost you. And then figure out how much money you need to be successful. What is your sales goal for this group for the year? Just for the sake of numbers. If you wanted to make a million dollars from this program in one year, you can divide it by 12 to get your monthly turn that you want your monthly revenue, and then divide that by how many members do you actually want to do this with?
You can make a million dollars having 20 people in your program.
You can make a million dollars having 10, five, a hundred. Yeah. And I think. We think that the only, because digital based memberships don't have a capacity, it's infinite. We think that growth is based on the infinite filling of members, when in reality, growth is based on like how much money do you actually need and want this to be so you can provide the services that you want to.
And what's the right number of, like the first year, it might only be 25 people. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. There's only, so Soho House can only have so many people in at one time. Yeah. So they've probably taken that and divided a little bit because they don't want full capacity every day. And they're like, great.
How many members would show up every day? Okay. How many people would that be? All right, let's divide our goal by that. You can do it top down.
Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Yeah, because. We always sometimes put this number out there that hasn't really been broken down to like, why is it something I hear a lot, for example, is like a 10 K month and everyone in my group are like, we want a 10 K month.
We want a 10 K month. Like, where did this number come from by default? And I get that it's really good to set a number that feels good and sounds inspiring, but I think the danger with putting an arbitrary number out there is that we start to push our program and all the logistics around it, whether that's through like our marketing or our enrollment goals and stuff around that without really asking what does this actually cost?
And then on top of that, what am I actually wanting to provide and what does that cost? And can you comment a little bit on
Sure. I we have to listen to our customers. Yeah. And we have to listen to that in balance with the vision that we have. I have mostly for my memberships in the online group coaching programs, I have mostly removed things like, nobody used it.
Nobody looks for it. Nobody wants it. People want the live calls, and then people want the recordings of the live calls. There you go. After that, I don't know if they care about anything else. So why are we providing it? And that's the thing too, because it ends up becoming, people think, oh, charge 14.99 or 29.99 and we'll get more people in 29 99.
For most people in the US is throw away money that they spend on Amazon every day. We need to make sure that what we're pricing our services off of is. A number that requires a commitment, a number, that's an investment. Now, it doesn't need to be the college fund is being invested into something. No, but what's the number that's gonna make them show up?
Because I'm creating a community. 'cause I want you to show up.
If you would pay that number and not think twice about never coming or getting any value out of it, you're not my person.
I want you to spend that money be like when you go to a gym. Yeah. I'm really, I don't know the data, but I would bet that more people who invested in Equinox show up than people who invest in a 24 hour fitness.
Yeah. Yeah. So do you want people showing up?
We can't have a community of no one showing up. So what is that? Where's that line? You can play with it. You can have different price structures. There's the whole other element of this is why businesses need a value ladder.
People like you and I wanna help as many people as possible.
Everyone can't afford everything. Everyone doesn't have the time for everything. So what are we creating where there's different tiers Yeah. Of access so that people can start now. Yeah. Okay, if you can't pay for private coaching, there's, I have 500 other options. Yeah. Don't not get coaching. 'cause you can't have private ones like get a download, take a course, come to the group things.
Yeah. Yeah. The best advice I got from my coach about building communities that have a lot of options is that whatever you build in your business, the target customers always the same. The person who would pay for five coaching is the same person who would come to my group online membership for coaching.
The same person who will buy the course, the same person who will get the download.
It's
the same person. They're just choosing how much they wanna invest today and how much time they have.
Yeah. If they
don't have time, if like the schedule doesn't work to come to the live calls that are with the group, then they're gonna choose private.
Like vice versa. If they want more momentum, they might choose all of it. I have so many people, so many customers that are choosing every step on my value ladder, and that tells me that I'm building it the right way.
I love that. Yeah. Something you had said earlier about just cutting out, what's not being used.
It makes me wonder, like why we sometimes provide all these different, little different little crumbs of value right. Around what we have and making sure like it's, whether that means, oh, we're gonna have this I don't know, a whole activities on the side and this and that, but really seeing people are coming for x or coming for the live calls or coming to connect with you or something.
And then. Realizing like that's your MVP, your minimum viable product. But those are also, that's like your MVP, like that is the person that your most valuable players are eating your MVPs also. And then building off of that, because I think that I tend to be like, and there's more, I'm serving you in all these other ways first, but your value ladder, I would assume didn't start with and we have 20 things.
It's it seemed like you understood what was actually your, like minimum viable product first, and then creating other things just as an extension off of that.
It's, most of the time when we see people who have all these bonuses, especially in the digital space. No one uses the fucking bonuses.
Forgive my language. No one ever does. We're like, Ooh, it's gonna be so great to have this whole library that I'll have access to that I'll never actually use for my business. Yeah. Or half the time, the bonuses aren't worth anything. They're not good bonuses. So smart people, and then you create more work for yourself
because you're like, now I have to keep building this.
And yeah, all this. And you're like, maybe one person clicked on it and then
No. Even like I've done promotion selling the online group coaching to be like, if you sign up now, you'll get a free one hour with me. That's actually a really high ticket item. And people, they're like, they don't care. It's not a motivator and that's a great bonus.
We could talk about your business for a whole hour or just whatever you want for a whole hour. And people are like, eh. So they don't see, okay, cool, that doesn't work for you. I'm not gonna include it anymore. I'll give I'll sell that hour to somebody who actually wants it and doesn't just one, but they want like an entire commitment of coaching yeah.
Yeah. It's so interesting, like what, the more that you are clear on who you wanna work with and what their problems are the more just make it for them. If you want a community or an online membership, just start with the virtual live thing. Yeah. And then over time ask 'em what they want.
And just 'cause they want it doesn't mean you should make it. Yeah. But if you hear people saying enough oh hey, it'd be great if we had a second call a month. Yeah. For these reasons. Or it'd be great if that conversation we had, could you record that and I can watch it somewhere. Or Hey, do you have that in A PDF?
So I can remember that checklist.
Tho the things that aren't easy and make sense and you already have it in your bank. Those are great things to add on, but we spend a lot of time making up a bunch of stuff 'cause we like it or we think it's cool or we think they want it and we know like they can actually use it, but people don't because they're busy and distracted and they'd rather usually just ask you
Yeah.
Than
go find something.
Yeah. I would value one hour conversation with you, Carol.
Thank you. Thank you. I want it. Yes. Yeah. And it's not that people don't ask for it. But it's not for people who don't know me. It doesn't add any value. 'cause they don't know what they're gonna get out of it.
Yeah. Yeah.
If I'm offering it as a bonus to people who have been past clients or people who have been on the podcast, then I think it makes more sense. Sure. And that also comes back to really what relationship are we building with the people that we want. We skip over the important details all the time.
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah I'm just gonna mention that it's having me think when I when I do this campaign that I have the crowdfund people are like, people advising me on this are like because you don't have a product. How crowdfund work. There's essentially different like supporter tier that you can choose from, and then you're gonna get some fun gifts around it.
Usually if you were, if you're launching a product, you get, you throw in a little hat or something, or you throw in something, I'm like, okay, this isn't a product, this is a community, this is a media platform. This is digital content mostly. How can we. Get creative around the gifts that they get. Okay. I got some different Filipino makers and businesses who are doing in-kind donations. We have a little fun, like stickers and cards and pins. Okay. But we gotta get a little thing. Now, think bigger. What's a high value product I can add with this? Okay. Tier three Krystl, you can put a one hour session with you session.
And I am like, great, I can do that. What am I talking to them about with me? Okay, I'm not a coach. I've never represented myself in a giving an hour because my role has always been to really bring on guests. To have to facilitate community and conversations to bring on workshop leaders.
To give, yes, to give a group session of here's how to, meditate on what your going from perfection to peace, looks like, because I relate to that. But it brings into what does an hour of myself look like?
Or what you could do too is anyone who is in that tier, they get a free ticket to an exclusive guest speaker event you're doing.
Yeah. It could be, they get a, they get included, they get free access to all the in-person events you're doing. Yeah. You don't need to make more.
Yeah. Yeah. I know. I was just like, what? Right now am I making more work for myself to be like, now I have to be like coachy. Now I have to be an expert in something.
What am I an expert in?
You're an expert in
a lot of things. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. But no, I love that almost like just. Providing something you're, you already have and that you're doing Yes. And making it premium. So there you go. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.
So I have a couple of questions for you that are podcast specific.
So when you hear the words powerful and ladies, what do they mean to you? And do, does their definition change when they're next to each other? Yeah. Powerful has really redefined itself for me Now, it's that when things aren't materializing as you would have it,
when success isn't materializing as the world makes it look to be, or whether that's numbers or money or the house that you're in when you face adversity and whether when you face.
Really like a limitation or insecurity, whether that's an external limitation or an internal limitation, how do you decide to rise up to it? Powerful now has define itself for me to recognize. Yes, I do feel really weak right now. Yes, I do feel really vulnerable right now. You know what? I'm gonna stop lying to myself and say that I can do this on my own.
That I like showing up like this. I'm gonna reach out for help. I'm gonna, I'm gonna actually let myself break down and admit that I don't have it all figured out. Because only in that moment, that's when you can be real with yourself and start opening up yourself to receiving and to, to letting yourself be human and get real about the solutions.
And I think powerful to me looks like just. Finally being in a place of surrender stopping putting on the mask and the perfection and letting yourself not feel powerful for a while in order to see where are you gonna cut out the BS that you've been saying to yourself and really step into what life is actually calling you to be, where like life is beckoning you to, yeah.
To put away the old patterns and step more powerfully into yourself. And as something that I've really heard is like when we approach the line of fear, we usually get scared. We think that fear is bad, but I think that fear is actually that line of fear is a signal of everything that you actually want and hope to become is on the other side of it.
And I think I forgot the person who quoted this, but. And I'm gonna paraphrase this, but the very cave that we fear to enter that dark, scary cave, it holds the very treasure that we are seeking. And so being powerful means being willing to actually enter into that scary cave and journey into it.
And it might take some time, it won't be overnight, but are we ready to journey into that cave? Because once we, we do, then we hold onto that treasure that allows us to be powerful. And it, to me is actually much more powerful to, to venture down that scary cave, right? And it may mean being quiet for a while.
It may mean finally confronting everything that you've been pushing away for your whole life in order to just step into that. And powerful ladies, and I love that you use ladies because I think that we've been we've taken away from this like the word ladies, meaning oh, proper and prim and a little be a lady, be meek, be.
Be gentle, be quiet, be like, hold your pinky up. But I think that we are having this new definition of what a lady can be. I love the word lady because my mom always taught me about etiquette in class and being classy. And I was just talking about this with my sister. She's an attorney. The yesterday.
And we just really valued that out of everything, out of all, like our whole journey of life. We've always held being classy at the forefront. Don't undercut don't don't take the low road, take the high road, learn when to speak up and when not to speak up and just, that's what being a lady means to us of it's okay to hold, to, to be classy in through the process of this messy journey.
And so when I see powerful ladies together, I definitely, I love that. Almost like the opposite ends meeting and complimenting each other so well, especially in this day and age where it, you could be a lady and be powerful at the same time. It holds that elegance, but also that ability to get really messy with yourself in order to emerge as the most powerful, elegant, graceful version of yourself.
And I'll lastly end with this. When I think of powerful ladies, I've been so obsessed late lately with Meghan Markle. I watched the documentary with Carrie and me. Megan and I'm really big on archetypes. I'm really big on looking at someone that you feel can represent that next version of yourself that you want to be.
Who has walked the past that I've really been attracted to her journey because she, man, she has had to, go into the royal family. She's had to really embrace what it means to go through that. Journey with class, with elegance, with grace, but but also being powerful and having to take on so many attacks so many attacks and be classy at the same time with it.
And now going on the other end and seeing her being honest, ruthlessly authentic and honest with herself has been so refreshing because, man, I was, that was the version of a powerful lady that I am feeling so invigorated by. Yeah.
Where do you put yourself on the powerful lady scale? If zero is an average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself today and on an average day?
I would say I would put myself,
given my definition, a powerful lady. I probably at a eight right now because. I've noticed I've been giving myself a lot more grace with the hours and what I do with the day and being and determining what does enough look like for me in this day. And then in the Mar Meghan Markle version, I'd probably say like a six.
Yeah. We've been asking everyone on the podcast, what do you need? What are you manifesting? How can we help? This is a powerful global community with lots of resources and connections. So what are you asking the audience for? Yes, thank you for this question.
Are y'all ready? 'cause I'm so needy. I'm looking for aligned friendships.
Friendships, who are people who are doing this journey, this damn thing that is very specific to this multifaceted, multi entrepreneurial, multi-passionate, multi-product. We know this new world that we're moving into where it's not just one thing where you're not just coaching, you're not just having this this brick and mortar kind of shop this new space that we're all having.
And I'm being very real of I want aligned friendships so that we can so support each other through it. And I think I'm looking for people who have been able to find that pivot from being one person to now like. Scaling or sustaining and scaling your business. But asking those really like messy and hard questions of what comes first, what business decision comes first, do I invest in this?
Do I put my resource in this? Do I hire this kind of person? I'm about to hire a person. Like what? What is actually needed after that? I think like that, that that pivotal part of just like when we don't have all the resources to get everything we wanted to, what comes next? What comes first?
What's a priority? What's not? I know it sounds funny that No it's great to say. Align friendships.
Yeah, no, I love that. And it's a great plug for me to say, come join, thrive and hang out, because that's who's in there. Maybe there's a reason I'm ending my coaching cohort group right now.
Maybe.
Do you have anyone there in Texas around? Yes. Oh yeah.
Yeah, there's, I actually have a bunch of people in Dallas.
Okay. Alright. Okay.
And then lastly for today, everyone who wants to hang out with you, wants to be one of those high power friends, wants to listen to your podcast, join the membership.
Where can they find all of the things to follow you, support you, and connect with you?
Definitely Instagram, because this is where I'm most active in. You could definitely reach out via email, but if you shoot me a DM on Instagram and you can see all the great things we have coming up from our in-person events.
We have an event in Houston coming up and. And also our, our virtual chats. I call them our sister chats. We tackle some taboo topics and cultural called conversations on there to just ha joining our lives having all the updates when it comes to our membership. Our community relaunching soon.
That's where you am finding.
And where is
that? What's the handle? Filipina on the rise. And that's Filipino with an f and an A at the end. Love
that. It has been such a pleasure to get to hang out with you again today. I always love getting to have a conversation with you and I can't wait till we can hang out in person again.
Next. Thank you so much Kara. And I just wanna say you had
been such a huge catalyst and pivot, powerful person in my own growth and someone that has been an expander for me. I mentioned this in the beginning and just to come full circle, you were that person that when I was just plugging into them, I was just like, I can build this.
I know exactly how to build this and you taught me that I knew exactly what I wanted to do and build. It was just about leaning more into it. And I really thank you for empowering me in that way of just saying you know what you need to do. And simplifying it and just. When I left from that, I really felt like, yes, I have everything I have inside of me to do this, and I really appreciate that.
That is actually what you equip everyone with. Thank you.
All the links to connect with Krystl and Filipinos on the rise are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and leave us a rating and review. Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or go to Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode in. So Ben, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: filipinaontherise
Website: http://filipinaontherise.com
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Email: krystl@filipinaontherise.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
