Christina Rowe

Editor:

Today's guest is Christina Rowe, founder of Standout Media Group and the powerhouse behind the global community, women Helping Women Entrepreneurs, which brings together more than 2 million members worldwide. Christina is also a marketing expert, author and mentor who helps women entrepreneurs gain visibility, get featured, and build businesses that truly stand out.

Editor:

Through her platforms, Christina has built not only a thriving media company, but also a movement creating opportunities and resources for women to connect, collaborate, and grow together. Christina, it is lovely to meet you.

Christina Rowe:

It is so wonderful to meet you.

Editor:

Christina, maybe we could start by just asking you to share a little bit about your journey into entrepreneurship and maybe what inspired you to launch Stand Out! Media Group.

Christina Rowe:

Okay, so it's interesting. I used to have a hair and nail salon back, gosh, in my other life I call it, back in New Jersey with my ex-husband. And so, that was the beginning of being an entrepreneur. And then when I got divorced, we sold the salon and I had such a horrendous divorce, I decided to write a book about it. And then this was 2006, so I made a decision to self-publish, which led me to online marketing. And then other people started asking me, "Well, how did you do that?" Because that's back in the beginning when everybody was just getting started with all of the internet stuff where there was no click funnels. We were using front page back then, it's like the dark ages.

Christina Rowe:

And that started me helping other authors and starting to coach them. But it was when I moved to South Florida and I met some other women and we started a women's organisation. And we started doing live events and helping women, which then evolved into me starting Women Helping Women Entrepreneurs. That was 2016. And the communities on Facebook, just started growing like crazy. Facebook took notice of it. We were one of the Facebook commercials that they had. They were playing them all over and on the radio and TV. I got invited to Facebook itself, to the Facebook Community Summit in 2019, which was amazing.

Christina Rowe:

So the community just kept growing and I decided to create a space for women to be able to promote their businesses by borrowing my audience, and that's the Stand Out Online Membership programme. So this way, they could grow their businesses from my platform and my audiences across social media. Time of right now, we have almost 900,000 in the group, but we have all the subgroups and maybe 1.23 million. So we're getting toward the 2 million mark.

Editor:

That's amazing, such an achievement. You've obviously achieved so much in your career. How does it feel to have, as you say, almost 2 million members now in the community?

Christina Rowe:

It's amazing to have so many women. And the whole premise is women helping women. So we really want everyone to collaborate, not compete, because I'm a strong believer in that. And so, I've had women who've been with me for years and grown their Facebook communities to 200,000, 100,000, 50, 80,000, and they've taken my model of allowing women to pay to promote in their group and giving the benefits. And we've actually collaborated and done summits together.

Christina Rowe:

So I don't believe in competition. I believe in let's collaborate and we've put our memberships together and sold it as a package. And so, I think if women and people in general start thinking like that about collaboration, you really don't have any competitors because someone is for everyone. So you're not going to resonate maybe with someone in business with someone else. So being in this industry and instead of thinking that there's people out there, well, that's my competitor and that's my competitor, to think more in terms of how you guys can collaborate.

Editor:

There's an old phrase, isn't it, that a rising tide floats all boats? And I guess that stands true with this as well. By collaborating instead of competing, it does mean that everybody benefits as a result.

Christina Rowe:

It really does. When you have that mindset, you could be doing the same exact thing as someone. And before the group, I partnered with women and we were doing the same exact thing. And when I used to have clients, they, "Think I got too many clients, this person would be perfect for you," or, "I don't do this part of it, take this client," vice versa. So it's really powerful when you think in those terms. It's like thinking in abundance instead of scarcity.

Editor:

And if anybody's thinking maybe of taking their first step right now, Christina, what would you say to them? Because obviously since you started, times have changed and as you say, click funnels is now a big thing. Is it easier or is it harder, would you say now than it was when you started?

Christina Rowe:

Goodness, it is so much easier. So when I started, like I said, there was no click funnels. It was this thing called front page, which was we called the opt in page. The landing page was a squeeze page back then. And there was no Facebook ads back in 2006. So there was a lot of tech you had to learn to build things out. Now, especially with AI, it's so easy for people to start. It just compresses time. What may take you years back then, can now compress into months because you have all the tools, you have everything at your disposal to start a business. Literally Claude and ChatGPT and all these AI tools just do the work for you, if you know how to prompt them correctly. And back then, we didn't have any of that.

Christina Rowe:

So definitely a great opportunity to get involved in entrepreneurship and online marketing. But I would say the key is, and I've been saying this now, is that you have to AI proof at the same time, your business. And how you can do that is by starting communities. Because AI cannot touch communities. It's going to get to the point and people, they're going to want to be in communities. They're not going to want to be talking to robots all the time. So as it invades us more and more, people are going to want to be in person. They're going to be online in feeling like they have that human connection.

Christina Rowe:

So that plus your brand is going to be the most important thing because like I say too, we're in this trust recession right now. I say it's not 2020 anymore where everybody went crazy. COVID, everybody jumped online, people were buying like crazy. And now, people are more hesitant, a little jaded. There's some bad characters. So people just entering right now, starting out on online businesses, they're going to be like, "Well, gosh, how do I build trust?" And by starting a community, it's a great way to do that.

Editor:

I think a lot of people that I speak to say that when they start online, they feel invisible. What do you think is the first step that they should perhaps take to get noticed?

Christina Rowe:

Well, it's the hugest problem. It's like crickets online. You're posting, you're in a sea of people with the reels and it's very hard to get noticed. And that's why one of the things I tell everybody and teachers to borrow other people's audiences. Russell Brunson talks about the Dream 100. So you should create a Dream 100 of Facebook groups, Skool groups, communities. and not to go in with the mindset, "Well, I'm going to go spam them all and try to sell them." It's to build the relationships and establish yourself as an expert and authority.

Christina Rowe:

And how you can do that is simply, you got to spend the time. There's no quick, easy fix. And people think, "Oh, gosh, I'm just going to sit in my underwear on a beach or in a bikini and I'm going to be on the computer and make a million dollars." You have to put in the work. And so, if you spend half an hour a day answering questions in Facebook groups, just with your authority, people are going to notice that, they're going to reach out. I've had members of my own group who do this, and they make money just by being authentic.

Christina Rowe:

Because it goes into the DMs, but they're not being sleazy. They're not cold DMing people. And everybody's just so turned off to that. So if you want visibility, it's a way to start, is to start getting involved in communities and start talking to people and start establishing yourself with your expertise.

Editor:

You've created multiple platforms for women, from media groups to masterminds. How do you decide where to focus your own energy, Christina?

Christina Rowe:

So I try to focus primarily with my members in my groups. And we also have a Skool community that is getting close to 10,000 right there in Skool now too. So I want to be able to spend time. I post, but it's more important to be in the comments than posting because people forget what a community is. And a lot of online marketers do this too. It's like they set these things up as a channel to teach a guru to student. And that's not what a community is.

Christina Rowe:

A community is a place where you're inviting people to your house, you're having that relationship. It's like a gathering. So you want to be part of that gathering as the leader and encouraging the members to be posting, the members to be doing things. So from that, you're just starting out, you want to also get in there, get into communities, but start your own community as well.

Editor:

When I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was going to be interviewing you, she said to me, "The Stand Out Online system is incredible. It helps so much." Maybe you could just talk us through, Christina, how that can help people get featured and get noticed.

Christina Rowe:

Yeah. So I created that because when my group is starting to grow, and I was doing coaching at the time. It is back 2016, '17. And then I noticed, I'm like, I don't want to compete directly with my members, a lot of coaches. I'm like, how could I let them borrow my audience? So how that helps them is you can do posting in the group. You can go live. We have a directory blog post. You can borrow our podcast and submit podcast episodes that we put up. It's on Spotify and all the channels, and we do spotlights. We just started a new programme called Match and Monetize. So we have an AI software where you submit your information, your niche, what platforms you're on, what you're looking for, and it'll match you with other like-minded members.

Christina Rowe:

And it'll send an email to each other and you can do email swaps, webinar swaps, Facebook group swaps, like shout each other out. It's basically to form those collaborations from inside the membership with other like-minded, so you guys are all collaborating together. So we've had members with tremendous success with posting in the group. And they're the only ones who can do promotional we call them, type posts where the other members... it goes through the queue, so they get pre-approval on the group. And the best use case of that in the group is to do lead-generating posts as opposed to trying to sell.

Christina Rowe:

So giving high value free-lead magnets. Like, "I have templates that I made for this niche and who wants it?" Or driving people to your own Facebook group. We have people say, "Where are I Christian entrepreneurs, or where are I Muslim entrepreneurs? Where are my spiritual women? I have a community or we're going to do coffee chats." And people raise their hand in the comments, then you comment with the link to wherever you want to send them, whether it's a landing page or your Facebook group. And I suggest the Facebook group a lot because you can get the email on the three questions when they're coming into the group. And then you can send them the lead magnet of course, but now you have them in two places.

Christina Rowe:

So now, you've got them in your group that if they're active, Facebook is going to show the group in the feed. It's one of the few things... Things have changed. Right now, all the platforms have turned to interest-based. So it doesn't matter how many followers you really have anymore, it's about are people interested? They're matching the interests, but they're still showing groups. So if they see that you've been in a group and you're active, you will start seeing posts from that group in your feed. And that's the goal, so you want to be top of mind.

Christina Rowe:

So now, if you just get the email, it goes to spam or they don't see it, or ignore it. But now you have two places where you can get that attention because we're all vying for attention and this culture, right?

Editor:

It's amazing. That piece of advice alone is priceless. Where do people go to find out more about the Stand Out Online system, and also about your other opportunities to work with people?

Christina Rowe:

Well, sure. So the Stand Out Online membership is on standoutonlinesystem.com. And the big group, if you're not in the group already, it's free, it's womenhelpingwomen.group is the redirect to the Facebook group. And it's another little tip I tell people, if you have a Facebook group and you're on a podcast, you're not going to be able to say that long Facebook slash blah blah blah. So what you do is, they actually have, believe it or not, the dot group extension. You can go to GoDaddy. That's when I got womenhelpingwomen.group. So then I can say that it's easy. So it's a little tip for everybody if you have a community, to be able to do a quickly direct with the dot group.

Christina Rowe:

And so, that's absolutely free. And our Skool community is, just if you look up Women Helping Women Mastermind, it's on Skool, which is amazing. It's absolutely free. And we do virtual coffee chats. So our Stand Out Online members are the hosts and they build relationships. And the people who come on can do a 30-second business pitch. It's like a traditional mastermind where you brainstorm challenges and gives and what's working. And we do those coffee chats through Gobrunch. So it's where we have these virtual rooms and we have a coworking space. We give a lot of resources. When you join, you get 10 free gifts and there's no cost for it.

Christina Rowe:

So that's been very popular and very active over on Skool. I need to do a redirect for that one. But you just put in in Skool, if you go to the platform, Skool and you put Women Helping Women, it'll probably come up. But Women Helping Women Mastermind and you'll see the Skool community there. And those two are free. So for anybody, and there's lots of value, lots of great people in there, women entrepreneurs. And so, those are good places to go. And in the big group, which is free, there's so many amazing members, they're very active. Everybody's talking. Even if you're not a Stand Out member, you can ask questions and get help from other women. That's allowed.

Christina Rowe:

Anybody's going to do anything that's lead generating or promotional is a Stand Out Online member. And then they're just borrowing my audience and being able to promote their businesses and grow because we know how expensive Facebook ads could be, especially for people starting out. If you want to hire an ad agency, oh, my gosh, they could charge a fortune plus your ad costs. So that's a struggle I see many women entrepreneurs having, is that they, like you said, invisible. They don't know what to do because they're like, "How do I get into it to take notice?"

Christina Rowe:

So by going in groups that you can, if you can pay for to be in a group, find them, then it's great. There's other women's groups now that do it too. Not so much I see in other niches, but I wish that would change because some are starting now. I believe I started this model back in 2017, '18, but I'm starting to see some now allowing opportunities to allow people to sponsor groups, to be able to get in front of their audiences. And I hope more niches start doing this because it just presents a little ecosystem outside of Facebook ads that we can all have that opportunity to get visibility.

Editor:

Absolutely. And how important do you think it is, or what importance would you put on personal brand and particularly in your own journey as an entrepreneur, how important has that been for you?

Christina Rowe:

Personal brand is crucial because Anybody's going to do business with you. They're going to Google you, and if nothing comes up or if your Facebook profile has a picture of a flower or your dog and you don't have any... I can't tell you how many times you check someone out and it's not optimised. All of your social platforms should be branded, optimised with links where you want people to go, including, a lot of people don't know this. But when you're in Facebook groups, you have your own profile. It looks just like your real Facebook profile, but it's each group, you can edit it and you can completely change it for each group with different call to actions.

Christina Rowe:

So I tell people, make a banner. In my group, I have a banner, a separate banner for the group profile that leads to my Skool community. It says, "Click on the image," because that opens up on Facebook where you can put the link. So I use that in that way. So you can modify. And how you'll notice, if you go in any group and you click on someone's profile picture in the group, you think they're on their profile, but you'll see their posts. But you have to click "view profile." So even if they fiddle or change it, it's going to look exactly the same. So it's a little hidden way to have a little more advertisement in groups by having your own profile.

Christina Rowe:

But for branding, I would say credibility that we're in, like I said, the trust recession. You need to have that instant credibility being on the media, getting logos. And I'm not talking about the logos that everybody gets like MSN. I'm talking about go to your local media. It's very easy to get in local media. It's just people always perceive celebrity or media as better or credible. It's just our culture, especially in the United States. So you want to make sure you're on podcasts, that you have the logos up there. That you're doing that, so people feel comfortable giving you money, that you're reputable.

Christina Rowe:

So if you're ignoring your brand, get professional photos, start going on podcasts. Try getting some local media, build that credibility and make sure you're all branded across the board. Because it's going to be very important, especially now with people choosing, especially you do high ticket or whatever, people are going to be looking at different people. And it will turn someone off if there's like, "Okay, there's nothing on this person. How do I know they're legitimate? Are they going to rip me off?" So the more you can build your brand and have credibility, the better.

Editor:

Is having a book really important?

Christina Rowe:

Having a book is a wonderful way to gain authority. I think it was more important maybe a couple of years ago. I don't know if people search out now, okay, you have to have a book. It's still phenomenal, and you can still do it extremely easily now with AI. Of course, you want to edit it and make it human, but it could help you with your outline and everything. And you can self-publish on Amazon. PrintOnDemand, and it gives you that authority. So I think having a book, yes, it's amazing. And then you can use it, I say as your business card.

Christina Rowe:

When I wrote my book in 2006, I had a well-known author who helped me. And he said to me, "Your book is just your business card." And I was actually like, "What? What are you talking about? My business card? I put all this effort. It's my life of my divorce," and this and that. I wrote about my divorce, but I understood what he meant. He was 100% right, because it's credibility. You can give your book away. I would say it's definitely an important thing to do, but don't stress if you don't have a book.

Christina Rowe:

If it's, "Oh, my God, how am I going to write a book now?" It's something you can do down the line, but if you can do one, definitely.

Editor:

Love that. Love that. Christina, it's a fascinating subject and I love talking with you about this. I know we could probably talk for hours and I'd love that, but I know that we're pushed with time. Maybe you could just tell us again, if anybody wants to find out more about you and how you could help them achieve their dream of an online business, where should we go to do that?

Christina Rowe:

So obviously I'm on Facebook, Christina Rowe, if you put that on Facebook. My main website's, christinarowe.com. So that's easy to reach me through the website as well. And that has basically all the ways you can reach me and it has everything on there as well. Christinarowe.com is probably the best avenue.

Editor:

That's great. Well, thank you so much for all your insights today. It's been an absolutely fascinating conversation. And thank you again, for being so generous with your time. We really do appreciate it.

Christina Rowe:

Oh, well, it's an honour to be on your podcast. I really appreciate you having me, and this was so much fun.