#46 Building Trust and Community in a Changing Online Industry

Show Notes

What happens when people start looking to you for answers?

In this episode of Rooted & Relentless, Steph shares an unexpected realization: somewhere along the way, she became a community leader. And with that comes responsibility.

As more business owners turn to trusted voices for recommendations, guidance, and perspective, Steph explores what it means to hold that trust carefully—especially in an online industry overflowing with conflicting advice, fear-based marketing, and constant noise.

This conversation digs into the weight of influence, the importance of discernment, and why nuanced conversations matter now more than ever. Steph also shares the vision behind her new quarterly virtual panel: a space where business owners can hear honest conversations from people actively building businesses, making decisions, and navigating a rapidly changing market in real time.

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by contradictory advice or questioned who to trust online, this episode is for you.

Links Mentioned In the Show:

Join the panel on June 25th: https://www.stephrubio.com/relentlessly-real-business-panel

Live to the Event Series w/ Taylor Smith,Start with Episode 1

On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/event-series-part-1-tips-on-how-to-choose-events-that/id1821487374?i=1000752877055

On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6HS9IWyjXy4UsrUwezG9xc?si=bxWDnNSBTRy44W0Z6TaTvQ

In This Episode

1. The responsibility that comes with influence and recommendations
2. Why online business owners keep getting pulled off course
3. The problem with fear-based marketing and guru culture
4. Why nuance is missing from many online conversations
5. How real conversations help business owners make better decisions
6. The vision behind Steph's new quarterly virtual panel
7. What it takes to build trust in a rapidly changing market

Memorable Moments

"One thing about me, baby. If I see something, I'm gonna say something."

"It's not only my money, time, and energy on the line anymore. It's my community's too."

"People are consuming content all day that makes them feel like they're falling short."

"Two people can be growing on the same trajectory while using completely different tactics."

"The goal isn't to fearmonger. The goal is to have real conversations about what's actually happening."

"You're going to stabilize your nervous system when you stop listening to every polarizing opinion online."

Key Takeaway

The businesses that thrive won't necessarily be the ones consuming the most information. They'll be the ones learning how to think critically, filter noise, and make decisions from a grounded place instead of reacting to every trend, headline, or hot take.

Continue the Conversation

📩 Join Steph's email list for strategic insights and behind-the-scenes leadership conversations:

https://stephrubio.myflodesk.com/letsconnect

What is Rooted & Relentless?

Rooted & Relentless is the business strategy podcast for entrepreneurs building service-based businesses designed to grow, adapt, and last. Business strategist Steph Rubio shares practical guidance on a range of topics meant to help you sell, scale, and stabilize.
Think sustainable business growth, revenue strategy, systems, capacity, client experience, and the founder leadership required to turn your skills into a successful, sustainable company.

Steph Rubio: Well, that's a wrap on this episode of Rooted and Relentless. If it made you laugh, nod alone, or grab that cute little notebook of yours and scribble something down, hit me with the SSR, subscribe, share, and review. As in, leave a review. One thing about me. If see something, I'm gonna say something. ⁓ And ⁓ that's actually the of I have launched and created ⁓ a virtual panel to happen single quarter. ⁓ I found myself consistently going ⁓ live conversations in collaboration with leaders in the space in the industry at times. Thanks for hanging. Bye. to talk about things that are like hot buttons or that just need to be said or especially when you look at the lens of a community leader, I realized like accidentally that I was. I mean, I just never same thing with like a personal brand. I never was like, I'm building my personal brand. And then I was like, ⁓ shit, suddenly I have a personal brand because I've just been me and I've been showing up and I've been doing what I do and I educate and I grow people and stuff like that. When I started a mastermind and building like carrying that online connection and community and I'm like, ⁓ I ⁓ I'm a community leader. And I'll say that in in that and my own visibility efforts over the last year. So starting to speak more and starting to grow that community publicly, right? And more visibly, suddenly I started feeling the weight of the responsibility of that. People come to me and on recommendations to go to events and what makes time, what makes sense for them to spend their time, money, and energy on, right? And also when I have great experiences, or when I have bad experiences and things cost me, you know, or I see harmful information circulating because education is a big part of what I do, like literally teaching people how to lead and run their businesses from the view of the CEO from leading that business. And when I see information that's incorrect or harmful or in my community, I see people who will hone in on what they're doing and get really clear on it and start marching towards that and then weeks later be spinning up again because of information online and what gurus are saying and all of that instead of learning to like stabilize. And so that's already a part of the work I do, but I realize it's hinged on conversation. People are talking all the time now about the trust recession and like people are buying differently and they're not buying. And now soon after that happens, you have people come online that are like, ⁓ it's not a trust recession. That's not real. This is what I believe. I love these kind of conversations, first off, because I want to have them, but I'm also of the mind of like what's helpful out of that, right? So whether it was debating that there is one or there isn't one matter or giving people the actual keys to do what they need to do, which is market, sell, lead, is serve the people they've sold to, right? That's what we're all trying to do here. And so the way that I've seen to help people do that, or one of the most impactful ways, is just to have conversation. I found myself faced with the responsibility that I make recommendations that aren't great for my people, or I'll advise them to go to events that might actually not be good for them, ⁓ where something could be harmful or something like that. So becoming a community leader basically switched the lens in which I approach because it's not only me and my money and time and energy that are on the line when I choose to spend it on going to events or different things like that. It's also that of my community members now. So ⁓ You know, it took like I've said this recently, I've had different conversations about like going to events because events are on the rise, right? So I'm just using this right now as one example. But it took a conversation where I realized like I can't just go to events because of people I've seen online and kind of some circles and assume that it's going to be the right event for me, which led me to like, okay, well, how do I know if it's the right event for me based on my goals and what I need and the ⁓ effort and intention the host is putting into people getting the outcomes that they they're telling them they're gonna get right. Well now that responsibility also carries to my community. So I was like, well we have to talk about this. We have to educate people about this. So Taylor Smith and I had we hopped on a very long podcast, almost two hours that we turned into four episodes months ago that we still see circulating to this day. in like we're in community events together and someone shares the podcast or we we're talking about topics in that, you know, red flags for events, green flags for events, how to go safely, how to have a good experience, how to create a good experience, like the whole works. And we had that conversation live because we knew people needed to hear it. We were having the conversation privately already as like trusted peers and mentors. Me going to events for the first time over the past year in my own business. And Taylor having done it for a while. me you know, looking through her lens of how to get to these things and also talking about problematic behaviors and stuff. And we were like, okay, we're having these feelings. Our community members are asking about different things. We have to speak up and like have this conversation broadly and help people. And as the months have gone on, I've done that more and more. I have a reputation for hopping on and saying the thing, ⁓ for having that are much more nuanced when people have a very one way is the right way kind of view. And then I know in making decisions for myself and my business, they're not that black and white. There's so much more nuance to it. And also at a time where we're hearing trust recession this and trust or session that and what are we doing about it? And ⁓ my God, people are leaving their jobs for W-2s is the online space in in jeopardy. And what you're consuming online is so hard to get the information that you need because you are pulling in other people's marketing. It's all meant to make you think that you have a gap. So then you'll buy what they're selling to fill that gap. That's what marketing does. So that means you're constantly walking around consuming things that make you feel like you're going to fall short. So how do we bust that wide open? How do we create a space where people can actually get what they need, which is communication, connection, conversation about the decisions we're really making and the kind of way we work through those decisions about what we're doing. the actual actions we're taking that's actually working and what isn't. And let's just have a space where we can have these nuanced conversations. So I created a panel to do that because I was already doing it because I felt the need to bring more people than just me together that want to dig a little deeper. And I'm so excited because the way it's shaping up, which is intended, isn't that everybody sitting in the room will probably agree with each other. Or you'll get to see that two people can be growing on the same trajectory. doing two totally different tactics in their business. You know, online sells copy pages might be selling the best for one person, whereas going to an in-person networking events might be working best for the other. So I really foresee this as being like this big sigh of relief for the online industry as this concept grows and people see the kind of conversation because it's going to be that like sure place to land where you can hear from and talk to people who are doing the thing every single day who aren't here to like fearmonger. And give something polarizing to pull you in and talk to you. Like we're just going to be having real conversations about the real state of the online business. And it's something I've already been doing and I've seen the health in that. ⁓ if you haven't already listened to the episodes, me and Taylor did, we went back and forth on our podcast for four days. So I'll drop the first link to that in the show notes. It's relevant to like event host, attending events, and all of that kind of stuff. ⁓ and people have found it extremely valuable in their discernment and how they're approaching attending events or not attending events, but you'll also just get an idea of the kind of conversation we're gonna be bringing to this panel, which is gonna be killer, because I truly believe that what happens when you're leading and growing a business is you have a leadership team, right? And you sit around and you have these conversations with these leadership teams and you're succinct and you're to the point and you share your different ways. And then in that specifically you come to like a conclusion, a decision of what you're gonna do, try. levers you're gonna pull and different things like that. So my thought is the same thing is like come hear from people leading and growing businesses and what they're doing in a rapidly changing market because these kind of conversations are how you're actually going to stabilize and sustain and continue to grow because you're gonna cut out the noise and the polarizing advice online and you're gonna stabilize your freaking nervous system and how you think about and approach and make decisions. And you'll get to hear from people that are doing it all the time. That are making these kind of decisions all the time and real things that we're talking about and not just stuff meant to sell you something.