Small Business Membership Community

The story and evolution of GSGS

When I was doing Brand photography with small business owners I always got lots of questions about growing on Instagram (I had grown from a hobby photography account to fully booked for the next 6 months)

I loved answering these questions but ultimately was there to do a brand shoot so could never actually sit down and get into the nitty gritty so, I set up a podcast (my now beloved Growth Addicts) to expand on the answers further. That was in Feb 2024, on my 40th birthday the first episode went live and I have loved delivering the podcast ever since.

I still regularly got DMs asking more about growing on Instagram and launched a free 3 day training on that very subject, aptly called Get Seen Get Sales because really, that’s all small business owners want from Instagram - to get seen & get sales!

Sign ups for the free training went nuts, hundreds signed up, hundreds left awesome reviews, hundreds asked to work with me 121...This was never on the bingo card so it was vision board time (love a wee vision board)

I realised that I adored this work, mentoring fellow small business owners to grow their business on Instagram, but I also knew my life wasn't set up to work with business owners on a one to one basis.

My twins weren't even age 4 at this point, not at school yet and my son has complex medical needs that still required weekly medical appointments at that time. By taking some time out to really think about where I wanted this to go, and where I was capable of taking it... Get Seen Get Sales on Instagram the mentorship community opened. An online group mentorship where I could support lots of business owners at the same time. That was in October 2024. GSGS (as it's affectionately now known) was founded to support small business owners purely on the Instagram platform but quickly became way more than that.

Members were asking if they could apply the content hooks and prompts to other social media platforms, they wanted to interact with other members, they wanted a space to promote their offers... they wanted full social media help and they wanted a community in it's true sense.

A space where they could connect with not just me, but other members too. I could do that! So I did.

The name and purpose of GSGS changed.

It went from GSGS The Instagram Mentorship to GSGS The Community. The 2 page document for content prompts and hooks went to a full blown 15 page content pack with advice to grow on several social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Linked In and more. I added in community based threads in the group chat to bring members together, share their offers, share their wins and other things like accountability on their monthly goals (for anything, not just social media)

I did monthly masterclasses and weekly guides on how to use various features of all of the social media platforms that members were using.

The community continued to thrive, with members joining from around the world, it was an incredible space to not just learn all things social media for business but also be supported in implementing them too.

Then the group chat space really started to evolve, more members asking general business questions, looking for support, advice, sharing wins.

It was fantastic to see. I asked what monthly workshop topics members would like and started to see them coming away from wanting more social media info. They wanted topics covered like email marketing, websites, wellness stuff like yoga and mindset, bookeeping and more.

I rose to the evolution again, gladly, and hired in guest experts to deliver monthly workshops for us on all of the topics folks were asking for. Members came forward to ask if they could deliver workshops in GSGS too which of course I absolutely encouraged!

By this point, with all these things going on.. accountability, community days, promo threads, member spotlight, GSGS directory, exclusive GSGS member discounts, Friday office party as well as our weekly content packs and social media guides.. the focus moved away from entirely social media and onto members connecting, learning and growing together in all aspects of their business - exactly what a business community is!

Members even meet up, work together, refer each other and every time they do my heart does a wee happy dance. Genuinely. Work wise I've never felt more suited to a role, how lucky am I.

It’s clear GSGS has shifted again and I am absolutely in awe at what we’ve created here.

It’s now a full blown Small Business Membership Community and I'm so excited for this next chapter.