If you’re someone who wants to start a movement, one of the best ways is to create events in your local community.
Gabrielle Bernstein and Danielle LaPorte, both started speaking and teaching in living rooms and yoga studios in their hometowns, and now they’re two of the hottest tickets in the personal development arena.
When I started my coaching and consulting business in 2012, I knew that one day I would be doing speaking engagements and leading groups of women in community.
Over the last few years I’ve been building my community online, but there was always this voice inside that knew I wanted to do more face-to-face events.
This past Sunday, my very good friend Natasha Romanelli and I held our second Sacred Moon Women’s Circle at her house in Georgetown. We had a sold out event with over 20 women and last month we did the same.
It’s an amazing feeling seeing so many women gathered together who have similar values and who are supporting each other to tap into their divine light.
The idea for a women’s circle had been burning inside of me for awhile.
This past January, I decided to do something about it.
I had been following Sora Surya No on social media, and knew that she was one of the go-to women for teaching other women how to hold sacred women’s circles.
I could have gone online and googled how to hold a women’s circle, but I wanted to feel supported and uplifted by others from around the world who were also starting their own circles.
I joined her 4-week online circle training and each week I received a video from her on how to plan a sacred circle and the elements needed to create a powerful experience.
While I was taking the course, I mentioned to Natasha if she’d be interested in co-leading the circle with me. She agreed and we set the date of our first circle to coincide with Sora’s Global Sacred Circle event on February 6, 2016.
Once we decided that YES, we were going to do this, the real work began.
The first step was to decide on the venue.
My dad has a beautiful house that overlooks the Credit River in Mississauga, so I knew it would be perfect. The day and evening of the event, he stayed at his girlfriend’s house, so that we could have the space to ourselves.
I had started designing a flyer for the event on Canva (before I asked Natasha to join me), and she liked it, but asked if she could perfect it. (Natasha’s an artist with a graphic design background, so I had no qualms about that!)
Aren’t these flyers gorgeous!?
Once we had the flyer, it was time to promote!
I created a Facebook event and invited everyone I knew in Mississauga, Toronto and surrounding cities. Natasha invited her local Facebook friends to the event as well.
Natasha created a header graphic for the Facebook event, a header graphic for our Facebook profile covers, and a square graphic for Instagram.
Natasha signed us up for a Meetup account, where you pay a monthly fee for holding group events. While most Meetup groups have boring headers, Natasha created a header for our Meetup group too! (BTW – If you’re interested in joining our group, you can find it here.)
I signed us up for Evite and created an event in there, however we didn’t get any people from it, so we didn’t use Evite for our second circle.
While Natasha was in charge of the graphics, it was my job to write the marketing copy and content for the circle.
I researched information about women’s circles (so people knew what the heck we were talking about), the moon phases and seasons (since our first circle was about the New Moon in Aquarius and the second about the Spring Equinox), and along with Sora Surya No’s circle plan, I created our own plan of what we would say, the music we would listen too, what we would do, and the items we needed during our time in circle.
After I created the circle plan, I emailed it to Natasha to look over and make her suggestions and edits. She sent me some of her ideas as well, so we could include both of our passions and strengths.
We marketed our event on our own Facebook pages, as well as in Facebook groups, where we thought women would be interested. We searched for local groups in our area and became members of those groups to post in them. I also searched Facebook groups that I was already a member of and searched for the tag #Toronto, to find out if a woman had posted in there from my local area. If I wasn’t friends on Facebook with them, I would send them a message like this:
Hi Sarah!
Just wanted to reach out to you because I saw that you’re from Toronto and noticed your post in (name of group here) FB group.
I live in Mississauga and I’m going to be hosting an in-person “Women’s Sacred Circle” at my family home close to the Streetsville GO Train on Saturday February 6.
Not sure if you have a car or not, but if you don’t we’re picking people up from the Streetsville GO Train and driving back if need be.
I love Facebook groups and all, but I wanted to meet women entrepreneurs in person and so I’m gathering a bunch of us together for a fun and cozy evening.
Let me know if you’re interested in something like this and I’ll send you more details.
~Meg
As you can see, we hustled to get bums in seats!
We were aiming to have 20-30 women, which is why we worked so hard at marketing our event.
If we had five women show up, we would have been happy about that too!
We charged $15 in advance and $20 at the door, and told people to send the money to me via an Interac e-Transfer (which is an easy way to send and receive money between Canadian bank accounts).
Natasha and I used the money to pay for the food, our Meetup.com costs, and then we divided up the rest between the two of us.
At first I was nervous to charge money for the event, but with all the hours of work we put into it, I’m glad we did. I truly believe in the idea of energy exchange when it comes to money.
I kept a Numbers document (like Microsoft Excel, but on a Mac computer), of the people who RSVP’d. I had a column for their name, what their RSVP was (Yes, Maybe), if they paid, how they paid (e-transfer or cash), who they paid (me, Natasha, at the door) and how they found out about us (Natasha’s friend, my friend, Meetup, etc.)
When we got closer to the date of the first event, I started getting nervous because so many women had RSVP’d! A good problem to have, but I was thinking it would be too crowded. (Luckily the exact number of people came to fit the space!)
The night before the first circle, Natasha came over to my dad’s house to help move the furniture and prepare the room. We put down every blanket in the house and nearly every pillow! We rehearsed the circle plan, so that we were confident in both our roles. We also went grocery shopping and ended up buying way too much food! (The second circle we bought less, but it was still too much.)
My recommendations for food that worked:
- Phyllo pastries (spinach & cheese)
- Vegetarian spring rolls
- Carrots and hummus
- M&M, Smarties or chocolate covered almonds
- Peanut butter chocolate cups
- One big bag of chips, pretzels or Cheezies
- A small amount of fruit (we had strawberries and apples)
- Crackers and cheese plate
On the day of the event, Natasha smudged the room with sage and she later diffused the room with Young Living Sacred Frankincense Therapeutic-Grade Essential Oil.
At the front door, we put out name tags and our business cards. We also had a sheet for people to sign in and add their email addresses, so that we could add them to our newsletter lists later.
We put a little bit of makeup on, made sure we looked presentable and we greeted our guests!
The event started upstairs with appetizers and mingling, then we went downstairs for the actual circle.
When the circle was done, we offered our guests to stay a bit longer and chat with each other.
Once everyone was gone, we cleaned up.
Was it a lot of work?
It sure was!
Was it worth it?
A million times YES!
Women circles take lots of preparation, but if you love doing something, you’ll put in the work.
Meeting women who I had never met before and re-connecting with friends I hadn’t seen in ages, are just some of the benefits of creating this type of sacred space.
If you’re someone who wants to empower other women and create an experience they’ll never forget, then I definitely recommend starting your own circle. It will grow you as a leader, speaker and agent of change.
Lots of love,
Meg
P.S. I created the website: Sacred Moon Women’s Circles for women who are interested in finding a women’s circle in their local area. The website is also for women who hold sacred circles, as there’s a place to post information about your circle. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to list your circle – It’s free!
