Community Events That Grow Your Business

In this solo episode of Better Your Business, Cher shares how small, intentional community events have played a significant role in growing her real estate business. She explains how these events are designed to be simple, affordable, and easy to execute, without the need for a large client base or extensive planning. Cher walks through real examples of events she has hosted, how they were structured, and why they work. 

In this episode you will hear: 

• [01:10] Cher introduces the concept of community events and common misconceptions from realtors
• [02:06] Cher shares how small community events contributed to millions in sales in less than three years
• [02:53] Overview of her first event: “speed dating for besties” and how it was structured
• [06:00] Cher introduces the “hot girl walk (but with charcuterie)” event and explains how it was set up and executed
• [07:31] “Book swap and shop” event and how it supports local businesses while building community
• [09:38] Organic partnerships forming through events, including collaborations with other local business owners
• [10:20] “Flow and glow” events combining yoga and educational talks, and how they can be repeated
• [12:09] “B Corp and Bliss” event featuring an author panel and collaboration with multiple businesses
• [17:13] Cher shares the “sip and shop (with tarot)” event idea and how it combined shopping, refreshments, and tarot card readings to create a shared experience
• [18:10] Cher shares the workout class event, including partnering with a gym, hosting a group class, and adding an educational talk on perimenopause and menopause
• [20:56] Shift into larger “Impact” events focused on women in business with panels and networking

If this episode resonated with you, consider where you already spend time locally, whether that’s shopping, dining, or grabbing coffee. Build a relationship with that business owner, and take the step to ask about hosting your next event there.

Connect with Cher:

Instagram: @chergoetz_

Join the Better Your Business Membership / Grab Resources Mentioned: 

https://betteryourbusiness.thinkific.com/collections

Cheryl Goetz has been a Realtor since 2016 and knows firsthand what it feels like to build a business filled with anxiety, confusion, and constant pressure. After raising two kids, navigating a transition from new construction to resale, and adapting through shifting markets, she transformed her career into one that now feels intentional, joyful, and ease-filled. Today, Cheryl helps women in real estate do the same — creating businesses that reflect their authentic selves, attract aligned clients, and grow sustainably. Her mission is simple: to help women drop the industry “shoulds” and build businesses that fuel their lives.

Instagram: @chergoetz_
Website: www.athomecompany.ca
Email Community: https://athomeco.myflodesk.com/bybpodcast
Contact: hello@athomecompany.ca

Thank you to our Sponsors:

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@saltboxmortgage_agent

Tuesday Mortgage Tidbits Sign Up for Realtors:  https://saltboxmortgage.myflodesk.com/iksoczdm1f

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Better Your Business Podcast, the show for realtors who want to build a business that fuels their life, not takes from it. I'm your host, Cheryl Getz, and around here we mix humor, honesty, and real world strategy to help you create systems, work with clients you love, and achieve your definition of success. Together we will chat with inspiring fellow realtors and industry experts, sharing stories, insights, strategies, and mindset shifts so you can grow with confidence, clarity, and ease. Let's dive in. Hello, hello. Welcome back to another solo episode of the Better Your Business podcast. Today I'm going to talk about one of my favorite things, which is community events. Usually, when you talk to realtors and you say, I built my business based off events, they immediately think, first of all, it's client events. And the pushback is I don't have enough clients to do an event for. And I say, That's not what this is. Then they say events are really expensive, and I say, That's not what this is. Then they say events take a lot of time and work and energy. That's not what this is. These are small, easy to replicate, easy to execute, very affordable, open to the community, but very intentional events made so that you get the most amount of exposure possible to your ideal client. You become a face of the community that your ideal client is in, and you get to know more people. And the more you know, the more your business will grow. So today I'm just gonna give you the events that I have done, the ideas, because sometimes that's all you need is the idea of what the event should be, especially if you are also someone who thinks that they have to be big, extravagant, and expensive. So I will start off with the one that kicked everything off for my business. And let me also preface this that these events, I I think it was April 2023 they started that I started doing regular small events. And I'm recording this, you know, we're almost at the three-year mark because April 2023, you know, it's March 2026. It is responsible, they are responsible for millions and millions and millions of sales in my business in less than three years. I'm talking like last time I looked, I think it was around seven. We're probably gonna get to over 10 pretty soon. And so um they work. If you work them, they work. So today let's just focus on the ideas, just in case that's what's stopping you. The first one that I did was called Speed Dating for Besties. So all of my events have a couple of components to it, and one of them requires like partnerships, right? So for Speed Dating for Besties, I co-hosted it with a business bestie of mine who's really passionate about like giving back to the community and stuff, like meeting like-minded women in the community. So we co-hosted it together. That's not necessary, but this one we just happened to, and then we hosted it at a local cafe, so that counts as a partner. And we invited people to it. I think tickets were maybe around like$20. It included coffee, tea, and some snacks that the cafe provided for us. This one, out of all of mine, was probably my most expensive because the room that we used in the cafe was private and we paid for it. And so um the expenses covered that, but we always made it known that proceeds of the event, the profits of the event, goes to charity. You know, it was never a thing where I'm doing this to make money. I think that's weird for a local realtor who, you know, makes like tens of thousands of dollars from the community to try to make money off of like a small community event. It's to better the community, it's to bring the community together, it's to showcase local businesses, things like that. So, anyways, um, the cafe is sharing it, the charity that we have chosen is sharing it. Um, me and my co-host are sharing it. We have it on Eventbrite, and people are signing up. They show up and uh they know they're gonna be doing speed dating uh to meet other friends, other local like-minded friends. And we took the approach of like, first and foremost, like we know it can be hard to meet new friends, you know, when you're in your 30s, when you're in your 40s, when you're in your 50s, for example. It's easier to make friends when you're in school and university, and then it just kind of gets harder. So we use that as messaging, plus we used it as messaging as like, this is an event that you absolutely can come alone to and not feel weird because the whole point is to come and meet new people, and everyone will be in the same boat. So just show up and don't stress out about that. And so they all sat down. Uh, we set a timer, you know, they spoke to the person across from them for a few minutes. We, you know, we said, okay, switch. And basically, like a lot of the people in the room all got to meet. It was an amazing way to start out my series of small community events because a lot of the people that came to that then kept, they they became friends, the a group was formed, and then they kept coming to the community event. So that was like a uh pleasant accident that happened. So the next one that I did um was probably the next most expensive, potentially. And when I'm talking expensive, I'm still talking like a hundred dollars max, okay? And it was called a hot girl walk but with charcuterie. And so at this time, like hot girl walk was kind of new, all right? Like it was it was like a new thing to say, it was trendy. So what I did is I picked a trail in my area where you park your car, you walk a loop, and you end up back at your parked car. And there also happened to be a picnic table with a park near our parked car. So definitely do some location scouting so that it makes the most sense because when you're done your loop and you get back to your car, you're gonna ask the girls to go to the picnic bench, picnic table. Well, I got a cooler out of the trunk of my car with a charcuterie board in it. I went to the grocery store before the walk, filled that cooler. So then I'm bringing it out, bringing it to the picnic table, and then I'm starting to set up the uh charcuterie board, and like they all start to help me because they're lovely people. And uh then we just like sat and yapped and ate delicious food and really got to know one another, and we laughed and like honestly, some of some of the things that we talked about at that picnic table still get brought up today, like you know, a couple years later. So that was an easy one. The next one is my least expensive one and my almost most repeated one. There's two that are tied where I've been doing the workshop for a long time where I share all of my event ideas. And so there are two that people have replicated the most. And the first one is called the book swap and shop. So your partner in that is going to be the location in which the book swap is happening. I did it at a local retail store that sold stationery, mugs, candles, things like that. And a lot of the people who have replicated the event has hosted it in cafes. So either way, you're supporting a local business that's going to get eyeballs on your business that is first on their business. So you are leveraging other people's audiences, but you are also bringing people into their store or cafe that wouldn't already be there. So it's a win-win. And uh it's sometimes fun for the person that's hosting to offer a discount for the attendee. So I think she gave maybe 10 or 15% off of everybody who shopped there, but that is definitely never pressured on from like the host, should never be, because these are small businesses with like hard margins to begin with that are competing with Amazon. You never want to pressure that, but you could always just float the idea of like, if you'd like to do a discount, let me know so I can add it to the promotions. But if you don't, like, no pressure. So, anyways, people show up at the store, they bring books that they're done with and they leave them all on a table. They can put a post-it note on each book that they bring with their name, and then they can put their name on a name tag on their shirt. And then when it is time to grab books, you can then always find that person and ask them about the book, and you're just cultivating community even more. And in between that, before and after, people are obviously like looking around the store, buying things. Um, you know, I sort of the only money I spent there was, I believe I brought some refreshments, you know, like maybe bubbly, maybe some granola bars. Uh, my girlfriend owned a tea company, and so the store had a kettle, so I brought tea and some like paper cups I bought. And then funny enough, like, and it's so funny because as you do events, people start to know that you do events and they're like, hey, like if you do another one, I'd love to be a part of it. So that kind of happened here, where um my friend who owns Beck's broth, which is a hot chocolate bone broth company, she came and she gave everybody samples of her bone broth hot chocolate that was at the event. And uh that then, you know, got her sales as well. So it can be way simpler than what happened there. That just kind of all rolled out, you know, serendipitously. But if you just want to host it at a cafe and you cover everybody's coffee, you could do that. And then people are just swapping books, chatting with each other. It's great. So the next one that's the most repeatable, I called flow and glow. And I've done this twice, and a lot of other people have done it, but instead of at yoga, they've done like a bar class, for example, or a Pilates class. So my Flow and Glow class was I saw a new yoga studio open up. I reached out, I said, Hey, you're new, I do these small community events. All I would need from you is someone to teach us a yoga class and I'll take care of the rest. And they were so game for it. And so um, the expenses for that was just granola bars and some kombucha that I brought so that people would come, they would go do their yoga class, and then they would grab a little thing of kombucha or juice, a granola bar, they would go back to their mat. And then I had a local naturopath come in and talk about uh women's health. And then I repeated that exact same event a few months later, but the naturopath then talked about immunity. So if you want to make something so easy, you can just replicate that over and over and over again, but maybe change the topic. Or maybe it's a naturopath and then it's a chiropractor, and then it's a physio, and then it's a Reiki. Like you can make this so easy on yourself. And every single time, all you're doing is spending maybe 50 bucks on groceries for, you know, the juice and the snack in between. So people don't do like a yoga class and then faint during the talk, for example. Book swap a shop, same thing, it can be repeated, and you're really just like growing a fan base then. I just like variety, so I was always switching it up until recently, actually. So, and I'll get to that in a minute. The next event that I did was called B Corp and Bliss. And the name doesn't really matter, but I'll explain the name.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Just a quick break to thank the sponsors that make this podcast possible.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Hey Realtors, I want to quickly chat about my experience with Thrive Accounting, who is a proud sponsor of this podcast and a supporter of honestly everything I have done to help realtors better their business. First thing I notice is how Stacy and her team are so patient and so generous with their time. They never make you feel bad about asking questions or when I needed a quick call. Second, I feel like I'm always ahead. I'm not surprised by a big tax bill because they have more than just one meeting a year kind of process. Lastly, and honestly the biggest reason that sets them apart, they feel like a true partner. Almost like having a CFO I can chat out goals and projections with and get guidance on without any confusing jargon. Thrive is more than accounting and bookkeeping. They're a partner in your corner all year round. Make sure you check out the show notes to learn more. I want to take a moment to share about EFV Legal, another incredible sponsor of the podcast. What I love about EFV Legal is how their approach to legal services is strategic to real estate industry professionals and yet feels so grounded. They help you figure out if incorporating actually makes sense for your business, not just because everyone else is talking about precs like they are some trendy buzzword, but they work with you to make sure a PREC actually aligns with your goals. And just as importantly, they make sure you're staying on top of the annual legal duties required to keep your PREC in good standing with a concierge legal experience. Yes, there are annual legal duties on top of just paying taxes. EFB is a virtual boutique female-founded firm with a modern approach that supports growth on your terms. Clear, supportive, and empowering. So if that feels like something you need and you're ready to stop stumbling through the legal, check out the links in the show notes to learn more. Realtors meet Amanda Walchuk, also known as Saltbox Mortgage Agent with DLC National Limited FISRA 12360. Amanda isn't just a mortgage agent, she's a partner who actually makes your job easier. From first-time buyers to tricky financing situations, she helps clients and realtors navigate challenges, save money, and stay sane. Calm, confident, solution focused, Amanda shows up so you don't have to worry about the mortgage side of things. If you want a mortgage expert who adds real value, check out Saltbox Mortgages. Seriously, she's the partner every realtor wishes they had. Because I'm doing these events, every event supports a charity. All of a sudden, someone from the event says, Hey, have you heard of this store in this city where every, I think it was every quarter or every month, they choose a charity and 10% of their earnings go to that charity. You should nominate the charity that you always support in your events. And I said, That's amazing. I meet with the owner, I said, Hey, I support MerriLak Place in all my community events. I would love for you to choose MerriLac Place as one of your um, one of your, you know, monthly or quarterly charities. And they said, That's great. Tell me more about these events. I told them and they were like, see this section over here of the store. We can clear this whole section and make a stage out of it. We can line this area then up with chairs. Do you think that that would fit one of your events? And I said, leave it with me. I will make this happen. And it took me a minute. I was like, should I do a live podcast on this stage? Like, what should I do on this stage? And then my girlfriend, she uh co-authors, she does co-author projects. And so I was like, oh, what if and her Instagram tag is Balance and Bliss. I know it doesn't really matter, but that's why it's called B Corp and Bliss, is because the store only sold B Corp stuff. And then it was a author panel led by my friend who is Balance and Bliss. So, anyways, um, I said, Hey, what do you think about doing like an author panel? So she gets to show off all her books. All the authors get to show off the books that they co-authored. They all wrote a chapter and a book together, and she loved it. And it's so perfect for my ideal audience because the books at the time was all about like self-love and um, you know, accepting your body and everything like that. So that is so in line with who I'm targeting, right? Like the 30 to 50 year old women in my community definitely resonate with that. And I'm introducing them to a new store. So there was no expenses with that, other than the food. I did get it catered by a restaurant that was right across the street from the store, just to again like build community even more uh and leverage another partnership. So that was a great, great night. Uh, then I did uh sip and shop but with tarot, uh, meaning tarot card readings, a local um retail store that focuses on selling home and beauty items that are all natural, eco-friendly, um, really clean ingredients. I asked them, hey, do you want to have like a sip and shop at your store? And so we got some like Bevies together, um, little like appies. People came, people shopped, they got a discount. And one at a time, we went back and we got our tarot cards read. And that was so much fun because then every time someone came out, like we wanted to know what they said. So it's a really great bonding experience for sure. Really easy to do. And again, like this is all you know hundred dollars or less. So the next one was um a workout class. One of the girls who was on the panel for the balance and bliss uh book event, she owns a gym. And so this is the first time that I have met her. So at the book event, the B Corp and Bliss event, I met her, obviously. And she goes, Oh, I own a gym. And I said, Oh, do you want to do like one of these events at your gyms? And she said, Absolutely. Like, let's let's teach everybody, like, you know, let's just do a class. And I said, That's amazing. I love it. It was like a strength training class that was like a hit workout. And then I said, Is there something like, is there a speaker or something like that we can do after the class? Like they really like that. So it's not just a class, and then you're standing around being like, when do I leave? kind of thing. And one of her trainers was also a nurse and also a specialist in perimenopause and menopause. So we did a workout. Again, we had a a drink, like a bubbly and a granola bar, and then we sat down and she did a talk about that, and we could all ask questions. It was great. So I did a ton of all these different events. And like I said, once you get on a roll with events and you're sharing them on Instagram and you're inviting people, like word gets out, and then these opportunities just kind of like fall on your lap. And that's where, first of all, it's not a lot of work to begin with. And then when you start, it becomes even less work because you get in a rhythm, because the community sees you doing these, you get a good name for yourself, and you've said, like, hey, I've done these three events at these places, I'm looking for my next location. Like, would you be interested? It gets easier and easier, they're not expensive. And one of the questions I always get is how many people? I think I've always maxed at like, including these next events that I'm doing, it's always been under 40. The events I just spoke about has probably always maxed out at 20, but I have done them like for nine as well. I think my workout class was maybe nine, and then the the book one was maybe 20. The yoga one has maybe been like 12 or 15. Like it is, they're not big, but there's also that's the magic in it, is you get to meet everybody, everybody gets really close. So for 2025, those events spanned from April 2023 until the end of 2024. Did one every couple of months. Then in 2025, I wanted to hone in on women in business in my area. And so me and a girlfriend of mine wanted to co-host these events for that purpose. We called them impact. And the whole idea was like this is going to positively impact your business and positively impact your community because you're going to come to these events. There's going to be three panelists that me and the co-host ask questions of. You're going to learn from them. And then it's going to be speed networking. So we're taking it back full circle, where you know, speed net speed dating for besties is now kind of implemented this, but for women in business. And so we wanted to rinse and repeat all year, make it really easy on ourselves. We did one a quarter, and we just did different themes. So it was mindset, money, marketing, and mastery. And so we had three panelists for each. We did the same food for every single one. That one is definitely the most expensive because we had to actually pay for like the rental of the venue. And it was a very elevated venue. But at the end, we were still able to give um each charity that was, you know, benefiting from these events$500 cash. And then every single event, we asked people, like, hey, on your way to the event, like, could you grab wipes? Could you grab diapers? Could you grab formula? Could you grab clothes? And like people delivered. So they've our charities got a ton of um of donations. And people met a ton of fellow local business owners, and they also heard amazing people speak. And that was just a rinse and repeat for the whole year of 2025. Now for 2026, I have some new ideas in mind. I might continue the impact events, but I also have another idea percolating that I'm gonna maybe try out this spring and just see how the chips fall in terms of logistics and costs and everything like that. But those are some really simple ideas that you can take away. Now, when you're looking at a place to host one of these events, I'm assuming you listen to that and you're like, the walk is really resonating, or the book is really resonating, or the yoga class is really resonating. I'm assuming something is resonating with you. Ask yourself where you can host it. Well, do you shop locally right now? Do you eat locally? Do you have coffee locally? Build a relationship with one of those owners and then just do the ask. Everybody is scared to make the ask when really it's the easiest part. It's a simple like ask in person while you're there or send a DM. Hey, I really want to do a small community event. I think your store is perfect for it. I kind of picture like a sip and shop. And to make it more interesting, what if we bring in like a tarot card reader? What if we bring in a medium where you know people are sip, sip and shop and everything? And then at one point everybody sits down and a medium does like a group reading. I've done that before. And so it's really just the ask. And they I've never heard someone say no, to be honest. And I've done this presentation for a lot of people, my whole like events presentation where I talk about like how to budget and I talk about how to make it count, I talk about the follow-up, everything that I've done to make my events successful in terms of return on investment. And I've never, when people then follow up with me and say, hey, I made the ask, I did it, I've never had someone tell me that there was a no. If anything, they were all shocked with the excitement of the person on the other side of the message because small business owners have so much on their plate with bookkeeping, with staffing, with inventory. It's they probably would love to do something like this, but it's on that like that list of to-dos. If someone comes in and they're like, hey, I want to do this, it's gonna bring people into your store. You know, it's gonna, we're gonna cross-promote it. It's gonna be great. They're like, oh my gosh, I love this because I want to be part of the community, but I don't have time or capacity to be part of the community. This is fantastic. And then my biggest piece of advice during the reach out is be as considerate as possible of this person's time and schedule and investment because you're asking them to potentially like staff the place, right? So if it's in the off hours now, yes, you're bringing someone to people to the store, but they're taking a gamble on you because they are now potentially putting a staff member in there, paying them an hourly wage, hoping that that pays off in terms of their investment. And so you always have to be cognizant of like, yes, this is gonna benefit them, but you can't come from a place of only this is gonna benefit you. So you should just like do however I want to do it. And so it's easiest and best for me. You need to show them that you have taken them into consideration. So when they say, when are you thinking? I want you to say, I look at it two ways. You know, if we do, if we do it while you're open, anyways, like, you know, you're you've already got staffed, that's already a plan, so on and so forth, but it might not like be private. I don't know if people will walk into your store and be turned off that an event will be happening, and I don't want that for you. Or I look at it as like we can make it private, we can make it after hours, but I do understand that that might take some extra logistics and staffing. So please tell me what works best for you. Um, my initial thoughts were like a Thursday evening or a Saturday morning. So just always come across like you're caring, like, and actually care, obviously. Like be genuine about it. But I think that sometimes that mix misses the mark when people do the ask, you know, like they just they just say, like, hey, can I use your cafe for this? And the small business owner's like, first of all, who the hell are you? And second of all, like they're now spiraling, thinking of all the logistics where they would really appreciate if someone thought of the logistics and and showed that they cared and showed that they really want this to be mutually beneficial for for everybody, for the community, for for you know, you and then for for them. So I will wrap that up as it is. And if you have more questions about exactly how this plays out, because you're like, Cher, I really liked the you know, the sip and shop idea with tarot. What do you think if I did it like this instead? Or, you know, okay, I have the place like now, what do I do? Reach out. You know I love trying these things out, and uh I'm excited to hear about what events you do next and how it goes. Until next time. That's a wrap on today's episode of the Better Your Business Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you haven't subscribed to the email list, make sure you do that right now. No spammy messages, just easy to implement goodies sent your way, along with new episode alerts. If you'd like today's episode, hit follow, leave a quick review, share it on social media, or just send it to a fellow realtor so we can continue to grow this amazing community. Until next time, keep working towards building that dream life. I know you can do it.