Angela Rozmyn and Regina Moore – Monetizing a Mission-Driven Financial Brand

Welcome to another episode of the Plutus Awards Podcast. Our community is filled with hundreds of stories from creators and entrepreneurs just like you. And through this show we share these stories of challenges and successes from bloggers to podcasters from writers, speakers and more. I’m your host, Michelle Jackson.

Today’s guests are Angela Rozmyn and Regina Moore, co-founders of Women’s Personal Finance, a massive community that is a safe space for women to talk about all aspects of how money shows up in women’s lives. We talk about monetizing a community like this one, the purpose it serves and being able to lean deeper into the brand mission through intentional monetization.

Monetizing a Mission-Driven Financial Brand

Notes and summary from this episode

• Angela Tread Lightly
• Regina-That Frugal Pharmacist
• Regina is a pharmacist by background, Coast FI and is not really working as a pharmacist anymore. They both shifted Women’s Personal Finance into becoming a business entity about 13 months ago.
• The ladies have been friends for quite a few years.
• Regina shares how she got into the personal finance space via Twitter. She wasn’t blogging but wanted spaces that gave her the opportunity to talk about money.
• She purchased a property in her 20’s and her financial trajectory was unique and she wanted to connect with other people that had a similar experience.
• She wanted to create a place where she could share more content (rants)
• 2017 Angela remembers the details.
• Regina kept her blog anonymous which would allow her to speak freely about her interests and connected with Angela when she reached out to write a post on “Prepper FI” on Angela’s website.
• Angela was a lurker in the personal finance community for YEARS. Was a completely passive consumer of that content.
• She decided to start blogging after joining Twitter.
• Meet the Women of the Personal Finance Community Post that went viral. Decided that Women’s Personal Finance be an inclusive space and not niche down to only being a FIRE group.
• I ask why Angela and Regina were the ones to create this community?
  • They didn’t need a list but an actual community
• What surprised them about creating an online community (I disclose that I’m a member of the community)
  • No longer letting things “happen” in the group and have become protective of the group.
  • Surprising realization that the group isn’t for everyone.
  • Initially it was uncomfortable to do but now it’s clear that it’s a part of how they protect women in their space.
• Could you talk about the tensions that have arisen as you’ve monetized this project?
• Regina talked Angela into monetizing the project
• Why was Angela reticent about monetizing the community?
• There were things not showing up in the Facebook feed and Angela was sent to Facebook jail because of saying “Smelly potato” and they can’t rely on Facebook
• They decided to add a premium community and this leaned into their community building and advocacy work offline. They wanted to really make a community that wasn’t ABOUT them vs. the community
• Neither Regina or Angela have added content onto their website and focus on elevating other people with their platform.
• I note that Women’s Personal Finance, Elevate Community and Plutus Foundation
• When you began selling products what was the response like? They definitely got pushback about the products.
• The first thing they monetized was paying the moderator using Ko-Fi and realized that there was something “here” with the community though Angela has had to work through the tension of getting paid for a passion project.
• I share why I rebranded my project to “Michelle is Money Hungry” and how someone was offended by the name and I wanted to have a conversation about money
• There is a lot of work that goes into content creation. If we’re not getting paid what are we modeling to our communities and the people that we serve?
• They found that higher earners who don’t want people to earn money and are unlikely to pay for what they’re producing.
• 52,000 members in the group and a ton of moderation work, ego and emotion
• Paying writers and speakers-a focus on compensating people for their work as soon as money is available “Paying Women for their Work”
• The first year they made $50,000
• I ask about grants, they do have a Plutus Grant
• What have been the most impactful conversations that they’ve seen in the group
• Angela makes the point of how Facebook makes money off of the groups that are hosted on the platform.
• I ask about the initiatives that they’ve undertaken in the group
  • A focus on women’s reproductive health-The ladies set up a reproductive health fund
  • Gifting memberships-Annual members vs. a free month
• The conversations in the Women’s Personal Finance group move me on an emotional level. I love seeing the uniquely specific financial conversations about women’s money.
• What does the future look like?
• Where is the premium community currently hosted? Discord
• I circle back and ask about why Twitter worked so well for them? They share how.
• I talk about who I follow on Twitter
• Content creator connections happened via Twitter

Resources Mentioned

• Angela-Tread Lightly
• Regina That Frugal Pharmacist
• hello@womenspersonalfinance.org
• ko-fi.com/womenspersonalfinance