Connection With a Purpose: How a Marketing Project Shaped Our Summer

First Things First: We Needed a Plan

When my team and I sat down at the beginning of the year to map out our goals for 2025, we found ourselves a bit stuck.

Not because we lacked ideas, we had plenty of those, but because 2025 has turned into a strange (and still wildly privileged) time to be running a small business. 

Between the ever-shifting algorithms, economic uncertainties, and the general stress of just being human right now, we weren’t entirely sure where the pulse of our community was, or the best way to connect with it.

We’re only a three-person team and have to be smart with how to spend our time and resources wisely, so we decided: let’s just ask. 

40 Interviews in One Week

A couple months ago, I grabbed coffee with my friend and fellow small business owner Meredith Noble. Meredith is brilliant, and she’d recently done a round of interviews with folks in her community. The experience gave her team insight, direction, and a deeper sense of connection with the people they serve.

She generously shared her process, and just like that, the idea for our own community interview project was born.

Over the course of one week, Raine, Vanessa, and I hopped on about 40 Zoom calls, each about 15–20 minutes long. We asked everything from “How did you find us?” to “How do you like to recreate outside?” to “What’s something from Mind & Mountain that’s stuck with you over the years?”

And holy moly are we ever grateful for the insights we received.

What Did We Learn?

So. Much.

First – we were reminded that we have an amazing community. The team genuinely thought it was going to be tough to fill 40 interview spaces, but it was done relatively easily. Yes, we did bribe folks by buying them a coffee after ( many asked for that to go to Sistering Support instead), but still, we were shocked by how quickly we were able to fill the slots. 

Here’s just a small sampling of what came up from multiple folks in the actual calls:

• For a lot of folks, Mind & Mountain is the only training program they’ve ever stuck with. That’s huge.

• People are genuinely surprised by the benefits of integrating somatic nervous system work into their lives – they want more of it and a dedicated place to practice.
  
  
• Not everyone loves engaging in online communities, and many people were relieved that we offer a flexible, opt-in/opt-out structure.
  
  
• A significant number of people in our programs are navigating peri/menopause and are craving more support around that transition.
  
  
• We learned a lot about the language people use to describe Mind & Mountain to their friends. Maybe not juicy, but crucial for how we communicate and market our work.
  
  

And beyond the specific feedback, what stood out the most was this: connection matters. Being listened to matters. Running a business through a lens of care and liberation matters.

Between the questions, there was so much laughter on these calls – and a lot of gratitude. We got to connect face-to-face with long-time members of our community and with folks we’d only known through email.

It was one of the most valuable things we’ve done in a long time, and I’d wholeheartedly recommend it to any other small business out there.

If you’re reading this and were one of our interviewees, thank you so much ❤️