When we first endeavored to create a Facebook group for the GoWP community, it was because we wanted a space for our valued customers, friends, and partners to come together. The GoWP community existed before the Facebook group. We would see our friends and customers (let’s be honest, they’re one and the same) at WordPress meetups, look forward to seeing each other at WordCamps, and the back-and-forth emails behind the scenes were constant. We wanted a space to galvanize these relationships and empower even more connections between people going through the same challenges and struggles that come with running a digital agency. We wanted a space where all these amazing, smart, insightful, and unique people could get together and help each other grow! That’s why we created the GoWP Facebook Group.

Renaming the GoWP Digital Agency Owners Community

Since its creation in August 2019, the GoWP Facebook group was named the Niche Agency Owners Community. We chose this name for a few reasons:

• Many of our agency partners manage niched agencies
• Niching can be one of the most impactful decisions an agency makes
• Small focus group agreed it was the preferred name

As the community grew, we started meeting more and more agency owners and learning more about them. When a new member joins, I email them to join me and record a member interview. In these interviews, we go over a series of questions to learn more about them and create a sense of community in the group. As I interviewed more and more agency owners, I soon learned not everyone found their riches in the niches.

In fact, I learned some of our community members were apprehensive of joining the group at all because they did not identify as a niche agency. In more than a few cases, people have felt the need to plead their case that while their agency is not niched, they still think the group could be valuable for them. This isn’t the message we want to send! We want all agency owners to feel welcomed into the group, not like an outsider trying to fit in! So we decided to change the name of the community to be more inclusive: Digital Agency Owners Community.

There’s real value in this community of agency owners

During the pandemic, the value of the online community we created was even more apparent. Pre-pandemic, and in the beginning stages of our Facebook community, we enjoyed hosting in-person Happiness Hours. These were held at WordCamp events where we would invite our customers and friends to join us at a local restaurant for food, drinks, and fun — and they were a lot of fun! Working on a remote team, seeing people’s faces does wonders for your mood and motivation and it helps to forge real, meaningful relationships with people. We knew there was potential to do more of that within the community we had created on Facebook and pandemic lock-down was a catalyst to do more.

We saw the value the in-person WordCamp Happiness Hours provided and when the pandemic hit, we knew we needed to recreate that vibe in a virtual space. We knew our Facebook group for digital agency owners was the perfect place to double down on our efforts to create a greater sense of community.

That’s why we host a weekly virtual Happiness Hour call for the community. We get together to discuss growth strategies and the many challenges that are inherent with running an agency, and we laugh – a lot. We want these calls and the group to be a welcoming and safe space for all agency owners to benefit from. And that’s what we continue to work toward every day in that space.

What the new name means for community members

Changing the name of our community won’t have a great impact on its members. The community and its foundation remain the same — a place for agency owners and web professionals to come together with a common goal: growth! We will continue to hold our Friday Happiness Hour calls, live stream webinars to help you increase profitability and scale your growth, and facilitate conversations that help you overcome your challenges and achieve your goals.

Our team could not be more grateful for the Digital Agency Owners community and the incredible value it provides. It puts a face to our mission of creating happiness for agency owners. Actually, it puts around 2,000 faces to our mission! To everyone who is already a member, thank you! And if you’re an agency owner or aspiring agency owner, what are you waiting for? Come join us in the GoWP Digital Agency Owners group!

You can learn more about the origins of our Facebook community and its members in this post where we discuss the value of the group.