Five-Mile Famous: Why Community Beats Chasing Followers | Ann Chisholm

There is a version of entrepreneurship that tells you the goal is always bigger.

More followers. More reach. More impressions. More people knowing your name.

Ann Chisholm offers a useful counterpoint.

She’d rather be five-mile famous.

Ann runs Fettle + Food and co-owns Tropos Fitness Club in Victoria, British Columbia. More than anything, though, she’s a community builder.

Her businesses have grown largely through the people directly around her — clients, coaches, local businesses, running communities, friends, collaborators and the people willing to show up for one another.

That’s what interested me about having her on Chasing Common Ground.

We talked about practicing rejection and becoming comfortable asking for opportunities.

We talked about hiring people based not only on credentials, but on how they behave when nobody is telling them what to do.

We talked about the uncomfortable transition from doing everything yourself to realizing that holding onto every task is eventually the thing preventing your business from growing.

We talked about failure.

Ann shared the story of a protein-ball company that eventually had her spending Sundays producing hundreds of products and driving around Victoria delivering them while already working every other day of the week.