Rachael Jackson is all about building relationships. She is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, a former Army Captain and Apache helicopter pilot. Rachael holds a degree in Engineering Physics with a minor in Nuclear Engineering, but found her passion in entrepreneurship and helping connect people to a more meaningful life. Rachael is the founder of the Tribal app, launching May 2020. She raised 2 million dollars for the Tribal project and validated it with 2,500 users with a 95% retention rate.

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Contact Info

• Company: Tribal App
• Website: TribalApp.com
• LinkedIn: racheljackson03

Most Influential Person

• Dr. Janell MacAulay, Retired Airforce Pilot

Effect on Emotions

• “Mindfulness has helped me regulate my emotions and not be ruled by it.”

Thoughts on Breathing

• “Breathing and walking kind of helps me clear my mind.”
• “It helped me with the initial stress with the training we go through.”

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Bible
• App: Tribal App

Bullying Story

• “I can say without a doubt that I have been bullied and I have been the bully at times.”
• “With mindfulness, I've grown and learned over time is just how unhappy I was with myself and trying to have compassion for others and how unhappy they might be.”

Related Episodes

• 487 Build Better Relationships With Bryan Falchuk
• Relationship Health During The Pandemic; Roman Mironov
• 324 Finding Peace From Your Hijackal Relationships; Dr. Rhoberta Shaler

Free Gift

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Bruce Langford:

Would you explain to us how the Tribal app is different from other platforms that are out there intended to connect people?

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

Sure. So we call Tribal the meaning network, meaning it's hard to say that and make sure people understand that, but the meaning network. So as opposed to social networks where typically people go to kind of check out or be entertained you know, the kind of the more is more mentality, follow more, have more followers, more content you kind of scroll forever and ever that kind of mentality. We wanted Tribal to be focused more on a meaningful experience, great content really less is more kind of mentality, quality over quantity fewer friends that you can actually connect with in person and meet in person. And so really the difference is that we're very group forward and we're leader led. And then the content is, is curated and intended to be inspiring and meaningful and helpful and, and meet people where they are and their stories.

Bruce Langford:

Okay. So does this app work anywhere in the world? You can connect with people wherever you are.

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

You cannot download Tribal or you can't be a part of a tribe yet, unless you are a leader who's starting to tried and wants to invite people to join your tribe. We do have plans to have an individual experience down the road, but this is our initial product, is that we want to work with leaders who want to move people to meaningful action leaders who want to create impact in the world for a greater purpose for connecting people to hope, health and purpose. You know, so we believe very much in leader led because you know, leaders are required to, to help facilitate great conversation and to make sure that we're moving forward in purpose. And so if, if there's a tribe leader or a leader who wants to create a tribe, all they have to do is sign up to start one, and then they can invite anybody who they want, but it's a secure private network for them.

Bruce Langford:

Okay. So what's involved for that leader. What else do they have to do?

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

Well, typically, a leader who wants to do a tribe has some kind of purpose that they want to achieve in their life like you if you want to connect people to more mindfulness. One of the things that I've found is that in social networks they use algorithms and kind of human nature to determine what rises to the top or what gets seen. And so if you look at there's a book called contagious and it talks about the stuff that goes viral and gets noticed on social networks, and it really is anything at the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. So anything that's incredibly angering or bittering goes viral and divisive, and anything that is incredibly funny or inspiring can go viral as well. But the stuff that's in the middle, the stuff that connects you to hope health and purpose, or to some kind of a meaningful action and relationships that stuff doesn't get noticed.

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

And so meanwhile, there's an incredible need for cheerleaders leaders like, like you with your mindfulness tribe to be able to connect with and, and break through that noise, the noise of social networks and the noise of life in general, to actually connect with your tribe. And so what we want to do is partner with people who have a purpose and a mission who want to create some content and create community and have discussions and provide, you know, thought-provoking content or, or even meet up with people for coffee or counsel, or, you know, I mean, it can be a tribe of five or less, you know, it doesn't need to be intense. One of the things we realized with tribe leaders is that a lot of times they're not prepared with the amount of content, the type of content or the variety of content needed to help keep people engaged and keep people wanting to come back and to help people find relevance for their stories. And so we actually kind of help the tribe leaders by augmenting their tribe with premium content. So we, we actually produce stories and content for all your people to consume. Should they want to,

Bruce Langford:

So is there a charge if someone wants to be a leader

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

For up to 10 users, there's no charge for 10 to 50. Yeah. It's like $49 a month. But it's no ads, private, secure branded your network. When they get into the tribe, it would be your logo in the tribe that they see your messaging. It's, it's, it's a tool for leaders.

Bruce Langford:

So then it's $49 a month for the tribe leader, but not for the followers or is it for the following? Correct?

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

No, if you're one of their, if you're one of their tri members and the tri members don't need to pay,

Bruce Langford:

And you said you could have up to 50, 50 followers, right.

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

In, in the first level of tribe, we have higher level tribe pricing. You know, we, we sell, we started selling Tribal to corporations to businesses. That's where we did our beta testing and that's where we've started kind of growing Tribal. And so for business leaders or leaders who want to really connect with, grow, and inspire their employees, it's an incredibly valuable tool. But we also realize that there's a huge market for it and a huge need for it, especially now they're in quarantine to, you know help leaders move their people from surviving to thriving and in meaningful ways.

Bruce Langford:

Right. What has been your biggest challenge in making this a reality?

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

Well, I'm not a developer, so there's a, there's that you know, we've, we've found some great developers to join our team. I think the biggest challenge for me was, was getting the point where we could raise money and be able to develop this. And so I'm really, really thankful for that. And every day brings new challenges. But I thrive on challenges, you know and if you just take each day, one step at a time and kind of adapt the mindset of build, measure, learn, you know, when things feel overwhelming or we want it to be perfect, but it's not, we just kind of say, you know, Hey, we're in the process of build, measure, learn, you know, like we'll just keep getting better.

Bruce Langford:

How did you raise $2 million for this?

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

Believe it or not. We connected with a bunch of super angels, basically in our city who are amazing. They're an amazing group of people who really believe in what we're doing and have really put a lot of money behind helping us make it a reality. And so, I mean, we have no venture capital at all in Tribal, it's all been our super angels. Who've taken care of care of it.

Bruce Langford:

Wow. So a 95% retention rate. So you're talking about people who have signed up for the app they're at 95% of them are still using it. Is that what you mean?

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

Yes. And then within their tribes, we're seeing about an 80% retention rate from week to week. So for company and this isn't companies so in companies there's something called like an employee assistance program where, you know, they want to connect people to resources. And that seems like a less than 3.5% adoption or usage rate. And so we feel really good about our 80% adoption rate and retention rate, the other things, you know, when we get into the other instances of Tribal, whether that be kind of our impact tribe leaders, people like you, or you know, there's a lot of apps out there that want to kind of be in this health and wellness space or mental, emotional mindfulness, you know, kind of health and wellness space. And that, I think on average, you see about a 3.5 less than 4% retention rate w with a lot of those apps and great missions, you know great tools but if we can find a way like, as Tribal to capture and keep people's attention and keep them wanting to come back, you know, we can find a way to point people to the resources, to the partners, to the apps, to the tools that are out there, you know, kind of keep it top of mind, front and center.

Rachael Jackson, Building Relationships with Tribal App:

Cause there's, there's so many people, so many leaders all over the country, all over the world who are doing really great things and want to connect people to, to, to resources, for help and to resources for community involvement, you know, nonprofits all kinds of small businesses, all kinds of counselors and coaches, mentors, and tools are out there. And we want to make those, we want to help make those successful. You know, Tribal's not the expert. We want to be the ones to connect the experts with the people who need them and keep it keep it front and center. If that makes any sense.