For community organizations Hands-On Small Business Workshops for the Owners You Serve
Small business workshops from Another Monday are hands-on marketing mornings for the small businesses your organization serves, and each owner walks out with marketing they built in the room.
Your owners already use AI. Their customers can tell.
If you run a Main Street program, a chamber of commerce, a small business development center or a community development group, you've probably heard it from the owners themselves. They're on ChatGPT already, writing social media captions and promos at the end of a long day, and what comes back sounds like every other business on the feed. People scroll past anything that reads machine made, so the post that took twenty minutes does nothing for the shop.
The other things owners tell me sound a lot alike. There's no time to post every day, the promo is the same one as last week, half the neighborhood doesn't know the business exists, and there's no plan holding any of it together.
The fix is better input, not a better tool.
An AI tool only knows what it's told. Told almost nothing, it writes the average of the internet. Once it knows the business, its customers and the way the owner actually talks, it starts writing like that business, and teaching owners to give it that is most of the morning.
I run small business workshops alongside nonprofits, Main Street programs and community organizations, because you already have the trust of the small business owners in your area and a room they're comfortable walking into. I bring the session, the materials and the part where everybody gets their hands on their own marketing.
What an AI marketing workshop teaches.
One morning in three parts, built so every owner is working on their own business by the end. It runs on a phone and on the free plans of the AI tools most owners already have.
Good AI marketing, and the other kind
We start by sorting examples into what works and what reads like a robot wrote it. The examples come from made-up businesses, so nobody in the room gets put on the spot.
A Business Voice Kit for every owner
Each owner fills in a short profile of their business, their customers and the way they talk, pre-filled from the intake survey wherever we have answers. Then they load it into their own AI tool so it writes like their business from then on.
Making one real piece
Owners put the AI they just set up to work on a real promo built from their own photos, with words that sound like them, and Amy walks them through writing and filming a short video hook on their phone.
Topics we can build a morning around
Most digital marketing workshops cover a little of everything. This one goes deep on the few things an owner can keep doing alone, picked from what your owners say they need.
The take-home sheet carries bonus prompts for asking customers for reviews, and owners who want to keep going after the morning can pick up from my guides on how to get more Google reviews and Google Business Profile optimization.
What every owner walks out with.
Every business leaves with something made in the room, because most of the morning is owners working on their own marketing while we walk the tables.
- An AI project set up with their Business Voice Kit, so the tool remembers who they are the next time they open it.
- A promo made from their own photos for social media, with a caption that sounds like them.
- A short video script and hook, filmed on their own phone during the session.
- A take-home sheet with the setup steps, the prompts we used, a seven day posting checklist, and bonus prompts for asking for reviews and turning one post into five.
- Prompts that keep improving the same project at home, so it gets better the more they use it.
Everything made in the room belongs to the business that made it. The whole point is that owners can keep doing this on their own after the morning, with tools they already have.
How hosting a workshop works.
Your team handles the room and the invitations, and I handle the rest, from the survey to the recap.
A listening call
We start with four questions: where your owners are now, where you want them in a year, what you've tried, and what could get in the way. The format comes after I understand your group.
A short intake survey
I write it and your team sends it. One question asks whether they'd come, which turns the survey into a sign-up list, and your organization can add its own reporting questions.
A session built from the answers
Every kit is pre-filled from what each owner told us, and anyone who skipped the survey fills in a blank one on the day. The session is planned around the languages in the room.
The morning, then a recap
About three hours, and a smartphone is enough to take part. Afterward your organization gets a short recap you can share with funders and partners.
| When | Your organization | Another Monday |
|---|---|---|
| Before the morning | Answer four questions on a listening call, send the intake survey, sign owners up | Write the survey, plan the session around the answers and the languages in the room, pre-fill a kit for every business |
| On the day | The room, Wi-Fi, a couple of staff to help at the tables with logins, lunch if you like | Lead the session, walk the tables while owners build their own marketing, and hand a blank kit to anyone who skipped the survey |
| After | Share the recap with your funders and partners | Send a short recap; owners keep everything they made |
Two people from the same business are welcome, and it goes best when one of them is the person who makes the marketing decisions.
The most recent one started when a Main Street program in Montgomery County, Maryland, put out a request for a workshop on using AI for marketing, together with two neighborhood partners. Their owners ran restaurants, bakeries, a florist, fashion and fabric shops, a jewelry store and a legal services office, and most were already using AI with mixed results. We wrote the intake survey and the partners sent it, so the kits were built from what owners told us, and the morning ran in the program's own office.
The half-day morning is the format I lead with. If your group needs something different, we can shape a shorter session or a series around it.
Who's in the room with your owners.
Willis Aybar, founder of Another Monday and workshop facilitator
I'm Willis Aybar, and I run Another Monday, a marketing agency for local businesses across the DMV. I'm self-taught across SEO, web design, Google and Meta ads and AI, and I learned it on my own businesses with my own money before I ever charged anyone. The event venue I built, Studio 87, grew to 380+ bookings in about three and a half years and 250+ five-star reviews across platforms, driven by SEO.
I also facilitate workshops, because a lot of what I set up for clients is something an owner can learn to run on their own once somebody shows them how. That's the whole idea in the room: teach owners enough about AI and the systems behind their marketing that the day to day of running the business gets lighter.
Outside the workshops, I'm one of the co-founders of Colado Latino Network, a Baltimore community for Latino entrepreneurs. Doing my own marketing while running a business is why the workshop is built around the time an owner actually has. There's more of that story on my about page.
Amy Maya, Create With Amy
Amy Maya runs Create With Amy, a woman-owned photography and creative direction business in Bel Air, Maryland. She's been shooting professionally since 2018, starting in New York with family and maternity work, and today she photographs small businesses and their owners, with the strategy worked out before the camera comes out. She's also one of the co-founders of Colado Latino Network.
In the workshop she takes the photo and video side: what to film, how often to post it, and how to get more out of the photos an owner already has.
"AI creates the system and foundation, real human creates the connection and conversion."
Amy Maya, Create With Amy
See her work at createwithamy.co, or read more about her on our partners page.
Tell me about the businesses you serve
A few lines on your organization, the owners you work with and the timing you have in mind is plenty to start the listening call. I reply usually within one business day.
Questions host organizations ask first.
Do business owners need a laptop for the workshop?
Business owners don't need a laptop for an Another Monday workshop, because a smartphone is the only must. A laptop or tablet helps if they have one. Ask them to bring their email login, a few photos of their business and a promotion they have coming up.
Can the workshop run in Spanish or other languages?
An Another Monday workshop can be planned around the languages your owners speak. Tell me who's coming on the listening call and we'll plan the materials and the tables around it. Interpreters from your organization are always welcome at a table.
Can two people from the same business attend?
Two people from the same business can attend, and it often works best that way: one person holds the plan and the other does the posting.
Do owners need paid AI accounts?
Owners don't need paid AI accounts, since the free plans of the common AI tools handle everything we build in the workshop. Free plans do limit how many images you can make in a day, which is worth knowing before a busy week.
Who owns what gets made in the workshop?
The business owns everything it makes in the workshop: the voice kit, the flyer, the video and the AI project. Owners take all of it home and keep using it.
How do you get business owners to actually show up?
Business owners show up to a workshop when they know they'll leave with something finished, so every session ends with work they made themselves, like a flyer, a video hook or a working AI setup. The intake survey helps too, because the owners who say they'd come become your sign-up list.
Are small business workshops worth it for owners?
A small business workshop is worth an owner's morning when they walk out with marketing they made and can keep using the same week. That's why every Another Monday session ends with a promo built from their own photos, a short video hook and an AI setup that already knows their business, instead of a page of notes to get to later.
Why teach AI marketing when the results vary so much?
AI marketing results vary because most owners give the tool almost nothing to work with, and the workshop fixes that input. Once the tool knows the business, its customers and its voice, the drafts stop sounding generic, and owners learn where the human part still has to come in.
How long is a small business workshop?
An Another Monday small business workshop is one half-day morning of about three hours, built to end on time. If that's too long for your owners, we can shape a shorter session or a series instead.
Where do you run small business workshops?
Another Monday runs small business workshops in Maryland and DC, and nearby. The workshop comes to your space, so the small businesses you serve only have to get to a place they already know.
Are there small business workshops near me?
Small business workshops from Another Monday are booked by local organizations, so a small business owner looking for one near them should ask their Main Street program, chamber of commerce or business association to host. You can also send me a note and I'll point you in the right direction.
How does an organization get started?
An organization gets started by filling in the inquiry form with a little about the businesses it serves. From there we set up a listening call, and the session gets planned from what we learn.
Own a business and want help one on one instead of in a group? That's what I do as a small business marketing consultant.
Bring a workshop to your owners.
Send a few lines about the businesses you serve and what they keep getting stuck on, and we'll set up the listening call from there.
Rather pick a time now? Book the listening call.