Beginner Maps

Chris Samila is the co-founder of Partnership Leaders - a strong bootstrapped business that provides community, connections and resources for partnership professionals.

This episode is supported by Curated Connections (https://curatedconnections.io/) - a simple matchmaking tool with an easy-to-justify pricing.

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Nikki Thibodeau is the Senior Manager of Community and Customer Advocacy at Calix. She is also the founder of The Community Community - where she is building a safe space for senior community professionals to grow, together.

Previously she has worked in various roles, rising through the ranks of the community team at Shopify.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Nikki’s “unidentified superpower”
• Community Manager work vs. Community Lead work
• Starting The Community Community
• 150+ applications on community launch! How?
• Making a community valuable without making it busy
• Dream Team and Co-lead
• Someone got her dream role over her at Shopify
• Going to Harvard and being the top candidate
• Tips for job seekers
• Asking for a higher salary
• Most recommended resources

Resources:

Jenny Weigle is a strategic consultant who has worked with some well-name brands like Airbnb, Google, Sephora, Visa and many many more such household names - and helped them build their online communities.

She has been building communities for more than 10 yrs and has helped more than 100 brands in this time.

So, if you are a consultant or someone who wants to become a consultant, Jenny is a perfect role model.

In this episode we discuss:

00:00 The highs and lows of building your consulting business with Jenny 02:44 Discovering a natural community builder instinct 09:47 What does she do as a community strategist 13:48 FAQs about life as a community consultant 15:28 Highs and lows that come with your own consulting business 19:27 Routine Roulette 24:08 Doing a social media marketing internship in 2007 29:12 Lessons learnt form a failed attempt at consulting 32:14 Social media management Vs Community management 39:54 Starting a consulting business for the 2nd time 47:30 Getting clients and marketing 59:06 Working through the imposter syndrome

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Links and Resources:

Ben Lang is the Head of Community at Notion. He attributes almost all of the opportunities that have come his way to the side projects he has built out of passion.

Believe it or not, The International Hummus Day is his creation.

And so, in this episode we talk about:

00:00 Teaser

01:43 Power of side projects to open up opportunities

16:42 Decentralised approach towards the Notion community and why it may not be the best approach for others

22:24 Community building lessons learnt at Notion

28:57 How to start with angel investing

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Links and Resources:

Casie Tennin is a Community Builder and a Certified Life Coach.

As a Community Builder, she has built communities for fast-growing startups like Masterclass and TaskHuman. As a Professional Life Coach, she helps individuals make scary pivots in their professional and personal lives.

“We spend so much of our lives not being in touch and in tune to what our heart wants, but to what society tells us to do,” says Casie.

So we asked her how to not spend our lives that way. And she give us an action item. Don’t forget to grab it at the end of the episode.

In this episode we also talk about:

00:00 How to build a career that makes your heart sing with Casie
03:42 Doing what makes your heart sing
13:24 What is coaching and how can it help you in your career
22:56 A teacher in Spain to CMGR at Masterclass
32:38 Networking with leaders at your dream company
39:08 Tactic for connecting the dots from your past
43:01 Is there even a need to go to college?
47:24 Dealing with being laid off and still deciding to be a digital nomad
53:35 A three-part strategy to make your job application stand out
57:48 Active listening
01:03:38 Top 3 resources to break into the community industry
01:07:09 One action item for the listener to break into their dream role

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Links and Resources:

If you have wondered about a career in community operations, this episode should help you understand what it is, how Tiffany broke into it and how you can too. Tiffany Oda is the COO of Talkbase - a young startup that is building the community CRM for startups.

In this episode we talk about:

00:00 Dealing with community layoffs, Community Operations 101 with Tiffany Oda
06:49 Dealing with layoffs
18:44 What Tiffany is up to at different times of the week
25:18 What is Community Ops
39:12 Quickest way into Community Ops
46:13 Learning resources for Community ops
53:44 What should a 20-yr old with no experience do
57:46 Getting a mentor who is invested in you
01:01:29 Building your personal brand

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Links and Resources:

Jakob is the cofounder and CEO of Butter - a startup that is bravely going against the video conferencing incumbents like Zoom and Google Meet by building a fun, interactive and delightful video conferencing tool.

In this episode:

00:00 Looking at salary as points in the game of life does not make sense
01:50 How Jakob's career plan did not work out
08:35 Risk and reward early in your career
14:21 The fundamental step/skill to build a product-based startup
19:21 Deciding when to shut shop
26:43 Camaraderie with Co-founders: Building 2 companies without ever being in the same room
29:57 Why is Jakob all in on Butter
42:14 Product-led vs Community-led
45:57 What a founder values in an employee

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Links and Resources:  

Butter - https://www.butter.us/
The Mom Test - https://www.momtestbook.com/
Startup School - https://www.startupschool.org/

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Ben Regier’s career is unique. Previously, he has served in the US Marine Corps and has been a store manager at Starbucks. Now, he is pioneering community-led sales as the Community Development Representative at Commsor.

In this episode we talk about - 

• 00:00 The client that will buy only from Ben 
• 09:17 One thing you absolutely need to do in a community-led sales role 
• 11:56 How to handle NOs 
• 15:15 Most difficult part of his job 
• 16:53 Lessons carried over from service in the US Marine Corps 
• 24:27 Hard lessons learnt as a Starbucks Store Manager 
• 28:19 Getting his first remote job 
• 41:24 Future of community-led sales 
• 48:48 What veterans need to know about entering the sales 
• 53:45 Rapid fire round  

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Links and Resources:  

Ben’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benregier/

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Sophia Haq is the founder and CEO at Muslim Women Professionals (abbreviated MWP) - a non-profit that promotes the empowerment of Muslim women globally. Here, she is building a community where diverse women can embrace their Muslim identity and build professional skills through mentorship, networking, and guidance.

That's not all. She's also the Senior Program Manager at XRC Labs - venture capital firm and accelerator. Here she builds curriculum, spearheads community development, maintains relationships with the portfolio companies, and many other things.

So, you can see how Sophia lives and breathes community.

We talk about:

• 00:00 How Sofia's childhood experiences affect her knack for community building
• 08:16 Running a Non-profit vs Running a For-profit
• 13:38 What gets her going when work gets exhausting
• 25:58 How do you start a non-profit
• 27:43 Getting a role at XRC by abandoning 10-year plan
• 35:27 How to get mentors when you have nothing to give in return
• 39:59 Day-to-day job as Senior Program Manager @ XRC
• 43:31 Biggest challenge working at XRC
• 53:09 Rapid fire round

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Links and Resources:

Sofia’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiahaq/

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Sharath Kuruganty has worked with some iconic community led companies like Product Hunt, OnDeck and currently Threado, where he is the Head of Community.

Bri Leever is the founder of Ember Consulting where she helps companies as their Brand Community Strategist working to create a community out of their superfans.

In this episode:

• 0:00 Teaser
• 9:02 How Bri got clientele for 1.5 years in 90 days
• 17:30 A repeatable playbook for you to get your 1st client
• 28:42 How can you use a community to acquire more customers for your business
• 32:09 On the diversification of income
• 43:34 Pricing clients
• 55:54 Rapid fire round 

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Links and Resources:

Bri’s LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/briannaleever/
Groove (co-working app for solopreneurs) 👉 https://www.groove.ooo/
Designing Your Life (book) 👉 https://amzn.eu/d/46mBTbe

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Shre is the fractional Head of Community for Lenny Rachitsky’s paid community of 10,000+ product-minded people - one of the most popular paid online communities.

But that’s not it. He has pivoted away from lucrative careers in management consulting and at big companies in his pursuit for more meaningful work. Today, he is a consultant and describes himself as Dobby - a slave elf from the Harry Potter world who freed himself.

In this episode:

• 2:50: Why he has “only taken paycuts”
• 10:10: Does he compare himself with his peers from college?
• 13:42: Why quitting a job shouldn’t be too scary in your 20s
• 18:35: How Shre realised it was time to move on from his big startup idea
• 26:15: How he went from member to Community Manager at Lenny’s community
• 40:00: Being “Dobby”
• 41:20: How he pitches himself to new clients
• 46:30: How he finds opportunities that have not been posted publicly
• 51:22: Rapid-fire round

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We recently started it to share the key insights from these conversations in a more digestible, readable format.

Gabrielle Leith is the Community Manager at Grapevine.

She has a really interesting career path going from working in films at Toronto Film Festival to getting her first community role using a side project she started - Supper Club Cinema.

In this episode -

4:50: How she started a side project in community building

16:55: Getting her first job before she even knew about community management

19:17: Why side projects are a great way to discover your passion

25:30: How she found her latest role at Grapevine through CMX Slack

30:30: Why feeling personally connected to the mission of the community makes your job easier

34:50: Working as the solo CM in a 40,000 member community

40:52: Pros and cons of working at an energising role in a startup

48:41: Is CMX a scam?

55:00: Rapid-fire round

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Mac is the founder/CEO of Commsor and Community club - 2 names that everyone in the community industry is familiar with. He is an entrepreneur, a visionary and the originator of the community-led movement. 

Commsor provides software, strategic services and education to help companies unlock the power of community-led growth. Every guest that we’ve talked to has attributed getting help from their "Community Club" community when they were starting out in the industry.

In this episode:

• (01:21) - The stupid little hackathon idea called “Commsponsor”
• (08:52) - Starting Community Club before even having a LinkedIn account
• (17:21) - 9 months, 50 investor meetings to raise the pre-seed round
• (22:00) - Was he bullish about the community-led vision in the early Commsor days?
• (25:30) - How running a Minecraft server prepared him for building the Community Club community
• (35:45) - Why a 4000-member community is Commsor’s most important asset
• (40:30) - How you should sell to your community without turning members off
• (44:00) - One of the biggest mistakes businesses made in the last 2 decades
• (48:07) - What leverage can a single community manager have?
• (52:30) - Which community does Mac most enjoy as a member

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Erin O’Neill might be the first community professional who planned her transition into community management.

Almost everyone you’ll meet in the community industry, has accidentally fallen into their first community job. But not Erin.

She decided that she wanted to switch her careers, discovered community management and succeeded in moving into it! Today, she is the Head of Community at RevOps Co-op.

In this episode:

(1:52)  - What motivated Erin to switch her career

(6:00) - What fascinated her about community management

(9:10) - How she revamped her Linkedin and connected with 40+ professionals

(18:03) - Raising kids, making dinner and going for walks while doing a full-time job

(22:51) - Managing a community of practice you know nothing about

(24:21) - Asking for mentorship from strangers

(28:30) - Chaos of working at startups

(37:44) - How to take advantage of a community of practice as a member

(42:37) - What’s next for Erin?

(45:11) - Rapid-fire!

Max is the Community and Customer Support Lead at SuperHi - a startup that teaches people code, design and project management skills.

What's most interesting about Max is that if you visit his personal LinkedIn, you’ll find that the experience section is a smorgasbord of careers. He has done everything from project management, website design, business coaching, freelancing and community management.

In this episode, we dive into:

• What a typical week at work looks like for Max
• How he got his first Community Manager job without knowing what community management is
• How being an active community member made him the number one candidate for a new job posting
• How he learnt the ropes of community building on his first job
• Why he is so active in the Community Club Slack
• How Max created opportunities for himself by reaching out to the CEOs of companies he knew
• Max's journey from a Web Design Freelancer to a Community Professional
• Dealing with Imposter Syndrome by creating a "wins" folder
• Working with a Community Coach for professional development
• Max's strategies for creating work-life balance

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Pramod is the cofounder and CEO of Threado where he is building the "Command Center" for community builders. Threado gives community builders superpowers by allowing them to get actionable insights, automations and workflows to manage their communities.

Before Threado, Pramod was the VP of Marketing at Zomato - India’s largest food delivery and restaurant discovery company. He joined them as their 13th employee and went on to build and lead their Marketing team for more than 8 yrs.

And then in 2019, he quit to start his own high-growth startup.

In this episode, we dive into:

• Pramod's recent $3.1M seed round and what it will unlock for Threado
• How Pramod bootstrapped Threado to an MVP and a stellar team of 25
• Community and content playbook that Pramod used to launch Zomato to new cities
• Why Community Manager was Pramod's first hire in a new city
• Joining Zomato as their 13th employee when it was still called FoodieBay
• 7 startup ideas that Pramod explored before landing upon Threado
• Support systems that helped Pramod navigate this chaotic period of figuring out his next big idea
• Why sharing your secret ideas creates more opportunities for you
• How Pramod did user testing to pivot Threado to a completely new product
• Threado's marketing philosophy

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Kyle is the Lead Community Manager at Morning Brew - one of the world's fastest-growing business media companies that was recently valued at more than $75M. Kyle helped them in launching their first ever paid product: a cohort-based career and skills accelerator.

What's remarkable about Kyle's story is how he got here. Before working as Lead Community Manager at the Morning Brew community, he had been a podcast producer, an entrepreneur, a high school coach amongst other seemingly unrelated careers.

In this episode we dive into:

• How Kyle conducts events with amazing guests where the community is super engaged
• How he got this job at Morning Brew - his first official role in the community industry
• Kyle's number one skill for making career pivots - storytelling
• Why being a beginner in a new domain can be your competitive advantage over experts
• Kyle's Personal Monopoly
• What's up next for Kyle in his career?
• How Kyle makes long-term bets on his career while being present in the moment

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Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. But you probably don’t have 1 hr every week to listen to all the episodes. That’s why you should sign up for our newsletter.

We recently started it to share the key insights from these conversations in a more digestible, readable format.