Beginner Maps: Recent Episodes
Nityesh & Piyush
If you are in your 20s and you have been through school and college, chances are you don't love what you do for a living.
But you want to change that.
Problem is everyone around you is on the same boat. They are busy climbing the career ladder of a career they secretly hate.
What you'll hear are stories of people who have made scary career pivots.
Ashley has managed to turn on-demand courses into a community experience that supports 1200+ paying members of Smart Passive Income’s All-access Pass community started by Pat Flynn.
She has created an innovative "accelerator" model that allows her to deliver the benefits of a cohort-based course without the hassle of doing live lessons.
We spent 75 mins exploring her community management workflow in this interview.
Resources:
- Curated Connections, the tool to create connections in your community - https://curatedconnections.io/
- Beginner Maps, magic sauce of 20+ top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/
- Connect with Ashley - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleynlagrow/
- Connect with Nityesh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/
- SPI All-access - https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/all-access/
Jordan Godbey has built communities for world's top creators like Justin Welsh and Ali Abdaal.
He helps experts start a new business line by helping them build Circle communities at his company Growth Community.
In this episode, he discusses his strategies, philosophies and tactics that you can use to start a $10k MRR community.
Resources:
• Work with Jordan at Growth Community - https://growthcommunity.co/
• Curated Connections, the app to send automated 1-on-1 introductions - https://curatedconnections.io/
• Jordan's $10k MRR community blueprint - https://growthcommunity.co/blueprint
• Jordan’s interview with Ali Abdaal - https://youtu.be/cMUyhYi3iOU?si=icVCiOWKXTvQLlgf
• Magic sauce of 20+ top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/
Chapters:
0:00 Intro03:40 Who are Jordan's Customers06:41 Collecting killer testimonials10:41 Jordan's journey18:46 First 10 clients23:24 10k MRR community blueprint24:33 Peer community28:41 Creating Member-to-Member Connections34:18 Starting from Scratch35:06 Proximity Community38:38 Starting a Mastermind Community41:19 Kicking off peer-to-peer conversations43:53 Balancing Community Management and Content Creation46:28 Why Circle50:19 Creating a Compelling Offer53:10 Afraid of community going quiet?01:00:01 Handling Community Churn and Longevity01:04:41 Community in the world of AI
Stephanie Baiocchi is the community team of one at IMPACT where she manages the membership behind the bestselling book - They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan.
She single-handedly manages a 3,000+ member community, runs masterminds, hosts 2 annual conferences, and creates manages the on-demand course library.
We spend an hour diving deep into her playbook for building a thriving community around a bestselling book.
Resources:- Curated Connections, the tool to foster authentic connections - https://curatedconnections.io/
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Stephanie’s guide to online community management - https://www.impactplus.com/online-community-management
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They ask you answer book - https://marcussheridan.com/they-ask-you-answer/
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The Membership Economy book - https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/the-membership-economy/
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The Art of Gathering - https://www.priyaparker.com/book-art-of-gathering
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Stephanie's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniebaiocchi/
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Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/
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Magic sauce of 20 top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/
Chapters:0:00 Intro
04:22 Community Structure and Membership
07:04 The 'They Ask, You Answer' Framework
08:44 Adapting to Market Changes
09:32 Stephanie's responsibilities as a Community Lead
13:29 Favourite communities
17:03 Community platform of choice
19:24 Notification blindness problem
21:34 Getting members to open an email digest
24:36 Creator to community
26:29 Scaling a community
30:08 Free to Paid Memberships
33:17 Hosting Mastermind Sessions
37:03 Challenges with Masterminds
40:28 Anti-lesson for masterminds
41:39 Events and conferences
44:14 Making events memorable
46:07 Don't start with administrative stuff
48:18 Fostering Community Connections
50:34 A strong end
Bri Leever is filled with actionable frameworks for building a profitable community. She has honed them over the years by building communities through her consultancy - Ember Consulting.
In this interview, we explore some of these frameworks. We discuss:
• Why you don't need a huge audience to start a community
• The key differences between "transformative" and "networking" communities
• When to use platforms like Circle vs. Slack for your community
• Strategies for fostering member-to-member connections
• Tips for designing effective ambassador programs
• Top lessons learnt from doing Community Dissections
Resources:
• Submit your fiascos here - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetFlKX2aZ3kskqoZiWuOvd5sbs7qOUSScw3Wtk9yxEq93xGQ/viewform
• Use Curated Connections - https://curatedconnections.io/
• Bri’s previous interview where she shares her journey of starting her consultancy - https://youtu.be/URWyR0qKvAg?si=k08Gt7T9qQG_i2V7
• Join Bri’s cohort - https://www.emberconsulting.co/join-community
• Magic sauce of top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/
Chapters:0:00 Intro02:39 About Curated Connections03:33 Bri's new community05:47 Balancing Consulting and Community Building08:19 The Value of Live Sessions in Community Building10:28 Starting a Community Without a Big Audience14:28 Designing the community21:38 What type should you create?25:34 Circle, Heartbeat, Slack vs Facebook31:00 When to Invest in an All-in-One Platform32:16 Choosing the Right Platform for Your Community34:33 Engagement Strategies for Different Community Types38:20 Fostering Connections42:50 Ambassador Programs50:12 Insights from Community Dissections55:35 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
Scott Amenta might be the most experienced person you'll ever met when it comes to building community businesses.
He's simultaneously running multiple 7-8 figure community businesses through Sylva, and building software to help community founders scale.
Listen to this episode to understand:
• How he identifies healthy community businesses as an investor
• Why Slack is still his preferred platform (despite its flaws)
• Why data enrichment is crucial for personalization
Resources:
• Curated Connections, the app Scott uses to automate connections - https://curatedconnections.io/
• Scott's new product Miitra - https://www.joinmiitra.com/
• Chief of Staff Network - https://www.chiefofstaff.network/
• Scott's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-amenta/
• Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/
• Beginner Maps crash course on community building - https://beginnermaps.com/
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
02:13 Understanding Healthy Community Businesses
03:28 Engagement Metrics in Community Businesses
05:15 Total Addressable Market and Growth Opportunities
08:51 Scott's Journey with Chief of Staff Network
11:00 Challenges and Opportunities in Community Building
11:48 Sylva's Role in Supporting Communities
12:34 Community business buying checklist
15:42 Revenue Streams in Community Businesses
17:05 Good communities vs bad ones
23:41 Not happening on LinkedIn
24:58 Pricing Strategies for Community Businesses
27:18 Growing a community business
30:54 Tools and Technology for Community Management
35:10 Why Slack?
37:43 Other tools
42:39 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Shin Takeda is changing the game for creators by creating done-for-you membership Slack communities for them. Creator funnels their audience, Shin handles end-to-end operations of running their paid community.That includes events, moderation, content, website, strategy and everything in between required to make sure these communities thrive and customers stay happy.Obviously the creators love it. But more importantly - members love it too!We spent 45 minutes diving deep into his process:- Why communities are the next big opportunity for creators- Shin’s tactics for building engaged, high-value communities- How to reduce churn in paid communities- The tech stack he uses to run world-class communities- Why Slack is still king for professional communitiesResources: • Democratize Knowledge, Shin's agency - http://democratizeknowledge.com/• Beginner Maps, magic sauce of top community businesses - https://beginnermaps.com/• Curated Connections, the connections tool Shin uses - https://curatedconnections.io/• Shin's X - https://x.com/shinnosuke_san• Nityesh's X - https://x.com/nityeshaga/Chapters:0:00 Intro02:48 What is Democratize Knowledge06:17 Shin's Journey into Community Management16:30 Engagement tactics for creator-led communities22:19 Reducing churn in paid comunities24:07 Why Slack is still the king of professional communities28:28 Limitations of Slack31:19 Shin's Tech Stack36:02 Final Thoughts
Jordan Cutler (@jordancutler) has done what most of us aspire to. He grew his newsletter to 50,000+ subscribers in just one year.
Along the way, he has made $35,000+ in “passive” income, with $20,000+ coming from a cohort-based course on Maven.
Resources:
• Beginner Maps for more such case studies - https://beginnermaps.com/
• High Growth Engineer newsletter - https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/
• Jordan's Maven course - https://maven.com/jordan-cutler/mid-level-to-senior
• Jordan's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/
• Jordan's Twitter/X - https://x.com/highgrowtheng
• Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/
• Nityesh's Twitter/X - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/
• Ali Abdaal video mentioned in the interview - https://youtu.be/ETA6D3SkAZo?si=6MucSW0yVTbx52wj&t=1261
Chapters:
0:00 Intro02:43 Time per article05:27 Not forcing LinkedIn posts07:14 How Ali Abdaal helps him avoid the rat race10:49 The Importance of Authenticity12:04 Journey to 50k subscribers in a year15:40 Strategies for Newsletter Growth23:14 Starting a Cohort-Based Course25:26 Running it while Working Full-Time26:24 Partnering with Other Creators 31:55 Using Maven as the course platform41:12 Advice for Aspiring Creators
Ryan Wardell is the CEO and cofounder of Startup Sauce, a private membership for SaaS founders outside of Silicon Valley doing $5k+ in MRR.
This community is special for a couple of reasons:
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It's members are super accomplished CEOs who only have extremely nice things to say about the community
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The guy who runs it, Ryan, is not a "startup expert". In fact, he has never even been a SaaS founder.
In this episode, Ryan shares his "magic sauce" that has allowed him to get there.
Resources:
- Beginner Maps, our free email course containing the "magic sauce" of top communities - https://beginnermaps.com/
- Startup Sauce, Ryan's community for founders doing $5k+ MRR - https://www.startupsauce.com/
- Ryan's master list of 320+ places for SEO backlinks - https://www.startupsauce.com/list
- Ryan's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwardell/
- Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
02:43 Startup Sauce stack
05:47 Aha-moment masterminds
07:58 Magic number for a mastermind
10:23 Making introverts feel comfortable
14:30 Magic sauce: matching people
20:18 Facilitation tricks
20:57 Tangent: Hiring a rockstar community manager
23:06 Facilitation tricks contd.
23:50 Giving people a reputation
27:10 Don't pretend to be the expert
28:26 Getting ridiculous retention
30:45 But why $33/month???
33:18 Screening calls for new members
36:29 How he really makes money
42:13 Ryan's future end game
44:00 Why the 5k MRR barrier
48:45 The idea
52:12 First 20 customers
01:01:05 Content marketing miss
Shreman Shrestha is the Head of Community for the Friends of Lenny’s Slack community. This community comes bundled with the Paid subscription for Lenny’s Newsletter and at the time of recording there are 17k+ members in here.
In this episode, Shre discusses how this community is able to organise 200+ in-person meetups per year, challenges with organising a great mentor matching program, working with volunteers and more.
Resources:• Beginner Maps - free crash course on building a community business - https://beginnermaps.com
• Curated Connections, the community engagement app - https://curatedconnections.io/
• Shreman's Twitter - https://twitter.com/itsDrDrewithaSh/
• Lenny's community + newsletter - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/community
• Nityesh's Twitter (host) - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/
Chapters:0:00 Intro
03:09 Lenny's community persona
04:33 Why people join the community
09:12 Increasing retention
10:52 Shre's story
13:10 Shre's responsibilities
17:52 Member-led city meetups
22:18 Guidelines for meetup hosts
25:29 Finding hosts
26:45 Financials of a meetup
28:21 Dealing with low attendance
31:46 Mentor matching program
37:07 Workbook for mentor and mentee
38:54 Building a great volunteer program
42:49 Advice for creators with audience
48:33 Observing members to get new ideas
Daniel Vassallo is the cofounder of Small Bets - a private community membership for indie hackers, solopreneurs and wanna-preneurs.
This community recently crossed 5000+ paying members and has been doing $400k+ in annual revenue every year since its inception ~2 yrs ago.
Daniel is a guy filled with hot original takes. He does things differently in this community and it works. Things like charging a one-time fee for a lifetime access or paying guests to do live classes in the community. Or, even the existence of this community itself, which is more than 5,000 members strong, but still very engaged.
Needless to say, Daniel has been a dream guest of mine and this is one of my personal favourite interviews.
Resources:• Beginner Maps free crash course on building a community business - https://beginnermaps.com/
• Curated Connections, the community engagement app - https://curatedconnections.io/
• Small Bets - https://smallbets.co/
• Daniel's Twitter - https://twitter.com/dvassallo
• Nityesh's Twitter (host) - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/
Chapters:
- 0:00 Intro
- 03:31 Why pay guest speakers for live classes?
- 07:45 Paying as a filtering mechanism
- 11:45 Daniel's selection process
- 15:49 Hot takes for running a great Zoom class
- 20:22 ROI of a repeat class
- 23:18 Lifetime membership - a great business strategy?
- 32:26 Overdelivering as a marketing strategy
- 34:30 Referrals
- 36:38 Why Daniel doesn't like doing surveys
- 38:45 Case study from a lifetime customer
- 41:37 Negative referrals from churned members
- 42:58 Case for recurring subscriptions
- 44:52 Small Bot
- 52:22 The failed community business
- 57:32 Small Bets origin story
- 01:00:56 New revenue streams
Kyle Hagge led the community efforts at Morning Brew's Learning division as a Director of Community. This interview is a “reflection episode” where Kyle takes us back to this time and shares his “magic sauce”. Among other things, he shares how his team decided which courses to pilot, why he chose Circle to host the community and why it's a good idea to automate connections.Resources:• Our free crash course where you can learn the "magic sauce" of top communities - https://beginnermaps.com/• Curated Connections, the tool that allows communities to automate connections - https://curatedconnections.io/• Kyle's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylehagge• Kyle's Twitter - https://twitter.com/kylehagge• Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/• Nityesh's Twitter - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/Chapters:0:00 Intro02:55 What was Learning Brew?05:36 Deciding which courses to run10:27 Making a boring old topic interesting12:53 Alumni Advisory Board17:56 Transforming students through discomfort22:28 Recording acceptance videos 24:52 Tracking outcomes27:01 Engineering connections through automation29:55 Circle vs Slack vs Zoom35:28 Creating a party at virtual events39:39 Breakout rooms42:02 Final advice for community builders
Charlie Ward is the founder of Ramen Club - a private community of 300+ bootstrapped SaaS entrepreneurs that gives them the support and education to grow their business.
In this interview, Charlie shares the origin story of Ramen Club, how he organises the masterminds, how he organises in-person meetups in different cities of the world and more.
Resources:
• Curated Connections (our tool to connect your community members) - https://curatedconnections.io/
• Get Powerup (Charlie’s Slack app for creating leaderboards) - https://www.ramenclub.so/studio-ramen/powerup-app
• Ramen Club - https://www.ramenclub.so/
• Charlie’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/charlierward/
• Nityesh’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/
Chapters:
0:00 Intro02:13 What's Ramen Club10:58 First 10 customers15:04 Next 100 customers17:52 Building tools for marketing21:21 Event recordings to podcast26:36 Organising masterminds37:15 Organising local meetups46:27 Charlie's engagement strategy50:22 Favourite book on community52:45 His accountability tool for communities
Erin Halper is the founder/CEO of The Upside - a private community of top independent consultants that gives them the resources and the support that they need to grow their business. The Upside uses Circle as their community platform. In fact, they were recognized as one of Circle's top performing communities out of more than 10, 000 communities that are hosted there!In this interview, Erin reveals the unique strategies she uses and the mistakes she has learnt from to build a premium community membership business.Chapters:0:00 Intro02:54 The idea of Upside04:49 Starting with a stupidly low price06:33 The 250-member limit10:09 Not in it for the money11:42 Some things that didn't work16:09 Getting first 20 customers17:39 3 main sources of new customers19:44 Switching from Facebook to Circle24:37 Why Circle worked for her community?27:31 Erin's 3-person community team30:53 Directory of content role33:12 Member spotlight campaigns34:30 Automating matches between members39:18 Playbook for running masterminds49:07 Application process for The Upside52:03 Welcoming new members57:42 Erin's big question for you
Clara Ma is the founder of Ask a Chief of Staff, a community membership business that helps Chiefs of Staff level up in their career. If you are one of her 23k+ followers on Linkedin, you will know how full her events calendar for the community is. So, it came as a shock to me when she told me she and her EA were the only people working on this business. This episode is a masterclass on building a valuable events calendar in your community.---Sign up for the free email course where we operators of top community businesses, like Clara, teach you their unique magic - https://beginnermaps.com/---Resources:• Connect with Clara - https://linkedin.com/in/clarama/• Ask a Chief of Staff - https://askachiefofstaff.com/• Connect with Nityesh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/---Chapters:0:00 Intro02:04 Who's in her community?03:48 Origin story of the business07:10 Is the market too small?09:18 First 10 → 100 customers10:36 Charge from the beginning13:06 Leaning on word-of-mouth15:38 Posting on LinkedIn to start discussions19:59 Masterclass on managing an events calendar26:21 In-person events28:32 Meet her team29:42 Selling tickets to community events33:16 Afraid of community going quiet
Ece Kurtaraner is the community consultant for Generalist World, a fast growing community membership business that helps generalists grow in their careers.Along with this, she also works with Rosieland - another private community for community builders. So, safe to say, Ece knows the secrets of building a community business. Her key insight - "Don’t overthink it, don’t try to make it perfect and keep experimenting." Learn more about how she thinks building a community business in this episode.Connect with Ece: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecekurtaraner/Connect with your host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/---This episode is made possible by Curated Connections - a tool we created to spark more conversations in private communities through 1-on-1 networking programs. Learn more here - https://curatedconnections.io/---Chapters:0:00 Introduction02:32 Who joins paid communities?07:00 1. Log everything you do from day 110:05 Process for member-led events16:01 Do a dry run19:58 Saving 8 hrs/week22:45 Don't shy from repeating things25:14 Don't create engagement - create a calm community29:05 When to shut down an experiment31:57 Don't expect every member to engage in the same way35:30 Low-effort engagement programs35:47 1. Curated Connections36:04 2. Coworking session39:03 3. Member map40:20 4. Member highlights42:42 5. Event summaries43:16 6. Local city meetups44:28 7. Slack AMAs45:30 8. Async happy hour46:09 9. Book/podcast clubs
Michelle Varghese is the community manager for Small Bets, the largest private online community for entrepreneurs with over 5000 members. She has also helped in managing some iconic communities like Write of Passage and The Pathless Path. Along with this, she is also the creator of "Turn your layoff into a sabbatical" course, host of the Build a Wealthy Spirit podcast and a frequent writer on her Substack newsletter.In this episode, she dives deep into the practical aspects of running 10+ live guest classes per month at Small Bets. She shares her tips on the best practices she's discovered and the mistakes she has seen other people make. ---Interact with Michelle's work:• Join her course - https://maven.com/techies/layoff-to-s... (for people who want to leave an uninspiring job in the corporate world, take a break and recreate a life that's aligned with their values)• Join Small Bets - https://smallbets.com/• Build a Wealthy Spirit podcast and newsletter - https://www.buildawealthyspirit.com/---This episode is made possible by Curated Connections - a tool we created to spark more conversations in private communities through 1-on-1 networking programs. Learn more here - https://curatedconnections.io/---Chapters:0:00 Intro02:10 Intro to Small Bets community04:36 One time fee for lifetime membership06:35 Founders must engage in their community09:55 Paying guests for teaching classes12:35 Structure of a class14:19 Asking Qs in between17:28 Why slides are good21:00 Hosting memorable events22:30 Ask the first question23:22 Don't wait for attendees23:59 Camera - on or off?28:39 A chill host is a bad host30:19 What best communities do31:24 How to interrupt over-enthusiastic guests35:21 Moderating an active Discord38:13 New channel or a thread?40:22 How to curb sales in community45:49 Lesson from the Art of Gathering47:43 Scrappy vs. high-end experience54:48 Tools used by Small Bets57:03 Michelle's community
Anthony Castrio is the founder and CEO of Indie Worldwide, a private community of bootstrapped founders. In this interview he shares his revenue, how he attracted new members in the early days using a challenge, tips for organising a good event and goes deep on the challenges with being an entrepreneur.- Learn how people build community businesses - https://beginnermaps.com/- Join Indie Worldwide community - https://indieworldwide.com/- Join the 100 in 100 challenge - https://100in100.co/- Anthony on X/Twitter - / anthonycastrio This episode is made possible by Curated Connections - a tool we created to spark more conversations in private communities through 1-on-1 networking programs. Learn more here - https://curatedconnections.io/Chapters:0:00 Introduction01:59 Discussing community Revenue02:46 $7k in one month04:14 Challenges in Growing a Community05:03Strategies for Attracting New Members06:47 Word-of-mouth 11:10 Organising masterminds15:08 On hosting a good event20:11 100 in 100 Challenge23:13 Origins of the Community23:45 The Freelancing Journey24:29 Building Relationships and Communities26:12 Organising community Challenge29:58 Starting with 500 followers34:44 Personal discipline stuff37:08 The Freelancing vs Full-Time Dilemma41:59 Relationships vs Audiences
Grace Ling is the founder and CEO of Design Buddies, a free community with >64k members on Discord and a total audience of >150k. Here she leads a vibrant online community, does in-person meetups around the world, sponsored partnerships, helps designers land jobs and is even organising a conference.In this episode, Grace does a deep dive into how she started this community, how she grew it and how she turned it into a thriving business. This episode is made possible by Curated Connections - a tool we created to increase the value of private membership communities by creating networking programs that run on autopilot. Try it in your community - https://curatedconnections.io/Links:• Join Design Buddies - https://designbuddies.community• Partner with Design Buddies - https://forms.gle/6nVjUHHBa3NgtsZHA• Grace Ling on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/graceling
Tatiana Figueiredo is the founder of Business of Community - an online school and community that helps founders create profitable businesses by building communities. She has helped multiple people start thriving community businesses. So, you can treat this episode as her masterclass on building such a business yourself. She discusses her journey of turning her consultancy into a scaleable community business, how you can take the first steps to build your community business and how to grow it. This episode is made possible by Curated Connections - a tool we created to increase the value of private membership communities by creating networking programs that run on autopilot. Try it in your community - https://curatedconnections.io/Links:- Business of Community by Tatiana - https://businessofcommunity.co/- Tatiana’s Twitter/X profile - https://twitter.com/tatfig/- Tatiana’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatianaf/- Get notified about future episodes here - https://beginnermaps.com/Chapters:00:00 Turning a consultancy into a community business07:05 Look for signs of a community need10:03 Why you don't need an audience16:33 Steps to start a community without an audience22:26 Case study26:31 But you do need a professional network28:20 It's crucial not to overpromise30:23 Connection to learning ratio framework32:50 What if you already have a big audience?36:50 Creating premium content: bad strategy for creators41:50 Find your unique growth channel
This episode is sponsored by Curated Connections - a simple and powerful matchmaking tool to make communities more connected.
Logan Kilpatrick is the first Developer Relations hire at OpenAI - the company behind the revolutionary product ChatGPT. He has been responsible for working with the product teams on new launches, creating and maintaining developer documentation, running the developer forum, hackathons, events and managing the ChatGPT plugin store.In this episode, he discusses what his role at OpenAI looks like, how he went from being a Machine Learning engineer at Apple to Developer Relations Advocate at OpenAI and his tips for people looking to transition to a career of developer relations:
- Will developers become obsolete due to ChatGPT?
- Deep-dive into the Dev Rel work at OpenAI
- How Logan uses ChatGPT at work
- Dev Rel or Software Development? How to choose?
- Logan's transition from an ML Engineer to a Dev Rel Advocate
- Doing unpaid volunteer work to get his first break
- Dealing with rejections
- Get an unfair advantage by creating a public verifiable track record
- What's next for Logan?
- Logan's #1 resource? Jono Bacon
- Who he learns from on Twitter
- 1 action item for you - the listener
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.
In this episode we discuss:
- Organising conferences and city-wide events with a volunteer-led strategy
- What does a partnership professional do?
- How Partnership Leaders (PL) charges their members
- Creating resources that create a strong hook
- Why they use a paid Slack to host the community
- How he turned an email thread into a community
- Building culture in the early days
- Charging for a free community
- Reducing churn
- Tech stack for running the PL business
- Chris' hiring philosophy
This episode is supported by Curated Connections (https://curatedconnections.io/) - a simple matchmaking tool with an easy-to-justify pricing.
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:
- Curated Connections - https://curatedconnections.io/
- Nikki’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki2987/
- The Community Community - https://thecommunitycommunity.com/
- CMX Masterclass - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUC9Vz9R3tpJwpRgHMyH_PASlVDNw3_DB
- Common Room Blog - https://www.commonroom.io/resources/
- Jenny Weigle - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyweigle/
- Venia Logan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthavlogan/
This episode is supported by Curated Connections - a simple matchmaking tool for communities with an easy to justify pricing!
Jessica is the Head of Community and Events at Hampton - a private and highly vetted community for founders and CEOs started by Sam Parr.
She has more than 7 years of experience building communities of startup founders at venture funds and startup accelerators.
In this episode -
00:00 Teaser
01:28 From Teacher to a Community Professional
08:17 Managing digital and in-person experiences at a community of founders as someone who is not herself a founder
22:08 Routine Roulette
27:43 Landing a role that was never posted
31:52 When community is the business and not just a bonus
39:55 Why women should not be concerned they won't be taken seriously if they are nice and gracious
43:29 Advice for job seekers
50:10 Two books that inspire her work
54:50 Action item for the listener
Links and Resources:
Curated Connections - https://curatedconnections.io/
Jessica's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spivack-lowenstein-52b2a962/
Hampton - https://joinhampton.com/
Grand Central Tech - https://www.companyventures.co/grand-central-tech Community Club - https://www.community.club/
Community Hacked - https://www.communityhacked.com/ The Vendry - https://thevendry.com/
The Art of Gathering - https://www.priyaparker.com/book-art-of-gathering
Unreasonable Hospitality - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60018618-unreasonable-hospitality
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Madi Pignetti is the Head of Community at Contra - a commission-free freelancer marketplace. But she was a software developer before this. In this episode she shares how she made the pivot and what her work today looks like. Show notes:00:00 Teaser01:50 What is her work as the Head of Community at Contra07:30 Measuring the contribution of community towards the Contra business12:43 Personalities more suited for a community manager role17:19 How experience as a developer makes her more empathetic in her current role25:30 Routine roulette29:40 How she stayed optimistic after quitting her full time developer role and not knowing what to do next37:00 From an ambassador to landing a full time role at Contra46:09 Resources for people getting into community49:48 One action item to get the ball rolling--- --- ---Links and Resources:Madi's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/madi-pignetti/Contra - https://contra.com/?userType=independentBuilding Brand Communities - https://amzn.eu/d/dblwmNSThe Art of Gathering - https://www.priyaparker.com/book-art-of-gatheringSuperHi - https://www.superhi.com/Community Club - https://www.community.club/--- --- ---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.So go to http://beginnermaps.com/ to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Amanda has been led by what she found interesting throughout her career. So she completed a 6-month coding bootcamp last year, after having spent 20 years in events and marketing.
In a recent career pivot, she joined the Rails Foundation - a non-profit dedicated to supporting the Ruby on Rails ecosystem, as the Executive Director.
What is Ruby on Rails? It is a web development framework that has been used to create tools like Shopify, GitHub, Basecamp, Twitch, Airbnb, Twitter and thousands of other apps that millions of people use every day.
In this episode, we talk about her journey and how she got here -00:00 Teaser02:01 Rails Foundation: what and why07:41 What does the executive director of a non-profit do?14:43 Difference between working for a non-profit vs a for-profit21:27 How a curiosity to learn a new thing got Amanda the role of Executive Director at Rails Foundation25:51 Routine roulette: A typical week for Amanda31:40 Big things about producing an in-person event35:38 Getting speakers for an event37:37 Making networking in events easy39:05 How Amanda got into events41:23 What not to do when organising a conference43:22 Key to generating serendipity in your career48:37 Advice for people building a community for developers51:44 Applying for 10 jobs vs focussing on that 1 job you really want55:14 One action item for listeners--- --- ---Links and Resources:Amanda's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandabrookeperino/Rails Foundation - https://rubyonrails.org/foundation--- --- ---
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Marcie Walker is the Head of Community Engagement at Gatheround - a startup building a fun, new online events platform that makes virtual events actually fun.
In this episode, Marcie shares all the lessons she has learnt in building herself a career in community building.
Some things we talk about:
- 00:00 Teaser
- 04:50 How work in community is dependent more on what the community needs rather than your title
- 13:32 Virtual vs In-person events
- 16:59 What Marcie is working on now
- 23:21 How flywheel marketing can justify RoI on your community efforts
- 28:50 Routine Roulette
- 33:11 Getting the job at Gatheround by writing her own job description
- 46:08 Advice for 20 year olds
- 01:04:58 Resources for community building
- 01:06:50 One action item for listeners
Links and Resources:
Gatheround - https://gatheround.com/community
Community Club - https://www.community.club/
Noele Flowers - https://www.linkedin.com/in/noeleflowers/
Sarah Greisdorf - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahgreisdorf/
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.So go to beginnermaps.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Jenny Weigle is a strategic consultant who has worked with some well-name brands like Stripe, 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 Jenny02:44 Discovering a natural community builder instinct09:47 What does she do as a community strategist13:48 FAQs about life as a community consultant15:28 Highs and lows that come with your own consulting business19:27 Routine Roulette24:08 Doing a social media marketing internship in 200729:12 Lessons learnt form a failed attempt at consulting32:14 Social media management Vs Community management39:54 Starting a consulting business for the 2nd time47:30 Getting clients and marketing59:06 Working through the imposter syndrome
Links and Resources:
Jenny’s website - https://www.jenny.community/
Momentum Consulting Course - https://www.consultingsuccess.com/momentum-consulting-course
Community Consultants Collective - https://www.communityconsultants.life/
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.
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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
Links and Resources:
Ben Lang - https://benlang.me/
International Hummus Day - https://hummusday.com/
Giving away your legos - https://review.firstround.com/give-away-your-legos-and-other-commandments-for-scaling-startups
The All-In Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/2IqXAVFR4e0Bmyjsdc8QzF?si=b3996ae0fcc44f27
How I Built This - https://open.spotify.com/show/6E709HRH7XaiZrMfgtNCun?si=6bdf9240fa424495
The Knowledge Project - https://open.spotify.com/show/1VyK52NSZHaDKeMJzT4TSM?si=a23837c2373d4105
The Tim Ferriss Show - https://tim.blog/podcast/
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.
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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
Links and Resources:
A Wandering Casiedilla - https://awanderingcasiedilla.com/
Coaching With Casie (web) - https://www.coachingwithcasie.com/
Coaching With Casie (mail) - coachingwithcasie@gmail.com
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss - https://amzn.eu/d/1wOM305
Buzzing Communities by Richard Millington - https://amzn.eu/d/gJh7NKb
CMX - https://cmxhub.com/
Otta - https://otta.com/
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.
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Rahul Desai is the General Manager of the Chief of Staff Network - a community membership for Chiefs of Staff to network and learn from their peers in the industry.
He the person responsible for making this business profitable while delivering a great member experience. In the 6 months he has been in this role, he has already lead the team to take the conversion rate of interested applicants from 30% to 80%.
So if you are managing, building or planning to build a community membership business, you should continue listening.
We talk about -
00:00 Teaser
03:12 A peer support group for Chiefs of Staff
10:35 4-tiers of spend on communities
14:47 Getting member close rate from 30% of interested applicants to 80%
21:44 Nailing sales interviews by being process oriented
28:39 Need for laser focus as General Manager @ Chief of Staff Network
37:04 Routine Roulette
44:27 Selling Upslope as a solo-founder to get to his current job
52:28 How Rahul thrives as an introvert
56:03 Servant leadership
01:01:46 Building out the generalist side
01:06:19 Advice for 20 yo
Links and Resources:
Chief of Staff Network - http://chiefofstaff.network/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=click&utm_campaign=beginnermaps
Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/
Amp It Up - https://ampitupbook.com/
Stolen Focus - https://stolenfocusbook.com/
Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. But you probably don’t have 1 hour 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.
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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
Links and Resources:
- The CommOps Gal (Tiffany’s Blog) - http://www.thecommopsgal.com/
- Community OPServations - https://tiffeoda.wixsite.com/commopsgal/community-opservations
- Talkbase (Community CRM for startups) - https://talkbase.io/
- Community Club - https://www.community.club/
- CMX Community - https://cmxhub.com/community/
- Talkbase Friends - https://talkbase.io/community
- Cassie Mayes - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassiemayes/
- Jamie Langskov - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamielangskov/
- Andrew Claremont - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andymci/
- Erica Kuhl - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericakuhl/
- Brian Oblinger - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianoblinger/
Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. Check them out by searching “Beginner Maps” on your podcast player or visit https://beginnermaps.com/
Murtaza Bambot is the cofounder and CEO of Heartbeat - an awesome platform for building online communities. It combines the powers of Slack, Notion, Luma, Meetsy, Zoom and other platforms that community builders often need to stitch to get a functioning community.
In this episode we talk about:
00:00 How Murtaza keeps it together when times are difficult
03:40 Favourite communities on Heartbeat
09:34 Heartbeat's community Hearth - how it started and how it helps them
19:47 How Murtaza thinks about hiring as an early stage founder
28:11 Day to day work as co-founder at Heartbeat
36:24 How Murtaza learnt to code even after failing coding classes in college
39:46 Why Murtaza quit building to focus on selling
43:55 How to nail down sales as an introvert
49:53 Homeless but keeping it all together by being mission oriented
58:54 Building your (interconnected) network
01:05:29 Doubling down on what works
Links and Resources:
- Heartbeat - https://www.heartbeat.chat/
- TOGKnowledge - https://www.joeedelman.com/togknowledge-community
- The Cat and Dog Coexistence Club - https://www.praiseworthypets.com/
- Founding Sales - https://www.foundingsales.com/
Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. Check them out by searching “Beginner Maps” on your podcast player or visit https://beginnermaps.com/
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
--- --- ---
Links and Resources:
Butter - https://www.butter.us/
The Mom Test - https://www.momtestbook.com/
Startup School - https://www.startupschool.org/
--- --- ---
Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. Check them out by searching “Beginner Maps” on your podcast player or visit https://beginnermaps.com/
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
--- --- ---
Links and Resources:
Ben’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benregier/
--- --- ---
Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. Check them out by searching “Beginner Maps” on your podcast player or visit https://beginnermaps.com/
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
Links and Resources:
Sofia’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiahaq/
Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. Check them out by searching “Beginner Maps” on your podcast player or visit https://beginnermaps.com/
Derrick is the community manager at Thrive TRM. He pivoted into the community industry in 2022 after 11 YEARS of experience in the sales industry.
Chapters:
- Thinking about what brings you the most joy
- How he found out about community and got his 1st gig
- Shooting your shot
- Getting real with C School projects
- Process vs Goals Mindset
- Adding points to the scoreboard
- Rapid fire round
Links and Resources:
Derrick’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrick-chiu/
Generalist World - https://www.generalist.world/
Cirkel - https://cirkel.co/
Rosieland - https://rosie.land/
Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. Check them out by searching “Beginner Maps” on your podcast player or visit https://beginnermaps.com/
Sharath Kuruganty has worked with some iconic community led companies like Product Hunt, OnDeck and currently Threado, where he is the Head of Community.
A fun fact - Threado’s co-founder, Pramod Rao was guest no. 2 on this show. So this conversation has been a long time coming. What made it happen this time is Sharath's recent win where he sold his side project Shoutout to a UK based product studio. He started building this project about two years ago and reached $30k ARR with it.
In this episode:
- Creating Shoutout
- How to approach selling when you are not a salesperson
- Building in public aka Power of the internet
- Moving to the US
- Working with Naval Ravikant
- How to pay bills while working on side projects
- Rapid fire round
Links and Resources:
Sharath’s website 👉 https://5harath.com/
Sharath’s Twitter 👉 https://twitter.com/5harath
Shoutout 👉 https://shoutout.io/shoutout-new/
The Angel Philosopher 👉 https://theangelphilosopher.com/
Thanks for listening! If you have come this far you’ll love other episodes. Check them out by searching “Beginner Maps” on your podcast player or visit https://beginnermaps.com/
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
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
Thanks for listening!
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
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
— — —
Teaser of Gaby’s side project, Supper Club Cinema: https://youtu.be/iUs0E11X9R8
Connect with Gabrielle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleleith/
Follow Beginner Maps on LinkedIn for actionable tips on making career pivots: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beginnermaps/
Mac is an entrepreneur, a visionary and the originator of the community-led movement. He is the founder and CEO of Commsor and Community club - 2 names that everyone in the community industry is familiar with.
In fact, every guest that we’ve talked to has attributed getting help from the 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
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!
You can connect with Erin on her LinkedIn.
Prashant Mahajan is the founder and CEO of Zeda.io - a startup that’s building a super app for product teams. Previously, he had been a rockstar Product Manager at multiple high growth startups where he’s built products that have touched the lives of millions of people.
What’s interesting about him is how generous he is with his time. He often spends his time writing posts on LinkedIn or Twitter, doing podcast appearances and giving webinars to talk about his journey being a founder and previously, being a PM without a traditional MBA degree.
In this episode we dive into:
- (1:30) - Why he spends time mentoring strangers
- (4:40) - Why you should or should not do an MBA
- (8:53) - One mistake Prashant did when managing employees
- (11:16) - Raising $1.5M on just a story with 3 characters
- (12:56) - How to validate your idea and why it’s not important?
- (16:49) - Moving from a builder’s mindset to a marketer’s mindset
- (18:45) - Books that have taught him about thinking from first principles
- (21:49) - Writing when you have something to say
- (23:41) - Rapid-fire!
Taylor is the Head of Community at Groove - a support community for people who work for or by themselves. All over the world, people use Groove’s mobile app to instantly connect and conquer their to-dos alongside each other.
Taylor is an extrovert, through and through. She loves bringing people together. She loves building workshops, facilitating events, mentorship programs and more. Right out college, she started her career building powerful learning experiences with Seth Godin at AltMBA - the company that pioneered cohort based courses even before Zoom had the breakout features.
In this episode:
(1:29) - How Taylor identified her mission of creating the opposite of loneliness in the world
(9:24) - Why she started following a non-traditional career path
(11:10) - How she started working with Seth Godin right out of college
(14:43) - How to make your online events better than IRL events
(21:58) - What she learnt working with Seth
(25:08) - Why Taylor joined a startup in another continent as their first employee
(38:21) - What her work as Head of Community looks like
(42:09) - Taylor’s secret sauce for creating a great gathering
(52:59) - AMA!
Here are links to some people and resources that Taylor spoke about:
- The Ground Truth workshop by Dana Ray
- The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan
- Priya Parker’s guide on running better hybrid events
- Seth Godin’s blog
- Partiful - the gathering creating app
- Nick Gray’s book on the 2-hour Cocktail Party
- Finally, Groove is an extraordinary, free app for solo workers from all over the world to instantly connect and conquer their to-dos alongside each other. You can use this link to start using Groove right now.
Rae is the Head of Community at Topknot - a startup that provides an online personal development club that helps millennial women and non-binary individuals move forward in their personal development and growth journey.
What I find super interesting about her is that this is not only her first official community role, but also her first role in a tech startup! She is coming to the community space after a long and varied professional background spanning non-profit management to business consulting.
In this episode, we dive into:
- How a serendipitous conversation with a cofounder made her join Topknot as their first employee and the Head of Community
- What Topknot does and who it’s for
- Being an “a” at your job vs. being a “the”
- What does her work at Topknot currently look like
- Being a coloring book artist who is given a blank page
- Moving from a “Ready, aim, fire” mindset to “Ready, fire, aim”
- What it means to fail forward
- How being intentional helps her in networking with community builders
- Resources that helped Rae as a new community professional
- A 4-question Rapid-fire Round!
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
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
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