Beginner Maps

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:

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 Intro 02:55 What was Learning Brew? 05:36 Deciding which courses to run 10:27 Making a boring old topic interesting 12:53 Alumni Advisory Board 17:56 Transforming students through discomfort 22:28 Recording acceptance videos 24:52 Tracking outcomes 27:01 Engineering connections through automation 29:55 Circle vs Slack vs Zoom 35:28 Creating a party at virtual events 39:39 Breakout rooms 42:02 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 Intro 02:13 What's Ramen Club 10:58 First 10 customers 15:04 Next 100 customers 17:52 Building tools for marketing 21:21 Event recordings to podcast 26:36 Organising masterminds 37:15 Organising local meetups 46:27 Charlie's engagement strategy 50:22 Favourite book on community 52:45 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 Intro 02:54 The idea of Upside 04:49 Starting with a stupidly low price 06:33 The 250-member limit 10:09 Not in it for the money 11:42 Some things that didn't work 16:09 Getting first 20 customers 17:39 3 main sources of new customers 19:44 Switching from Facebook to Circle 24:37 Why Circle worked for her community? 27:31 Erin's 3-person community team 30:53 Directory of content role 33:12 Member spotlight campaigns 34:30 Automating matches between members 39:18 Playbook for running masterminds 49:07 Application process for The Upside 52:03 Welcoming new members 57:42 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 Intro 02:04 Who's in her community? 03:48 Origin story of the business 07:10 Is the market too small? 09:18 First 10 → 100 customers 10:36 Charge from the beginning 13:06 Leaning on word-of-mouth 15:38 Posting on LinkedIn to start discussions 19:59 Masterclass on managing an events calendar 26:21 In-person events 28:32 Meet her team 29:42 Selling tickets to community events 33:16 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 Introduction 02:32 Who joins paid communities? 07:00 1. Log everything you do from day 1 10:05 Process for member-led events 16:01 Do a dry run 19:58 Saving 8 hrs/week 22:45 Don't shy from repeating things 25:14 Don't create engagement - create a calm community 29:05 When to shut down an experiment 31:57 Don't expect every member to engage in the same way 35:30 Low-effort engagement programs 35:47 1. Curated Connections 36:04 2. Coworking session 39:03 3. Member map 40:20 4. Member highlights 42:42 5. Event summaries 43:16 6. Local city meetups 44:28 7. Slack AMAs 45:30 8. Async happy hour 46:09 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 Intro 02:10 Intro to Small Bets community 04:36 One time fee for lifetime membership 06:35 Founders must engage in their community 09:55 Paying guests for teaching classes 12:35 Structure of a class 14:19 Asking Qs in between 17:28 Why slides are good 21:00 Hosting memorable events 22:30 Ask the first question 23:22 Don't wait for attendees 23:59 Camera - on or off? 28:39 A chill host is a bad host 30:19 What best communities do 31:24 How to interrupt over-enthusiastic guests 35:21 Moderating an active Discord 38:13 New channel or a thread? 40:22 How to curb sales in community 45:49 Lesson from the Art of Gathering 47:43 Scrappy vs. high-end experience 54:48 Tools used by Small Bets 57:03 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 Introduction 01:59 Discussing community Revenue 02:46 $7k in one month 04:14 Challenges in Growing a Community 05:03Strategies for Attracting New Members 06:47 Word-of-mouth 11:10 Organising masterminds 15:08 On hosting a good event 20:11 100 in 100 Challenge 23:13 Origins of the Community 23:45 The Freelancing Journey 24:29 Building Relationships and Communities 26:12 Organising community Challenge 29:58 Starting with 500 followers 34:44 Personal discipline stuff 37:08 The Freelancing vs Full-Time Dilemma 41:59 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 business 07:05 Look for signs of a community need 10:03 Why you don't need an audience 16:33 Steps to start a community without an audience 22:26 Case study 26:31 But you do need a professional network 28:20 It's crucial not to overpromise 30:23 Connection to learning ratio framework 32:50 What if you already have a big audience? 36:50 Creating premium content: bad strategy for creators 41:50 Find your unique growth channel

This episode is sponsored by Curated Connections - a simple and powerful matchmaking tool to make communities more connected.

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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:

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:

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:

Resources:

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.

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

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

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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 Teaser 01:50 What is her work as the Head of Community at Contra 07:30 Measuring the contribution of community towards the Contra business 12:43 Personalities more suited for a community manager role 17:19 How experience as a developer makes her more empathetic in her current role 25:30 Routine roulette 29:40 How she stayed optimistic after quitting her full time developer role and not knowing what to do next 37:00 From an ambassador to landing a full time role at Contra 46:09 Resources for people getting into community 49:48 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=independent Building Brand Communities - https://amzn.eu/d/dblwmNS The Art of Gathering - https://www.priyaparker.com/book-art-of-gathering SuperHi - 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 Teaser 02:01 Rails Foundation: what and why 07:41 What does the executive director of a non-profit do? 14:43 Difference between working for a non-profit vs a for-profit 21:27 How a curiosity to learn a new thing got Amanda the role of Executive Director at Rails Foundation 25:51 Routine roulette: A typical week for Amanda 31:40 Big things about producing an in-person event 35:38 Getting speakers for an event 37:37 Making networking in events easy 39:05 How Amanda got into events 41:23 What not to do when organising a conference 43:22 Key to generating serendipity in your career 48:37 Advice for people building a community for developers 51:44 Applying for 10 jobs vs focussing on that 1 job you really want 55:14 One action item for listeners --- --- --- Links and Resources: Amanda's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandabrookeperino/ Rails Foundation - https://rubyonrails.org/foundation --- --- ---

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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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:

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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/

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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. 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 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:

Jenny’s website - https://www.jenny.community/

Momentum Consulting Course - https://www.consultingsuccess.com/momentum-consulting-course

Community Consultants Collective - https://www.communityconsultants.life/

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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

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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/

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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.

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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

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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/

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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

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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/

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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 hour every week to listen to all the episodes. That’s why you should sign up for our newsletter.

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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

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Links and Resources:

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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

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Links and Resources:

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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.

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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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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 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 - 

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Links and Resources:  

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

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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.

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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:

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Links and Resources:

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

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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:

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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/

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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.

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:

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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/

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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:

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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:

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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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Teaser of Gaby’s side project, Supper Club Cinema: https://youtu.be/iUs0E11X9R8

Connect with Gabrielle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleleith/

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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:

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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!

You can connect with Erin on her LinkedIn.

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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:

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Taylor Harrington 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!

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Here are links to some people and resources that Taylor spoke about:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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