Beginner Maps

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. 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.

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. So go to beginnermaps.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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! 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.

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 --- --- --- 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.

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/ --- --- --- 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.

Mac is the founder/CEO of Commsor and Community club - 2 names that everyone in the community industry is familiar with. He is an entrepreneur, a visionary and the originator of the community-led movement.  Commsor provides software, strategic services and education to help companies unlock the power of community-led growth. Every guest that we’ve talked to has attributed getting help from their "Community Club" community when they were starting out in the industry. In this episode: (01:21) - The stupid little hackathon idea called “Commsponsor” (08:52) - Starting Community Club before even having a LinkedIn account (17:21) - 9 months, 50 investor meetings to raise the pre-seed round (22:00) - Was he bullish about the community-led vision in the early Commsor days? (25:30) - How running a Minecraft server prepared him for building the Community Club community (35:45) - Why a 4000-member community is Commsor’s most important asset (40:30) - How you should sell to your community without turning members off (44:00) - One of the biggest mistakes businesses made in the last 2 decades (48:07) - What leverage can a single community manager have? (52:30) - Which community does Mac most enjoy as a member --- --- --- 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.

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. --- --- --- 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.

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! --- --- --- 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.

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! --- --- --- 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. --- --- --- 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.

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! --- --- --- 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.

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 --- --- --- 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.

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 --- --- --- 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.

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 --- --- --- 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.