Beginner Maps Nityesh & Piyush

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.

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.

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 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

--- --- ---

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.

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 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.

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.

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.