Beginner Maps

This guy bootstrapped a global community conference out of his own pocket. And it worked.Francisco Opazo is stubborn—his words, not mine. And thank goodness for that, because his relentless drive has taken a one-man newsletter and turned it into a global movement for community professionals.In this episode, I take you inside the madness that is Community Week / Community-led World Summit - in-person and online gatherings for community professionals around the world. This is the story of Francisco and how he built it from scratch, fueled by sheer determination, volunteer power, and a whole lot of goodwill.Resources:- Join Community Week: https://www.community-week.com/- Join Led By Community: https://www.ledby.community/- Follow Francisco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankopazo/- Follow Nityesh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/- Magic sauce of more such community creators: https://beginnermaps.com/This episode is brought to you by Curated Connections - the self-driving community software for busy creators. It allows you to run automated networking programs, gamification challenges and member-led events. Check it out at https://curatedconnections.io/Chapters:00:00 Intro02:54 The Journey of Lead by Community04:34 From Digital Agency to BuddyBoss10:38 Joining Circle and Expanding Horizons18:41 Launching the online summit21:52 Challenges and Triumphs of Organizing a Conference32:13 Securing venue for conference34:58 #1 Strategy to build an attendee list40:20 Marketing strategy46:51 Building a Volunteer Team47:55 Conference Structure and Tracks49:54 Budgeting and Financial Challenges51:10 Community Support and Ecosystem01:00:25 Sponsor pitch deck walkthrough01:12:06 Tools01:16:39 The Future: Community Week

Paz Pisarski has cracked the code on growing a cohort-based community business. She has taken The Community Collective from a meetup group to a community membership that had 102 people in its latest cohort. While most cohort based programs struggle to find customers after the first cohort, her cohort size has been consistently increasing for 5 cohorts. Her secret? A "hidden curriculum". In this episode, she shares her magic sauce. This episode is brought to you by Curated Connections - the tool to create automated connections in your community. Check it out at https://curatedconnections.io/ Links and resources: • The Community Collective - https://thecommunitycollective.co/ • Paz's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paz-pisarski/ • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ • Magic sauce of 25 top community creators - https://beginnermaps.com/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:56 Origins of The Community Collective 05:55 Starting in the Pandemic 08:48 Transition to a Cohort-Based Program 09:55 From free to paid 14:20 Masterclass: How to grow a cohort-based program 17:12 The 3 questions 20:30 Recruiting alumni as hosts 23:22 The hidden curriculum 29:22 Best decision in 3 days 33:30 Reflecting on Community Building 34:02 Steady Growth and Success 35:30 Delivering Unforgettable Experiences 38:00 Discovering Lifetime Memberships 41:21 Scheduling downtimes 46:26 Tech Tools for Community Management 53:48 Team of 45

Running Remote is the best case study in building a paid community of practice. Run by Kasia Triantafelo, this is community of 250+ remote work leaders from companies like GitLab, Dropbox, and Zillow who share everything—from compensation strategies to retreat venues. In this episode, Kasia tells how she slowly shifted the culture of this community over 3 years to the one of radical openness. We discuss: • "4 essential touchpoints" for member success • Co-creating knowledge base with members • Her strategy for running masterminds • What it takes to build a culture of trust If you enjoyed this episode, you should sign up for Beginner Maps to get the "magic sauce" of top creators like Carrie - https://beginnermaps.com/ Resources: • Curated Connections, the automated matchmaking platform that Kasia uses - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Running Remote community - https://runningremote.com/community/ • Kasia's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasia-triantafelo/ • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:52 From conference to community 05:26 Who's in the community 10:13 Masterclass on shaping community culture 13:38 Doing things that don't scale 16:30 "Actionable now" strategy 18:51 Emailing members with questions 22:04 4 essential touch points 24:18 Why People Ops is incredible at community 25:40 Co-creating a knowledge base 31:03 Running virtual workshops 35:48 Engagement Challenges in Remote Companies 36:41 Get togethers with Nini 41:14 Masterminds playbook 47:30 Managing Global Timing and Recruiting 56:15 Marketing and Growing the Community 01:02:21 Building community as a non-expert

Building a 5,500+ member paid community isn't easy. Abbey is one of the rare people who's managing just such a community at Health Tech Nerds. This episode is a must-watch for newsletter creators who are looking to turn their audience into a paid community. We cover: - Why direct member outreach drives 10x better results - How to collect and act on member feedback effectively - The power of constant, "annoying" reminders - Why Slack remains the best platform despite its limits - Key pillars of HTN community If you enjoyed this episode, you should sign up for Beginner Maps to get the "magic sauce" of top creators like Carrie - https://beginnermaps.com/ Resources: • Curated Connections, the automated matchmaking platform that Abbey uses - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Health Tech Nerds - https://healthtechnerds.com/ • Abbey's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersonabbey/ • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:44 Understanding Health Tech Nerds Community 05:02 From newsletter to community 06:42 Always collecting feedback 12:01 Acting on Feedback 13:49 When to collect feedback 19:18 Key pillars of community 25:47 Hosting workshops 28:47 Setting up Curated Connections 33:57 Onboarding New Members 37:25 Get annoying with your reminders 40:22 Curated Connections vs. others 42:54 Growing the membership 44:09 Tech Stack and Tools 49:22 Why Slack wins 52:40 Hardest part of Community Building 54:40 Advice for newsletter creators

John Faulkner-Willcocks built a 250+ member paid community in just 4 months with an astonishing 1.5% churn rate. His inspirations? On Deck and World of Warcraft (yes the video game). He's the cofounder of Open Org, a paid community for progressive People & Culture leaders who believe in the radical new idea of leaning into transparency as a way of building companies. We spent an hour diving deep into his "transparency playbook" for building highly engaged communities, including: - How they get 3-5 high quality responses within hours for every question - Why he prefers a monthly pricing model over an annual one - Giving personalized onboarding quests to new members - Why they chose Slack over other community platforms - Running community hackathons - Lessons from World of Warcraft If you enjoyed this episode, you should sign up for Beginner Maps to get the "magic sauce" of top creators like Carrie - https://beginnermaps.com/ Resources: • Curated Connections, the automated matchmaking tool - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Open Org community - https://www.openorg.fyi/community • John's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jfw/ • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 03:46 John's Productivity Hacks 10:04 Who's in OpenOrg 12:11 Competing with free HR communities 19:16 Onboarding new members 21:16 Building a mini database of members 24:21 First 100 customers 27:23 Embracing Transparency with pricing model 32:04 Member Selection 36:21 Secret sauce: Personalized Quests 41:18 Why Slack wins as the Community Platform 44:55 Building an extremely engaged community 50:08 Community hackathons 55:35 Lessons from On Deck 57:46 Lessons from World of Warcraft 01:01:29 Final piece of advice

As Program Director at On Deck and now founder of Next Careers, Anthony Nardini has helped 1000+ senior operators navigate career transitions. In this episode, he shares his playbook at Next Careers, where senior execs pay $2k to join a community that helps them land their next jobs — and 60% of them refer their most talented friends. With 700+ applications for 100 spots per cohort, his secret is extreme curation and high-touch service. This is a must-watch for anyone building high-end communities or cohort-based programs. If you enjoyed this episode, you should sign up for Beginner Maps to get the "magic sauce" of top creators like Carrie - https://beginnermaps.com/ Resources: • Curated Connections, the automated matchmaking platform that Anthony uses - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Next Careers - https://nextcareers.co/ • Anthony's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonynardini/ • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 03:05 What's Next Careers 04:46 Creating a supportive environment 07:07 Onboarding and Core Values 08:34 Anthony's journey to Next 13:15 Selection Process and Criteria 16:54 Interview Logistics and Alumni Involvement 19:19 Structure of a 30-min interview 26:43 Having confidence in your offering 30:28 Volunteer program 35:24 8-week cohort to evergreen model 40:49 Connection and Mastermind Groups 41:00 Quick Asks Session 42:06 Structure of Practice Sessions 44:53 How to ensure Quality Feedback in breakouts 47:13 High Production Value Community 48:39 Big Asks Session Structure 52:26 Experimenting with Community Formats 56:27 Automations behind the scenes 01:02:49 Team Structure and Operations 01:05:14 Referral Strategies 01:09:10 Forwardable Emails and Referrals 01:12:15 Final Thoughts

Carrie Melissa Jones shares the blueprint for building successful online communities. Carrie is the author of Building Brand communities, founder of the CMJ group where she offers consulting services to organisations like Discord, Google and Airbnb, creator of her own community membership for community builders and leaders and a Youtuber! In this episode we cover: - Sneak peak into Carrie's own community setup - Platform selection strategies - Creating effective welcome experiences- Why automated matchmaking works (100% NPS!) - Preventing creator burnout If you enjoyed this episode, you should sign up for Beginner Maps to get the "magic sauce" of top creators like Carrie - https://beginnermaps.com/ Resources: • Curated Connections, the automated matchmaking tool - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Carrie's website - https://www.carriemelissajones.com/ • The CMJ community - https://www.carriemelissajones.com/community • Carrie's Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@CarrieMelissaJones/ • Carrie's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/carriemelissajones/ • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 03:09 Transitioning from Cohort-Based to Evergreen Community 06:14 Evergreen Community Benefits and Inspirations 11:13 Inside Carrie's Workspace and Tools 21:41 Mini Masterclass: Starting a Community Without Burning Out 28:42 Simplifying Your Approach 29:49 The Impact of Leadership Vibes 30:50 Co-Leadership and Avoiding Burnout 33:02 Engaging Your Community Members 36:37 Choosing the Right Platform 37:14 Importance of automated matchmaking 51:57 Carrie's academic background

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/](https://growthcommunity.co/blueprint) • 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 Intro 03:40 Who are Jordan's Customers 06:41 Collecting killer testimonials 10:41 Jordan's journey 18:46 First 10 clients 23:24 10k MRR community blueprint 24:33 Peer community 28:41 Creating Member-to-Member Connections 34:18 Starting from Scratch 35:06 Proximity Community 38:38 Starting a Mastermind Community 41:19 Kicking off peer-to-peer conversations 43:53 Balancing Community Management and Content Creation 46:28 Why Circle 50:19 Creating a Compelling Offer 53:10 Afraid of community going quiet? 01:00:01 Handling Community Churn and Longevity 01:04:41 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/ - Stephanie’s guide to online community management - https://www.impactplus.com/online-community-management - They ask you answer book - https://marcussheridan.com/they-ask-you-answer/ - The Membership Economy book - https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/the-membership-economy/ - The Art of Gathering - https://www.priyaparker.com/book-art-of-gathering - Stephanie's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniebaiocchi/ - Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ - 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 Intro 02:39 About Curated Connections 03:33 Bri's new community 05:47 Balancing Consulting and Community Building 08:19 The Value of Live Sessions in Community Building 10:28 Starting a Community Without a Big Audience 14:28 Designing the community 21:38 What type should you create? 25:34 Circle, Heartbeat, Slack vs Facebook 31:00 When to Invest in an All-in-One Platform 32:16 Choosing the Right Platform for Your Community 34:33 Engagement Strategies for Different Community Types 38:20 Fostering Connections 42:50 Ambassador Programs 50:12 Insights from Community Dissections 55:35 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 communities Resources: • 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 Intro 02:48 What is Democratize Knowledge 06:17 Shin's Journey into Community Management 16:30 Engagement tactics for creator-led communities 22:19 Reducing churn in paid comunities 24:07 Why Slack is still the king of professional communities 28:28 Limitations of Slack 31:19 Shin's Tech Stack 36:02 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 Intro 02:43 Time per article 05:27 Not forcing LinkedIn posts 07:14 How Ali Abdaal helps him avoid the rat race 10:49 The Importance of Authenticity 12:04 Journey to 50k subscribers in a year 15:40 Strategies for Newsletter Growth 23:14 Starting a Cohort-Based Course 25:26 Running it while Working Full-Time 26:24 Partnering with Other Creators 31:55 Using Maven as the course platform 41:12 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: 1. It's members are super accomplished CEOs who only have extremely nice things to say about the community 2. 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 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