We assume that being a great speaker is a talent that someone is born with. I couldn’t disagree more. Public speaking is a craft you can learn and get better at over time – just like marketing, writing or community building. I’m still to this day absolutely terrified of public speaking. I have a host of fears – some fairly rational and others plain irrational. Over the...
What I’ve Learned From My First 2 Years Working Remotely
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about working remotely. I did so after my first three months and then again last year. While I love it, I wouldn’t feel right only talking about the “epic stuff.” The highs and lows are so much more extreme and intense. That was something that caught me off guard. I got into remote work because I was drawn to the FREEDOM and uncharted...
Breaking “the glass ceiling” in the community industry
Is there a glass ceiling in the community industry? That’s a loaded question that gets asked a lot in community manager forums, Facebook groups – like the CMX group (highly recommend joining btw) and podcasts like this Community Signal podcast episode with Patrick O’Keefe and Alexandra Dao, of Vimeo. If you look at our industry, there’s a growing number of director, VP and...
Studying philosophy made me a better community builder
To put it mildly, I used to avoid philosophy like it was the plague. In fact, the one and only time I willingly learned about philosophy until very recently was one class I took my senior year in college. The only reason why I took it at all was I needed one more general education credit to graduate on time. I was hoping it would be a “cupcake class” that I could you know skip a lot and...
What I’ve Been Reading: My 11 Favorite Blog Posts From 2016
For the past few years, I wrote a post about my favorite things I’ve read over the last year. This is something I do leading up to my personal review of everything that happened over the last year. The good, the bad and the things that I want to change for the year ahead. It sums up everything – personal, professional, relationships, travel, health, etc, and helps me set my theme and...
11 More Books That All Community Professionals Should Read (Plus A Giveaway!)
I wrote a post about a year ago where I shared some of my favorite books that I read over the last year. I’m a firm believer that you can supercharge your knowledge through reading books and longer essays. While it takes longer to read and is harder to digest than a short, 300 word top ten list trends piece, the upside and takeaways are also significantly higher. Not to mention, the shelf...
What a recent trip to Helsinki taught me about designing community spaces
Helsinki is a place that is surely fun to say, but I admittedly didn’t know much about before visiting. Normally, when I travel, I like to know something about the place or at least have a couple of friends there that I could lean on for some insider tips. This time I was flying blind. I literally knew almost nothing about Finland or let alone Helsinki. Aside from the fact, the sun sets...
13 Lessons Learned From My First Year as a Remote Community Manager
About 9.5 months ago, I wrote a post reflecting on my first three months of working remotely. I realized I have learned a lot since writing it. I’m going to share what I’ve learned about myself and working remotely in the last year in this post. In many ways, I still feel like I am brand new to this. Probably for good reason because I am still really new to this compared to many...
6 Lessons Learned from My First-Time Speaking at a Large Conference
Public speaking is scary. Talking in front of large amount of people or being the center of attention isn’t necessarily my thing. I also admittedly talk fast and wasn’t blessed with the natural charisma of awesome public speakers that I look up to like Brene Brown, Gary Vaynerchuk and Scott Stratten. Yet, I’m not one to succumb to my fears often. When you give into your fears...
Managing and Scaling a Team of Volunteer Community Moderators
I was chatting with my friend and fellow community professional, Patrick O’Keefe, the other day. Patrick has been managing online niche communities since 2000. Most notably, KarateForums.com, and also is the founder of the Managing Communities blog and the Community Signal Podcast. Needless to say, when I have a question or want to get feedback on how to handle a specific type of...