“We need to stop saying community can do everything and start defining what it is uniquely built to do.”

In this episode, we discussed why community should stop being treated as a “nice-to-have” support function and become a strategic business layer that connects the entire customer journey, in particular:

👉 How community placement inside an organization impacts its perceived value.

👉 Why “being helpful” is not enough for community teams anymore.

👉 What the ideal community org structure could look like in the future.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Joshua Zerkel, a community-integrated go to market professional with 20 plus years of practical experience and the author of The Community Code (go grab it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ4NYQ5N/)!

Together, we're connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Joshua and Yurii on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Joshua Zerkel

(01:19) Key Lesson from Writing

(02:29) Why Org Placement Matters

(04:28) Risks of Wrong Department

(07:53) Where Community Usually Sits

(08:24) Marketing vs CS vs Sales vs Product

(13:42) Community as Horizontal Function

(14:55) Earning a Seat at Table

(20:10) Programs and Metrics by Team

(26:14) Co Creating Not Just Helping

(31:24) Best Cross Team Tandems

(33:32) How Community Evolves with Growth

(35:48) Building the Community Team

(38:17) Ideal Org Structure Blueprint

(39:37) Why Community Sits Where It Does

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“If your community disappeared tomorrow, what signals would your company lose? That’s your return on investment."

In this episode, we discussed how community becomes business-critical asset helping other teams to understand where the market is moving, and which community members are ready to contribute, advocate, or convert, in particular:

👉 Why community ROI starts with understanding what signals the business would lose without community.

👉 How to identify leading indicators before trying to prove final business outcomes.

👉 How community can reveal product needs, expansion opportunities, brand momentum, and ecosystem trends.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Jenifer De Figueiredo, a community and program manager who blends data science, creativity, and strategy to turn communities into real growth engines: from scaling an AI community by 260% to bridging product, marketing, and data, she definitely knows how to herd some cats!

Together, we're connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Jenifer and Yurii on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifer-de-figueiredo/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Jenifer De Figueiredo

(02:31) Mediating Change for Members

(03:51) UGC Flywheel Basics

(05:45) Automating UGC with AI

(09:40) Business Value of UGC

(11:25) Finding Content Everywhere

(15:32) Community Health Metrics

(19:57) Reporting Impact Internally

(22:24) Getting Leadership Buy In

(25:21) Top Teams Community Serves

(29:37) Ideal Community Tech Stack

(33:29) Proving ROI with Indicators

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“You do not build business growth by forcing participation; you build it by creating value people want to return to.”

In this episode, we discussed how well-designed community events can create meaningful human connections while driving measurable business value like engagement, adoption, and long-term growth, in particular:

👉 How authentic relationships can turn a “nice-to-have” group into a real business asset.

👉 Why events are strong tools for growing engagement and brand awareness.

👉 How to build a community that members would genuinely miss if it disappeared tomorrow.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Veronica Kaulinis, a community builder, facilitator, and change management professional who turns knowledge into action, designing systems, programs, and experiences that drive real engagement and business impact, from leading enterprise knowledge platforms to building global communities like Vulnerable AF™ about powerful conversations and human connection!

Together, we're connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Veronica and Yurii on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-kaulinis-62718685/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Veronica Kaulinis

(01:31) Accidental Community Builder

(04:16) Authenticity Drives Growth

(07:11) Wellness Membership Model

(11:20) Community Business Definition

(13:22) Events That Build Community

(19:27) Internal Event Playbook

(25:04) Getting Members To Share

(27:38) Event Magic Marketing

(31:25) Touchpoints That Stick

(34:48) Change Habits Refresher

(36:36) Proving Community ROI

(40:42) Leadership Visibility Playbook

(43:25) Quick Wins Right Now

(45:45) Offboarding For Alignment

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“What really matters is not engagement for the sake of it, but the behaviors your community members take that actually drive business outcomes.”

In this episode, we discussed how a community becomes a true growth engine when you connect member behavior to business outcomes, moving from engagement to measurable impact like retention, expansion, and revenue, in particular:

👉 What activity creates the strongest impact on growth and retention.

👉 How to connect community activities to business results with data.

👉 What AI can help automate in your community operations.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Ana Julia Braga, an experienced community builder who has spent the last few years building and scaling communities from the ground up and figuring out what makes online spaces tick, and today leads a global network of 40,000+ users at ClassDojo, turning community conversations into insights, and insights into business growth!

Together, we're connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Ana Julia and Yurii on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-julia-braga/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Anna Julia Braga

(01:06) Data Skills for Community

(03:04) Dashboards and Pipelines

(04:33) Mentor Parties and Magic

(07:47) Proving Revenue Impact

(09:34) Why Meetups Drive Growth

(13:49) What Community Really Means

(16:35) Setting Community Goals

(18:59) Experiments and Resources

(24:53) Engagement Tiers and Lurkers

(26:54) AI Automation at Scale

(34:14) Partnering with Product Sales Marketing

(39:21) Internal Visibility and Reporting

(42:31) Getting Leadership Buy-In

(46:23) Quick ROI Measurement Tip

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“Your biggest growth channel might already be your most passionate users.”

In this episode, we discussed how to turn community from a “nice-to-have” into a measurable business engine by aligning it with product, growth, and user outcomes, in particular:

👉 The role of community in improving onboarding and user experience.

👉 How to build a global community ecosystem that scales.

👉 How community supports marketing, product, and growth teams.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Erica Hanson, who doesn’t just build communities, but builds movements at global scale—from spending 17 years at Google scaling developer programs to millions of people worldwide, to leading DevRel and community at FlutterFlow with millions of users—she’s been at the center of what it really takes to turn users into advocates, always combines strategy with empathy, and knows exactly how to connect community with product growth and real impact!

Together, we're connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Erica and Yurii on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hansonerica/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Erica Hanson

(01:18) Erica’s Meetup Energy

(03:50) Host vs Participant Roles

(05:41) Events That Drive Growth

(08:19) Defining Business Community

(10:32) Don’t Assume, Ask

(12:44) Survey Interest vs Attendance

(15:20) Google Student Clubs Story

(19:32) Metrics That Mattered

(22:40) Roots in Dad’s Community

(26:31) Member Focus Playbook

(29:54) Partnering With Key Teams

(34:12) Winning Leadership Buy-In

(37:39) Quick ROI Actions

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“When you support your community members in growing their business, you support your own business.”

In this episode, we discussed how to design programs, events, and advocacy systems that directly drive revenue, product improvement, and customer success, in particular:

👉 Why in-person community events can unlock deeper insights than any dashboard.

👉 How Fiverr fast-tracks top freelancers and grows revenue with community.

👉 Why sales and community teams should work together, not separately.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Pauline Sumowski, a community strategist with over 7 years of practical experience, who definitely knows how to turn engagement into real business impact after successfully scaling the community at Brigad to over 20K members and delivering 250+ events, and now continues her journey as the Global Community and Partnerships Lead at Fiverr growing the freelance economy, and founder of WeTalk community, empowering women and non-binary people in hospitality to express their voices!

Together, we're connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Pauline and Yurii on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauline-sumowski/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Pauline Sumowski

(01:14) Why in-person meetups

(03:01) Measuring meetup ROI

(05:56) Turning members into advocates

(09:17) Defining community and goals

(12:46) Level Up program case study

(17:14) Finding real member needs

(21:24) Cross-team collaboration

(27:59) Internal visibility and reporting

(31:05) Tech stack and AI tools

(36:11) Proving ROI

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“The leaders who embrace community today will shape the businesses of tomorrow.”

In this episode, we discussed how leaders can turn community from a feel-good idea into a measurable business strategy that drives growth, trust, and long-term competitive advantage, in particular:

👉 Why community is not a marketing tactic but a leadership strategy.

👉 The ADAPT model: Authenticity, Decision, Agility, Purpose, and Trust.

👉 How to transform your business by adopting a community-first mindset.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Chris Catania, an award-winning community professional with over two decades of experience and author of The Community-First Advantage who is totally sure that building a genuine and strategic online community is like preparing a fine meal: you can't microwave it

Together, we're connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Chris and Yurii on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophercatania/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Chris Catania

(01:29) Why This Book Now

(06:19) Leaders And Builders Gap

(10:03) Belief Before Business ROI

(14:56) ADAPT Model Breakdown

(21:11) Evolving The Leader Pitch

(24:43) Storytelling for Executives

(25:48) From Inspiration to Action

(27:15) Lego and the Long Game

(28:52) Neuroscience of Community

(32:56) Hardest Chapters to Write

(37:56) Writing with the Community

(39:17) Community and AI Trust

(46:16) Key Takeaway and Legacy

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“Businesses that stay close to their customers will always outgrow those chasing them.”

In this episode, we discussed how community-driven strategies, nearbound marketing, and authentic human connections can transform how companies grow and build trust with their customers, in particular:

👉 What nearbound marketing is and why communities play a key role in it.

👉 How community insights can reshape product positioning and messaging.

👉 A simple but powerful method to start measuring community ROI.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Paul Jones, a nearbound marketing pioneer and founder of Bridgio, where he helps b2b brands replace outdated inbound and outbound tactics with community-driven growth and build authentic connections that drive revenue, in connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Paul and Yurii on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljones101/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Paul Jones

(01:14) What's Nearbound Marketing

(03:56) Connection Over Content

(06:47) Community Goes Mainstream

(10:01) Defining Real Community

(14:36) Business Community Chemistry

(17:08) Recruiting The Right Members

(20:01) Finding Relationship First People

(23:19) Abundance Mindset Wins

(27:35) Why Community ROI Differs

(29:54) Trust Then Demand Gen

(31:45) First Steps Build Community

(35:47) Community Shapes Messaging

(38:58) Simple ROI Attribution Tag

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“ROI becomes clear when you stop measuring vibes and start measuring outcomes.”

In this episode, we discussed how community leaders can connect community initiatives to measurable business outcomes by designing programs, engagement, and reporting that ladder up to company OKRs instead of vanity metrics, in particular:

👉 Why community ROI starts with company OKRs, not engagement metrics.

👉 How community influences network growth through referrals and advocacy.

👉 Why segmentation is key to delivering relevant, goal-aligned engagement at scale.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Ruthie Berber, a community builder with over 13 years of experience, collaborator, and advocate for women and wellness who believes community is how businesses grow, and builds communities that actually move the business: from scaling community from 0 to 1 at Yotpo to leading a 18K+ provider network at Grow Therapy, and more, in connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Ruthie and Yurii on Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthieberber/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Ruthie Berber

(01:12) Do Builders Need Builders

(02:11) Defining Community Value

(03:46) Community Goals to Business

(05:57) Growth Through Advocacy

(08:10) Learning Provider Needs

(10:07) Tracking Referrals

(11:57) AI Adoption Goal

(15:10) Making AI Feel Safe

(17:52) AI for Community Ops

(21:28) Community Tech Stack

(24:10) Ruthie's Tool Stack

(25:13) Tools to Replace and Try

(26:11) Key Cross Functional Partners

(27:34) Making Community Easy to Use

(30:23) Internal Calendars and Requests

(32:12) Segmentation and Targeting

(33:32) Onboarding and Events Engine

(35:16) Engaging Lurkers and Rituals

(37:45) Engagement Tied to Business

(40:16) Proving ROI with OKRs

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth

“Friction kills engagement, and Slack removes friction—people are there from 9 to 5 anyway.”

In this episode, we discussed how to directly tie community goals to revenue, retention, and growth, and how the right systems, data, and platform choices make that connection measurable and scalable, in particular:

👉 How community acts as a multiplier across sales, marketing, and customer success.

👉 The importance of internal community before external success.

👉 How to reverse-engineer community strategy from revenue targets.

Join Yurii Lazaruk, the Community Consultant, and Zach Hawtof, an occasional CEO at Tightknit, a community platform for businesses that run their communities on Slack, who clearly proves right all those community builders who keep saying that Slack is a great place for a community, in connecting community goals with business goals to drive business growth!

Connect with Zach and Yurii on Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhawtof/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk-community-consultant/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Meet Zach Hawtof

(01:12) What Is a “Community for Business”?

(02:20) Where Community Creates Real Business Value

(04:05) Why Build on Slack?

(06:48) Pros & Cons of Slack Communities

(09:14) Why Forums Win in the LLM Era

(11:38) AI’s Impact on Communities

(14:22) Bots, “Digital Twins,” and Verifying Real Humans in Slack

(18:16) Community Goals Must Tie to Business Goals

(20:33) Working Backwards from Business Targets

(24:13) Tie Community Activity to Business Goals with Analytics

(26:07) Getting Community Data into Salesforce/CRM

(27:52) Winning Stakeholders

(31:21) Tool Stack for Community Builders

(33:58) Gamification That Builds Loyalty

(39:04) Proving Community ROI

#communityROI #communitybuilding #businessgrowth