Josh Zerkel has spent 20 years building brand communities at companies like Asana, Evernote, and CBS News. He just published a book called The Community Code. And his argument is one that a lot of community professionals have been trying to make for a long time: community isn't a support deflection tool. It's a go-to-market engine, and most organizations have no idea how to treat it like one.

In this episode, Jake and Josh talk about why community keeps getting stuck in the "nice to have" bucket, how to speak about community impact in the language the rest of the business actually uses, and why showing confidence in your work is more effective than drowning stakeholders in metrics.

Find more about Josh:

• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Community-Code-Strengthening-Go-Market-ebook/dp/B0GNJBXCPR
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel/
• Substack: thecommunitycode.substack.com