The Community Builder Show

Host Travis King of the Community Builder Podcast talks with Sherry Orel, President and CEO of Scentered, about business growth, mindfulness, and holding yourself accountable.

Episode Highlights: 

• After 14 years in branding, she knew she was ready to try something new and not return to a large company but to be more entrepreneurial.
• Sherry found herself asking how she wanted to spend the next 10 years of her life and how she wanted to feel during that time.
• She knew she wanted to take an existing idea that had built a foundation and scale it significantly, and she knew she wanted to do something that would help people.
• Scentered developed essential oil blends in a solid format to make it easier to travel with and to incorporate into a daily routine.
• Being a “disrupter” is part of her personality, so that aspect of entrepreneurialism appealed to her.
• She differentiated Scentered’s value proposition in the aromatherapy market as being a positive part of your regular wellness routine instead of being used to solve a problem like stress or insomnia.
• Scentered thinks about every aspect of their packaging and business practice sustainably—not just recyclability but the overall reuse value of every element of the packaging even if it makes it more costly to produce.
• They launched a corporate wellbeing program to partner with companies that are prioritizing their employee happiness and wellness.
• Being “centered” means different things to different people, but some ideas that come up pretty universally are mindfulness and purpose.
• Scentered is about the choice to take a mindful moment.
• Using your calendar to hold yourself accountable and plan your success and what you want to get done by being mindful and intentional about how you spend your time.
• Approach decisions and problems with a “calculated fearlessness.”
• Women often unintentionally put themselves in a position of not pursuing an opportunity because they think they may not want it, but it is not impolite to walk away from an opportunity, it is simply perceived as more masculine.
• Often, the least effective departments in an organization are failing because leadership is not empowering their team or making them feel safe to fail.

3 Key Points:

1. Approaching career choices by asking how you want to feel and what you care about, you’ll end up doing something where you are more impactful and effective.
2. Changing your frame of mind around an activity you hate can, over time, completely change it into something you appreciate and enjoy doing.
3. Take the time to check in with yourself about your intentions and purpose in order to be mindful about how you spend your time and energy.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “It’s not just about, I have a conference call with such-and-such and that one meeting is on my calendar, it’s about where’s the white space, what’s in my email box, what are some things that I know I need to do and focus on?” –Sherry Orel
• “Putting yourself in a position where you’re getting the offer and saying no is a much stronger position of power and opportunity than unknowingly putting yourself in the position where you didn’t have to say no because you really didn’t pursue it.” –Sherry Orel

Resources Mentioned:

• www.scentered.com
• Sherry Orel: Twitter
• Sherry Orel: LinkedIn
• Travis King: Linkedin

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Hey Podcast Community - this is a very special conversation I had with the amazing Monica Adams.

One of my favorite pieces from this episode was when we discussed how we can bring people together through their fears. I find this topic so fascinating because if we really think about it, most of us have had moments where we were afraid to take a step in a new direction. What if we came together, shared are TRUTHs, and see what happens?

Thank you for listening! If you found an ounce of value from this conversation with Monica Adams, please leave us a review. It really helps out the podcast and helps more amazing episodes like this get heard by more people.

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Host Travis King of the Community Builder Podcast talks with Jayson Gaignard, Connector of Fascinating Entrepreneurs, Founder and Talent Scout at MMT.Community, Host at CommunityMade.com, and Author about getting connected, staying connected, prioritizing your networking, and the value of mastermind meetups. 

Episode Highlights:

●     Jayson Gaignard shares where he is from and his upbringing. 

●     What was the moment when he first got started? 

●     How have his events expanded and grown?

●     What do some of the underdogs that have attended MMT looked like?

●     How does Jayson deal with relationships that are at different tiers than he 

            is?  

●     Be brutally honest instead of trying to ‘fake it until you make it.’

●     How does he stay connected with so many people throughout the year?

●     Jayson describes what Dunbar’s Numbers are and how they apply to 

            relationship building. 

●     It doesn’t matter how many people you can count. It is about how many 

            people you can count on. 

●     First nurture your core group, then your connectors, and then your 

            community.  

●     How did it feel to take the first advice that he took from his first mentor? 

●     Become so good that those above you can’t ignore you. 

●     What is a topic that he is incredibly interested in that he hasn’t shared with 

            people?  

●     What is the biggest misconception about Jayson Gaignard? 

3 Key Points:

1.  You stand for something or you stand for nothing. 

2.  The stronger the uncommon commonality that people share, the deeper the 

       bond. 

3.  Jayson usually surrounds himself with people that are two or three steps ahead of him. 

Tweetable Quotes:

●   “You go from survival to sustainability, from sustainability to success, and then success to significance.” – Jayson Gaignard

●   “We’ve had just over 17,000 entrepreneurs apply for a community that is capped at 150 people annually.” – Jayson Gaignard

●   “Our 2019 event is sold out a year in advance. Our 2020 event, when we go to announce, it will be sold out rather soon as well. All the success, the core of it, comes from the curation of the community.” – Jayson Gaignard

Resources Mentioned:

● Travis King: Linkedin

● communitybuildershow.com

● Jayson Gaignard: Linkedin Twitter  

● jaysongaignard.com

● mmt.community

●

Host Travis King of the Community Builder Podcast talks with Richard Mulholland, a highly regarded speaker and guest lecturer, about the pitfalls of legacy thinking, knitting communities, public speaking, goal setting, victory conditions and more.

Episode Highlights: 

• Richard considers the identifiers of speaker, founder, and entrepreneur to be the same thing because they’re all connected.
• If you’re a speaker, you speak about things you know because of your work not as a speaker.
• He wrote a book about his experience founding a company 
• You can’t solve problems with legacy thinking; you can’t create new knowledge with existing knowledge.
• Richard tries to provide outside perspectives to solve problems, because you can’t learn from inside a bubble and currently most startups use the same vocabulary for success even in hugely variable industries.
• In building community within the board game world, Richard looked at the knitting community.
• He founded Missing Link, a presentation company, when he was 22, not because he loved presentations, but because he hated them so much and saw an opportunity to fix them.
• Missing Link scaled by writing presentations for corporations by distilling the core information the corporation wants to communicate, and coaching speakers to personalize that information to their own speaking style.
• We’re taught that being first is the best, but it’s actually a huge disadvantage because being second means you have a model to work off of—the first person is running a marathon, and then you can come in with a sprint.
• Richard’s strategy is to help create a shared goal he calls the victory condition, which is where you want the organization to be and by when, and then gives freedom to achieve that goal however they see fit.
• People don’t have to fly in formation; different departments need different information to reach the same goal, and what matters is that everyone ends up at the same place at the same time.

3 Key Points:

1. Innovating requires unlearning.
2. Presenting is not about speaking, it is about the writing.
3. The best strategy for startup success is to set people on their individual paths to a shared goal.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Business is what I do now, but it’s certainly not what I hope to be defined by.” –Richard Mulholland
• “Based on the world as it looks today, and the condition of victory that we share, how would we best get there?” –Richard Mulholland

Resources Mentioned:

• Richard Mulholland: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin
• Legacide by Richard Mulholland
• https://www.msnglnk.com/ 
• https://www.talkdrawer.com/ 
• Travis King: Linkedin
• communitybuildershow.com

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Travis sits down with traveler, social media strategist and community builder Nicolette Orlemans. 

Intro: Background + community origin story

Topic 1: What was it like growing up? How did you get started?

I grew up in a bilingual household in the Netherlands with a Polish mom and a Dutch dad. My parents inspired wanderlust in me as a child, as we traveled often (they started traveling with me when I was a baby). In 2000, we moved to the US for my dad’s work, and started expat life.

Travel has always been something I feel grateful to be able to do, and I really enjoy connecting with others who travel. It’s endlessly fascinating to me that, as people, we go to similar destinations, but have vastly different, unique experiences. That’s the beauty of travel and exploring local culture in our own way. I love being able to talk to others about their travels and experiences.

Topic 2: Let’s talk about what community means to you.

To me, community means a place where people can talk freely. It’s a space where people share stories, become inspired, feel supported, share advice, ask questions, and rely on each other’s feedback.

I don’t think community has to be a homogenous thing–meaning that people can have differences in opinion and perspectives–but it should be a place where people feel comfortable talking to each other no matter the differences.

Topic 3: Let’s talk about the different tribes that you support. Who are the members? Why does this circle exist and what is your mission? How do you work together to achieve your mission?

I especially love connecting with travelers, no matter how often they travel. Travelers tend to be very open-minded, and share interesting perspectives on not just the destinations they visit, but also on how they personally grow from visiting different places and learning from diverse cultures.

In 2014, I started participating more in Twitter chats, online real-time conversations happening over a unified hashtag at set dates/times. Twitter chats allow people to connect with others, and share their perspectives. As people respond with the associated hashtag, others can connect with them and ask questions or start conversations.

On November 13, 2014, I launched my very own travel Twitter chat focused on the intersection of culture and travel. I aspired to create conversations among people about cultural immersion, and what helps people get to know local culture on a deeper level.

Today, the chat is still happening every Thursday and connecting travelers worldwide in shared conversations. Since the launch of the chat, I’ve expanded into a community website, a Facebook group, and hosted in-person meetups to bring travelers together.

In October 2018, I launched a Kickstarter for Travel Banter, a conversation starter card game inspired by the online conversations my community has had over the years. It’s the “real life” version of the Twitter chats and helps bring people in a fun, meaningful way offline to have conversations around culture and travel.

Topic 4: What are a few lessons you’ve learned from your journey in the online community space?

As technology changes, we should embrace that. Technology is constantly evolving and new platforms pop up, though people crave real conversations no matter the platform.

Behind every social media profile is a real person. What excites this person? What stories does this person have to share? How do we connect to each other on a deeper level?

I think it’s important to inspire storytelling both online and offline. We can’t forget that storytelling is at the core of everything we do. We connect with people over shared experiences,...

Host Travis King of the Community Builder Podcast talks with Cecil Phillip, Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. They discuss the misconceptions we have about social media followers, ways to get over your fears of connecting, the importance of meeting people offline in real life, how to find your people, overcoming loneliness and more.

Episode Highlights:

●     How did Cecil start joining or becoming a part of communities?  

●     What tactics can people use to join communities? 

●     What should you do if you are scared to join communities? 

●     People still feel nervous to talk in front of others, even when they are experienced in their field. 

●     How can you overcome loneliness?  

●     What is the downside of chasing social media followers? 

●     The current drug of the world is attention. 

●     Cecil discusses social media and online etiquette. 

●     What advice does Cecil have for joining a community or starting a community? 

3 Key Points:

1.  Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

2.  Find your offline/online balance by meeting up with people in real life. 

3.  How many of your social media friends can you actually call and talk to? 

Tweetable Quotes:

●   “Once you start to be around similar people, obviously conversations are going to start. People are going to start talking to you. You are going to start talking to people, particularly if you are the speaker.” – Cecil Phillip

●   (Sharing knowledge) “What is it worth if nobody else knows I have this gold?” – Cecil Phillip

●   “Don’t stay in a place where people don’t make you feel valued.” – Cecil Phillip

Resources Mentioned:

● Travis King: Linkedin

● communitybuildershow.com

● Cecil Phillip: Linkedin Twitter

● cecilphillip.com

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Host Travis King of the Community Builder Podcast talks with Fran Hauser, author of The Myth of the Nice Girl, about her career, supporting female-founded startups, and the Nice Girl Army.

Episode Highlights: 

• Fran created the Nice Girl Army by connecting a group of women she had previously mentored so they could help to amplify the message of her book.
• This grew into mentoring, networking sessions, parties, and workshops.
• A challenge of running the community is Fran wishing she had the time and energy to invest in bringing the Nice Girl Army together to connect in person.
• Because they’re forced to connect online more often than in person, a technical challenge is determining the most effective and efficient platform to facilitate that.
• Lastly, Fran questions whether to grow the group and scale it up or if that would dilute the value.
• Travis suggests giving these organizing opportunities to eager members as a sort of Nice Girl Army Leadership Team.
• Two major models for online communities: first, many autonomous groups that loosely exist under the same umbrella, or a version that’s more tightly controlled by the main creator and brand.
• Fran engages with the Nice Girl Army by, for example, doing book giveaways and asking them for suggestions for her Refinery29 column.
• Fran and her writing partner are launching a half-day in-person workshop for how to write a book proposal.

3 Key Points:

1. Think about what the trade-offs are to growing your business and scaling up.
2. Engage with your community in ways that benefit you and benefit them.
3. Best practices around community building are not discussed often enough.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “We go around the room, and each person introduces themselves and states an offer and an ask. So something that they can offer to the group and an ask that they have, something they need help with.” –Fran Hauser, on her mentor circles

Resources Mentioned:

• Fran Hauser: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin
• Travis King: Linkedin
• communitybuildershow.com

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Hey Everyone,

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Also happy birthday weekend to myself! As a gift to you all and myself, i decided to put out this fresh episode with George that I had tonight. It's very interesting because I'm at the intersection of Enterprise B2B technology and the future of community + blockchain, which now that I learned about it a little, is super interesting and I can better understand why there are over 4,000 of these bitcoin groups around the world on Meetup's platform. Okay you'll hear the context of the episode and I hope you enjoy it and share with your friends, or anyone else who might be interested in:

• Creativity
• Words From the Community
• Legend @ Managing and Leading People
• Empathy
• Resourceful
• People Skills
• Rare
• Bringing out the best in people
• Wondrous
• How to be an effective and easy to talk to Communicator
• Awesome Facilitator
• Community Strategy
• Community Leadership Coaching
• Employee Experience (EX) Design

George, by day, is the Managing Director at Faiā, who helps brands manage communities more wisely. Their mission is to bridge the gap between people and technology, one community at a time. By night, he hosts the It Will Come Show podcast, and is the founder of an accountability mastermind group called The Pack.

George typically work with community-minded organisations, but also has worked with startup founders, SMEs, fintech enterprises, and community influencers.

Love this quote that’s on the It Will Come About Page - “We guide the way by sharing talks with others who are trailblazing their way.”

This agenda is here to serve as a guide. Feel free to adventure away from the script with an emphasis on the topics and ideas you’re most excited to discuss together.

Topic 1: What was it like growing up.. Transition into how you got started to being the Managing Director at Faiā.

Topic 2: What communities did you start and why? What do they look like today?

• It Will Come
• Faiā
• Others?

Topic 3: How do you stay connected and grounded in your world?

Patience→ GaryVee - played it everyday on his way to find the next job

Topic 4: Let’s talk about the different ways you’ve learned from on your journey.

• What skills or lessons were self taught?
• Conversations
• Random meetings and through conversations with people
• From others?
• Books?

Topic 5: Many positions in his career - George had 13 and I had 21 different jobs/projects so far

Tell me about the experiences that are not on your resume

Topic 6: What community or people if any do you look up to, and why?

• Family
• International School → always somewhere there and no matter how much has passed by, it’s like no times were passed.
• Being in it but not fully in it

Topic 7: Talk to us about some upcoming trends you’re seeing..

• Community
• Community Strategy
• Community Leadership Coaching
• Creativity
• Empathy

Topic 8: What’s next?

Topic 9: Freestyle - feel free to insert any current challenges you’re facing, what your dream community or initiative would look like, or anything that you’d like to discuss. Maybe more learnings that will relevant for young entrepreneurs?

Will update the show notes in the future and the episode with my new intro music that is being produced at the moment.

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Host Travis King of the Community Builder Podcast talks with Claire Wasserman about gender dynamics in business, how to effectively network, and the unexpected ways you can impact others.

Episode Highlights: 

• Even before she began Ladies Get Paid, Claire worked in recruitment and was already thinking about what influenced people to accept a job offer and to stay in that job.
• Investing in women is crucial for the overall economy.
• Claire created an even with a town hall format for women to discuss what money means to them, with an open forum for women to share their situations rather than attempting to provide generic advice.
• She created a Slack group for the women in attendance to continue the conversation, and it grew to a website, to a coaching company.
• When you do work to found a company on your own, it’s potentially as valuable as going to business school.
• Claire suggests finding your “portal person,” or a person in your network who sits at the intersection of a lot of people you could potentially connect with.
• When reaching out to your portal person to ask for something, also think about what you can offer to them.
• Consider whether it would be more beneficial to you to learn by working for someone else and get paid rather than immediately starting your own company where the ultimate success or failure depends entirely on your learning curve.
• To grow the company, Claire and her business partner started an ambassador program to train women to run similar events in their cities.
• Grassroots organizing provides similar tools to grow a community, like toolkits to run events in your own area.
• Many women involved with Ladies Get Paid are running for office and starting political-related businesses because they know they have a community of like-minded women behind them; one major example is now-Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

3 Key Points:

1. A major factor to the success of a startup is avoiding indecision.
2. Don’t ask to pick someone’s brain, but ask specific questions instead.
3. Look to political campaigns and grassroots organizing for methods to grow your events related business and community.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “What I’m good at is starting something but not necessarily growing it... So I knew I was on the right path, but I needed someone to illuminate the path a little more so I could get there quicker, and that’s when I realized I had to find a partner.” –Claire Wasserman
• “A small thing you do can end up having a huge impact on another person, who in turn impacts even more people.” –Claire Wasserman

Resources Mentioned:

• Claire Wasserman: Website, Instagram, Linkedin
• https://www.ladiesgetpaid.com/ 
• Travis King: Linkedin
• communitybuildershow.com

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