The Community Experience

#032 Every community member is special, of course. But some are extra special. Today Tony is flying solo, and he's going to be talking about a very special type of member in every community: the super member, the one at the very center of your community culture. To explore that topic, he's bringing in a close friend and former member of the community he ran in NYC, New Work City: Whitney Hess. Whitney started out as a community experience designer, and has now become a renowned executive coach. Whitney shares a bit about her experience as a member of New Work City, and what made it possible for her to step into that space as a super member. You'll hear about how community leaders can operate in a “power-with” paradigm of community leadership and management and nurture their own super members. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx032.

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#031 It's hard to believe The Community Experience is more than 30 episodes old! Today, Jill and Tony are taking a look back at the first “quarter-century” of episodes of the show. They'll be taking turns going through the first 25 episodes of the CX Podcast and sharing their key takeaways. And to keep things exciting, they'll be limiting themselves to one minute per episode. No spoilers, so just sit back and enjoy the show! Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx031.

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#030 Is our society, our infrastructure, built to last? What if it's not? And what can we do, together, to prepare for that possibility? Bart Campolo is the son of famous Baptist evangelist Tony Campolo, and he's now a secular humanist who's hopeful but not optimistic about the future of humanity. So he's trying to get people thinking about how to cultivate resilient, loving communities that can withstand the challenges of the years ahead—communities that aren't necessarily bound together by beliefs. This is a super interesting—and challenging—episode. There's some swearing, too, so grab those headphones or keep the kids out of the room. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx030.

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#029 Dan Bennett went into the woods for 10 days and came back the Antipreneur. After losing everything and filing for bankruptcy, Dan hopped in a camper van and took it to the woods of Michigan. When he emerged, he had an epiphany to take his business helping people record video in their home offices online and scale it. Since then, he's become a go-to expert who helps people tell better stories and look better with their video content. Now, he has a small stable of one-on-one clients, and both DIY and done-with-you offerings. Oh, and a community he's built by becoming a member of other communities and learning the balance between taking and giving, asking and serving—the importance of reciprocity. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx029.

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#028 Demetrios Brinkmann has built his niche online community for machine learning operations (MLOps) pros in a really interesting way. He's managed to foster a sustainable space where people are excited about connecting and sharing value, where sponsors have a place (but spam is kept to the sidelines!), and—oh yeah—it's free to join. In today's episode, you'll learn how Demetrios balances multiple tools to pull his community together without creating overwhelm or confusion, the nifty onboarding sequence Demetrios created that helps keep spammers in check, and how he landed on just the right monetization scheme. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx028.

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#027 For Chris Reynolds, the digital entrepreneurship dream came somewhat easily. He took the manifesto of Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek and made it reality, traveling the globe as a location-independent entrepreneur. But something was missing—the people he'd left behind. So he made it his mission to bring entrepreneurs together. That could mean tapas hopping in Barcelona, hang gliding in Brazil, or climbing the tallest mountain in Costa Rica to raise money for charity. Through it all, he's aligned his own needs and desires with his work as a community builder. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx027.

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#026 By now, two years into the pandemic, we're all well acquainted (and probably a little exhausted) with online video meeting platforms like Zoom. Enter: proximity chat. Proximity chat platforms overlay video teleconferencing software on a virtual world environment, so users can "walk" around and interact with people and objects in that environment. It's like Legend of Zelda meets, well, Zoom. It's early for proximity chat, but there's so much potential—and we're going to scratch the surface of that potential today with Brooke Daily, the community manager at Topia, a browser-based proximity chat platform that's creating exciting opportunities for connection and play. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx026.

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#025 What does success in community look like? Is it getting hundreds and thousands of customers and working your socks off? Today's guest, Tom Ross, went there. At one point, he was the only full-time staff member running his seven-figure business. He burned out—badly—and ended up in the hospital. Thankfully, Tom rebounded to do some amazing things. This episode is special because we cover so much ground around what it means to be working sustainably, both personally and in the way you grow and manage a community. We tackle what it looks like to not burn yourself—or your members!—out building a community. You'll learn how to capitalize on and cater to the different personalities, styles, preferences, moods, and seasons in your community. And we hit on why many community founders run aground—and why you need to validate your community idea like a business before jumping in. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx025.

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#24 Have you ever found that you've been living your life a certain way for a while—and then you start to feel like it's not what you want anymore? But you're not sure exactly how or what needs to change? Our guests today, Phil and Krista Franks, run an organization called Owl and Key that's all about helping you create meaningful change by finding your authentic self. Phil and Krista work with a lot of people who've checked all the boxes—house, job, family… But they're feeling empty, and they don't know what's next. These struggles are the gateway to the work Phil and Krista do. They help people understand and deconstruct the assumptions they were brought up with that have guided them so far, and invite them into a new, creative phase where they can unlearn and take back the reins. Phil and Krista recently launched a community for folks who are learning how to claim their authentic selves, and they're here today to tell us a little bit about how to do that for ourselves and our communities. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx024.

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#23 Quiz time: What does customer service have to do with community experience? A whole lot, actually. It's people stuff, ya dig?

Nick Glimsdahl knows a thing or twenty about making customers and employees feel happy, and he joins us today to help weave together the worlds of customer experience and community experience.

In today's conversation, Jillian and Tony press "1" to pick Nick's brain on all things customer service, and how they relate to community experience—especially when people are unhappy. At the root of all of it—not surprisingly—is what Nick calls "tactical empathy": hearing people out and meeting them where they're at so you have a starting point to solve their problems. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx023

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