CSP Episode 99: Create Belonging

3:19 Carrie discovered music forums when searching for sheet music to learn how to play the guitar. She found an online forum with people with the same interest in music. “It was the first time I felt safe sharing what was happening.” 

5:44 She shares that as she entered her career, she’s continued to be drawn to building relationships. When discovering community managers, she declared this was “it.” 

9:50 Carrie shares her first start in the community industry, starting with Socratic (AI-based education app), Scribd (online library), and Chegg (online book rentals).

12:02 In her first experiences of working in the corporate world, Carrie shares how she struggled to connect with colleagues. She left and decided to spend a year with her best friend, traveling around New Zealand and Australia. The trip was challenging as it was outside her comfort zone, but she became interested in talking to people and learning about other cultures, which helped her become more of an extravert. 

17:21 Community professionals sometimes feel like introverts instead of extroverts. Carrie encourages new community managers to try new things and says that doing something “scary” really helps develop skills and become more outgoing. 

20:57 A challenging time in Carrie’s life led her to take time off her career. She shares how she navigated her transition to becoming a consultant. She shares how she stood in her power during a job interview. She knew they weren’t looking to hire her but wanted to “pick her brain” about what she knew. After the meeting, she sent them an invoice. That was how she stepped into the consulting space.  

25:19 Carrie shares the background of her relationship with CMX. She worked as a content creator and started doing consulting on the side. By the end of 4 years, she knew it was time for a change, so she took time off and decided to go into consulting full-time. 

35:46 Some of Carrie’s best advice about what she would tell herself if she were starting over is to charge more than she did. Deb and Carrie talk about how consulting is about capturing value, but everyone’s business is different, so consultants do things differently. The key is to figure out what works best for you if you are new to consulting. 

37:20 In her book Building Brand Communities, Carrie discusses the experience working with Charles Vogl, Author of The Art of Community, Seven Principles for Belonging. He was the catalyst that motivated her to write the book and helped her author it and publish it in a shorter period. 

40:48 It’s easy to get stuck in the “data and metrics” of community building, and Carrie focuses on relationship building. She works with clients who understand it will take more than 18 months to see engagement. Some organizations are focused on being the “best,” and others are more focused on the belief that we are in this together. 

44:52 Deb and Carrie give tips to new community builders looking to launch a paid membership. There are many ways to build a business; community is just one way to grow as a new business owner. Carrie reflects on David Bowie’s new documentary. She is titled David Bowie: Out of this world. From that film, she took the insight that if the process of creating art isn’t exciting, fun, or engaging, the art won’t be as good as it could be, and Deb resonates with this by sharing her journey as a photographic artist. 

48:14 The consulting challenge is confirmed in 2022, and Carrie shares the challenges that occurred this year. She acknowledges that she’s had a lot of “starts and stops” with clients holding off investments. In 2023, Carrie expects that this will continue and that there are many things that need to change for companies, organizations, and leaders to change how talent is hired or fired. She says that there are tons of opportunities for the community industry.