Scott Stirrett is the Co-founder and CEO of Venture for Canada, a non-profit organization on the mission to foster the entrepreneurial skills & mindsets of young Canadians. Venture for Canada’s vision is a Canada where young people can equitably realize their entrepreneurial potential to build the most prosperous place in the world. 

In this episode, Scott and Marsha chat about how VFC shifted from a thriving in-person community to having to adapt to becoming virtually focused. We then flip the script and Scott interviews Marsha about Fuckup Nights. They chat about failure, why young people should consider entrepreneurship, and why community is more important than ever for young people.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/scott-stirrett

Venture for Canada’s annual ALL THINGS PEOPLE virtual conference is coming up! In this event, you'll learn how to give everyone a seat at the table, and most importantly, how to put people first. Learn more here and buy your tickets today: https://bit.ly/3y9nMiK

 

 

Do you have a best friend at work? According to Dan Manian, it could be a game changer!

After spending years working in product at fast-growing startups, Dan co-founded Donut to help teams foster cultures of connectivity and collaboration. 

In this episode, Dan and Marsha chat about how to create rituals for your team that foster camaraderie and community. Dan also shares some great ideas around how to build connections equitably in a hybrid environment. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/dan-manian

Donut's Community: #donut-be-strangers

Donut has a new community, #donut-be-strangers, to connect the people who connect everyone else. If you're interested in meeting fellow connectors, learning vetted approaches to team engagement, and sharing what's worked for you, then you can go to donut.com and use the chat popup to request your invitation!

Ashley Barby is the founder of FashionTech, a global community for people at the intersection of fashion and technology. FashionTech provides programming through speaker series, networking opportunities, ongoing industry analysis and much more. Ashley is also the Retail Strategy Lead at Tulip, a mobile retail technology SaaS company at the forefront of omni-channel experiences.

In this episode, Ashley and Marsha chat about scaling a community with integrity, mistakes to avoid when just starting out, the future of retail and how community plays a massive role, and lots more. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/ashley-barby

David Spinks is the co-founder of CMX, VP of Community at Bevy, host of Masters of Community podcast, and the author of The Business of Belonging.

CMX is the world's largest network for community professionals. Over 25,000 of community professionals come to CMX for training, research, events, and community. In 2019, CMX was acquired by Bevy, an enterprise software platform that powers community-driven events and virtual conferences.

In this episode, David shares his journey of building CMX, how to turn an audience into a community, his thoughts on the future of the community industry, and so much more. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/david-spinks

Grab your copy of David’s new book: The Business of Belonging

 

Many years in business development have taught Jeff MacIntyre that business is built around solid relationships and how rewarding giving back to the community can be. 

Jeff leads the Fuckup Nights Kitchener-Waterloo community and is a Vice President Sales of and Corporate Development in the cannabis space.

This conversation takes us from Jeff’s unique wedding, to thinking through the future of events, how to build your network as an introvert, how to leave communities and situations that are no longer serving you, and so much more. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/jeffmacintyre

Bar Kirshon is the Co-Founder and CEO of Communyco, a new platform that helps content creators who teach their craft to connect with their online communities.

In this episode, Bar shares her journey of growing up with creative roots, moving from Israel to Canada, and starting and growing Communyco. Bar and Marsha chat about how to keep communities harassment free, how to find work-life balance, and how to find your community in a new city.

Show Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/bar-kirshon

Want to check out Communyco’s beta? Sign up on communyco.com using code "communyco-family" + check out their upcoming event - The Creator Series

Sheena Brady is a social entrepreneur and leader at Shopify. In 2013, she started her first company, Tease Tea, out of her condo. Today, Tease Tea has grown into a 7 figure social enterprise selling all-natural loose-leaf tea while giving back to programs empowering women. 

In 2019, Sheena created Founders Fund, the first digital accelerator supporting under-represented, women-identifying entrepreneurs during every stage of their journey. Members can access mentorship, resources, and non-repayable funding for their business. To date, Founders Fund has distributed over $100,000 dollars to fund women owned businesses while providing mentorship and community to over 600 founders across Canada.

In this episode, Sheena spills the tea on her winding personal and entrepreneurial journey. She opens up about the challenges and barriers that she’s faced along the way, and how this drove her to help others and create community. We chat about things ranging from entrepreneurship and financial literacy to when Sheena knew her husband was the one.  Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/sheena-brady

Marjorie Anderson is the Product Manager for Community at Project Management Institute, a professional membership association shaping the project management industry.

Outside her 9-5, she is the founder of Community by Association, an organization and online community for those who build communities for associations and nonprofits. 

In this episode, Marjorie and Marsha chat about how to identify and support your community super users, how measure the business impact of your initiatives, and how to create a community strategy. Marjorie shares her career journey in community management, and has some great advice for young professionals looking to advance in this industry.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/marjorie-anderson

This episode takes a deep dive into the fascinating world of gaming communities, featuring Victoria Tran, the Community Director for Among Us at Innersloth. 

The Among Us Twitter account officially launched with its first post on Nov 18 2020 and gained 1 million followers within 1 month. In this episode, Victoria shares her social media strategies and what she learned after suddenly inheriting a community of half a billion players.

In the gaming industry in particular, toxicity and trolling can be rampant. Victoria and Marsha take a deep dive into moderation challenges, creating social values, and how we can create more sustainable and kinder online communities.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/victoria-tran

After being hospitalized for COVID-19 in March of 2020, Fiona co-founded the Body Politic COVID-19 Support Group, which offers support and resources to thousands of people living with COVID-19 around the world.

In April, Fiona wrote what is believed to be the first account of long-haul COVID in The New York Times. She’s been covering the patient experience and leading COVID patient advocacy efforts ever since.  

In this episode, Fiona shares her personal experience with long-haul COVID and how she created and fostered her community. Moderation in a support community is very unique - Fiona and Marsha chat through some of those intricacies. They also chat about how we can recenter the health and wellness conversation around the people and groups that have historically been left out and how we can all be better allies.

Episode Notes: createcommunitypod.com/episodes/fiona-lowenstein

Have you ever felt like your life is missing deep, meaningful, long-lasting connections, even though you get along just fine with everyone you meet? 

That’s how Niloo Ravaei and Nina Iordanova felt before they met. They quickly became best friends + co-founders and set out to build a dating app. They thought there was a better way to date and find meaningful relationships, so they built an AI matchmaker that works over text message. But, they realized along the way that they were solving the wrong problem.

Today, their startup has evolved into Good People, a community that brings people together in 3-month long cohorts and creates shared experiences.

In this episode, Niloo and Nina share the many twists and turns of their startup journey and why *community* was the answer all along. They also chat with Marsha about how to lead with vulnerability and how to make and foster meaningful connections. 

Episode Notes: createcommunitypod.com/episodes/good-people

Check out the Commerce Chefs podcast

What does it take to create a magical ecommerce brand? Join hosts Kyle and Tom as they pit the world’s most intriguing DTC visionaries- the “Commerce Chefs” -- with provoking questions to uncover the secret ingredients that make brave brands enduring classics. Whether you’re a seasoned eComm leader or an up-and-coming maverick, each episode will find something unexpected at the intersection of passion, performance, and leadership in practice. Listen on your favorite platform now!

Joanne Taranto is driven by a passion for empowering ordinary people to create community change. She's the Founder of Good for the Hood - an Australian social enterprise that’s all about bringing ordinary people together and giving them the tools to create meaningful change in their local communities. 

This is a feel-good, deeply moving episode that you don’t want to miss! Jo and Marsha chat about how to get started in making a difference in your community, how to mobilize and empower the people around you, how to make your initiatives sustainable, and so much more. 

Episode Notes: createcommunitypod.com/episodes/joanne-taranto

Check out the Commerce Chefs podcast

What does it take to create a magical ecommerce brand? Join hosts Kyle and Tom as they pit the world’s most intriguing DTC visionaries- the “Commerce Chefs” -- with provoking questions to uncover the secret ingredients that make brave brands enduring classics. Whether you’re a seasoned eComm leader or an up-and-coming maverick, each episode will find something unexpected at the intersection of passion, performance, and leadership in practice. Listen on your favorite platform now!

This episode provides a unique look inside the community of a serial entrepreneur and angel investor.

Chris Carder is the Executive Director of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business. He leads the development of accelerator services for the university and various programs and partnerships throughout the wider innovation ecosystem. He also heads up the ‘Schulich Startups’ community - now supporting more than 150 student/alumni companies.

Chris believes that with crisis comes opportunity. When COVID struck, Chris and his team at Schulich partnered with Google, Shopify, the City of Toronto and more to create the Digital Main Street ShopHERE program. This program helped create online stores for small businesses and employ hundreds of students. Chris shares how he’s navigated through 2020 to make a massive impact and create community. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/chris-carder

Holly Firestone has built and run some of the largest enterprise communities and community programs in the world at Atlassian and Salesforce.

She is currently Head of Community at Venafi, where she’s building a community for security professionals that are invested in the success and management of machine identities.

In this episode, Holly opens up about the ups and downs of her community journey. Holly and Marsha take a deep dive into community and mental health. They explore some solutions to better support community professionals. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/holly-firestone

 

Does your company really need an internal community?

Carter Gibson thinks so. 

Carter is currently the Internal Community Management Program Lead at Google. He leads strategies to establish foundations of moderation, amplify positive contributions, and advocate Googlers' needs to decision makers. The challenge? Retain, define, and evolve Google's world-class corporate culture as it adapts to an online-first world. 

In this episode, Carter chats with Marsha about his winding career and personal journey and all things internal community. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/carter-gibson

 

Crimson Rose is a co-founder of Burning Man, the Black Rock Arts Foundation and the Burning Man Project. Her life passion and work have focused on the arts, artistic expression and community.

Crimson began participating in the Burning Man event in 1991 and was the original fire dancer. She developed the organization’s Art Department, including the infrastructure that makes the large-scale participatory art works that Burning Man is renowned for possible.

In this very special episode, Crimson shares the journey that led her to Burning Man, the growth and evolution of this magical community, and an inside look into its business operations and challenges. She shares the heartbreak of cancelling the physical gathering in Black Rock City in 2020, how Burning Man pivoted to VR, and how we can keep the fire of our communities burning through COVID.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/crimson-rose

 

Daanish Ahamed is the Founder of PR Ramp - a student focused PR association that provides networking, mentorship and resources for students and graduates.

Primarily a screenwriter and director, Daanish is an ambitious young professional now pursuing a career in public relations and marketing. 

If you’re a new grad or young professional, you don’t want to miss this episode. Daanish and Marsha chat about creating win-win mentorship relationships, how to land amazing volunteer roles, and how he’s building the PR Ramp community.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/daanish-ahamed

Neil Martin is the Co-Founder of Project Spaces, coworking in downtown Toronto for entrepreneurs, digital nomads, and remote professionals.

Neil met his cofounder Jeff at university and they founded Project Spaces in 2011 because they were tired of working on their startup from the living room. With no playbook to follow, and armed only with a wifi connection, a keg fridge and a foosball table, Project Spaces was born.

In this episode, Neil shares the ups and downs of the Project Spaces journey, how he makes new community members feel welcome, pivoting through COVID, and his thoughts on the future of work.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/neil-martin

Learn more about Project Spaces: https://www.projectspac.es/fuckup

Angelica Coleman is the Senior Community Manager at Snowflake, a cloud platform that helps companies mobilize their data. There, she’s leading the technical community and creating a community engagement program filled with organic brand ambassadors.

Previously, Angelica was the Director of Community at Lesbians Who Tech. Along her career journey, she's also worked at Dropbox where she created and led the Black Dropboxers Employee Resource Group.

Angelica and Marsha chat about how to scale community programs, improve user retention, and delight customers. Angelica also shares her honest advice for new community professionals who are looking to grow within the industry and for companies that previously slept on community. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/angelica-coleman

Kobie Fuller is a seasoned Venture Capitalist who deeply believes in the power of community.

Kobie is a General Partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest and longest serving venture fund in Southern California. He’s led investments in companies including TheWaveVR, Cordial, Bevy, The Mighty and MetaCX. Over his career he’s invested early in notable companies including Exact Target (sold to Salesforce for $2.5B) and Oculus (sold to Facebook for $2B).

Outside of VC, Kobie was the CMO at REVOLVE, one of the largest global fashion e-commerce players, where he built a massive community of influencers.

As a Black VC, Kobie wanted better visibility into his own community and couldn’t believe that a centralized network of Black professionals didn’t exist yet. So, he founded Valence, a community that’s on a mission to unlock the global combined power of Black professionals to create massive economic and social progress.

In this episode, Kobie shares what VC is really like, how brands can create movements, and how he’s building Valence.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/kobie-fuller