Shin Takeda is changing the game for creators by creating done-for-you membership Slack communities for them. Creator funnels their audience, Shin handles end-to-end operations of running their paid community. That includes events, moderation, content, website, strategy and everything in between required to make sure these communities thrive and customers stay happy. Obviously the creators love it. But more importantly - members love it too! We spent 45 minutes diving deep into his process: - Why communities are the next big opportunity for creators - Shin’s tactics for building engaged, high-value communities - How to reduce churn in paid communities - The tech stack he uses to run world-class communities - Why Slack is still king for professional communities Resources: • Democratize Knowledge, Shin's agency - http://democratizeknowledge.com/ • Beginner Maps, magic sauce of top community businesses - https://beginnermaps.com/ • Curated Connections, the connections tool Shin uses - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Shin's X - https://x.com/shinnosuke_san • Nityesh's X - https://x.com/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:48 What is Democratize Knowledge 06:17 Shin's Journey into Community Management 16:30 Engagement tactics for creator-led communities 22:19 Reducing churn in paid comunities 24:07 Why Slack is still the king of professional communities 28:28 Limitations of Slack 31:19 Shin's Tech Stack 36:02 Final Thoughts

Jordan Cutler, a dynamic creator, shares his inspiring journey to building a newsletter with over 50,000 subscribers while balancing a full-time job. He reveals strategies for newsletter growth, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and personal experience in content creation. Jordan also discusses launching a successful cohort-based course on Maven, highlighting how he managed time and engagement with participants. His insights into leveraging platforms for audience interaction provide valuable tips for aspiring creators looking to monetize their expertise.

Ryan Wardell, CEO and cofounder of Startup Sauce, shares insights from his thriving community for SaaS founders. He dives into the magic sauce behind successful masterminds, highlighting the importance of pairing members and fostering genuine relationships for higher retention rates. Ryan discusses effective community-building strategies, including strategic pricing and establishing membership thresholds to enhance member quality. He emphasizes creating a comfortable environment for introverts and shares innovative tactics for engagement and collaboration.

Shreman Shrestha is the Head of Community for the Friends of Lenny’s Slack community. This community comes bundled with the Paid subscription for Lenny’s Newsletter and at the time of recording there are 17k+ members in here. In this episode, Shre discusses how this community is able to organise 200+ in-person meetups per year, challenges with organising a great mentor matching program, working with volunteers and more. Resources: • Beginner Maps - free crash course on building a community business - ⁠https://beginnermaps.com⁠ • Curated Connections, the community engagement app - ⁠https://curatedconnections.io/⁠ • Shreman's Twitter - https://twitter.com/itsDrDrewithaSh/ • Lenny's community + newsletter - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/community • Nityesh's Twitter (host) - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 03:09 Lenny's community persona 04:33 Why people join the community 09:12 Increasing retention 10:52 Shre's story 13:10 Shre's responsibilities 17:52 Member-led city meetups 22:18 Guidelines for meetup hosts 25:29 Finding hosts 26:45 Financials of a meetup 28:21 Dealing with low attendance 31:46 Mentor matching program 37:07 Workbook for mentor and mentee 38:54 Building a great volunteer program 42:49 Advice for creators with audience 48:33 Observing members to get new ideas

Daniel Vassallo, cofounder of Small Bets, shares his innovative approach to building a thriving community with over 5,000 paying members. He discusses the unique model of paying guest speakers $1,000 per class to ensure quality content and engagement. Vassallo reveals the benefits of a one-time membership fee, emphasizing its role in reducing churn and enhancing member value. He also explores effective strategies for re-engaging inactive members and the creation of Smallbot, a playful AI to boost community interaction. Tune in for insightful takes on community dynamics!

Kyle Hagge led the community efforts at Morning Brew's Learning division as a Director of Community. This interview is a “reflection episode” where Kyle takes us back to this time and shares his “magic sauce”. Among other things, he shares how his team decided which courses to pilot, why he chose Circle to host the community and why it's a good idea to automate connections. Resources: • Our free crash course where you can learn the "magic sauce" of top communities - https://beginnermaps.com/ • Curated Connections, the tool that allows communities to automate connections - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Kyle's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylehagge • Kyle's Twitter - https://twitter.com/kylehagge • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ • Nityesh's Twitter - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:55 What was Learning Brew? 05:36 Deciding which courses to run 10:27 Making a boring old topic interesting 12:53 Alumni Advisory Board 17:56 Transforming students through discomfort 22:28 Recording acceptance videos 24:52 Tracking outcomes 27:01 Engineering connections through automation 29:55 Circle vs Slack vs Zoom 35:28 Creating a party at virtual events 39:39 Breakout rooms 42:02 Final advice for community builders

Charlie Ward is the founder of Ramen Club - a private community of 300+ bootstrapped SaaS entrepreneurs that gives them the support and education to grow their business. In this interview, Charlie shares the origin story of Ramen Club, how he organises the masterminds, how he organises in-person meetups in different cities of the world and more. Resources: • Curated Connections (our tool to connect your community members) - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Get Powerup (Charlie’s Slack app for creating leaderboards) - https://www.ramenclub.so/studio-ramen/powerup-app • Ramen Club - https://www.ramenclub.so/ • Charlie’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/charlierward/ • Nityesh’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:13 What's Ramen Club 10:58 First 10 customers 15:04 Next 100 customers 17:52 Building tools for marketing 21:21 Event recordings to podcast 26:36 Organising masterminds 37:15 Organising local meetups 46:27 Charlie's engagement strategy 50:22 Favourite book on community 52:45 His accountability tool for communities

Erin Halper is the founder/CEO of The Upside - a private community of top independent consultants that gives them the resources and the support that they need to grow their business. The Upside uses Circle as their community platform. In fact, they were recognized as one of Circle's top performing communities out of more than 10, 000 communities that are hosted there! In this interview, Erin reveals the unique strategies she uses and the mistakes she has learnt from to build a premium community membership business. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:54 The idea of Upside 04:49 Starting with a stupidly low price 06:33 The 250-member limit 10:09 Not in it for the money 11:42 Some things that didn't work 16:09 Getting first 20 customers 17:39 3 main sources of new customers 19:44 Switching from Facebook to Circle 24:37 Why Circle worked for her community? 27:31 Erin's 3-person community team 30:53 Directory of content role 33:12 Member spotlight campaigns 34:30 Automating matches between members 39:18 Playbook for running masterminds 49:07 Application process for The Upside 52:03 Welcoming new members 57:42 Erin's big question for you

Clara Ma is the founder of Ask a Chief of Staff, a community membership business that helps Chiefs of Staff level up in their career. If you are one of her 23k+ followers on Linkedin, you will know how full her events calendar for the community is. So, it came as a shock to me when she told me she and her EA were the only people working on this business. This episode is a masterclass on building a valuable events calendar in your community. --- Sign up for the free email course where we operators of top community businesses, like Clara, teach you their unique magic - https://beginnermaps.com/ --- Resources: • Connect with Clara - https://linkedin.com/in/clarama/ • Ask a Chief of Staff - https://askachiefofstaff.com/ • Connect with Nityesh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ --- Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:04 Who's in her community? 03:48 Origin story of the business 07:10 Is the market too small? 09:18 First 10 → 100 customers 10:36 Charge from the beginning 13:06 Leaning on word-of-mouth 15:38 Posting on LinkedIn to start discussions 19:59 Masterclass on managing an events calendar 26:21 In-person events 28:32 Meet her team 29:42 Selling tickets to community events 33:16 Afraid of community going quiet

Ece Kurtaraner is the community consultant for Generalist World, a fast growing community membership business that helps generalists grow in their careers. Along with this, she also works with Rosieland - another private community for community builders. So, safe to say, Ece knows the secrets of building a community business. Her key insight - "Don’t overthink it, don’t try to make it perfect and keep experimenting." Learn more about how she thinks building a community business in this episode. Connect with Ece: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecekurtaraner/ Connect with your host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ --- This episode is made possible by Curated Connections - a tool we created to spark more conversations in private communities through 1-on-1 networking programs. Learn more here - https://curatedconnections.io/ --- Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 02:32 Who joins paid communities? 07:00 1. Log everything you do from day 1 10:05 Process for member-led events 16:01 Do a dry run 19:58 Saving 8 hrs/week 22:45 Don't shy from repeating things 25:14 Don't create engagement - create a calm community 29:05 When to shut down an experiment 31:57 Don't expect every member to engage in the same way 35:30 Low-effort engagement programs 35:47 1. Curated Connections 36:04 2. Coworking session 39:03 3. Member map 40:20 4. Member highlights 42:42 5. Event summaries 43:16 6. Local city meetups 44:28 7. Slack AMAs 45:30 8. Async happy hour 46:09 9. Book/podcast clubs