Get Together

Today we are talking to Jamie Allen and Sally Parham, two of the folks behind The Squirrel Census.Yes, it is just what it sounds like.The Squirrel Census started in Atlanta in 2012 with a simple, somewhat inexplicable, wild idea: let's count squirrels and present our findings to the public.While they're certainly rigorous, what they're doing isn't dry science. The team is considerate, design-savvy, and deeply funny people. They've made a scientific activity into something not just accessible, but playful.Jamie, the creator of the project, formed a team early on of cartographers, artists, scientists and more to bring the first census to life. The team trained hundreds of volunteers they call Squirrel Sighters to count squirrels, then spent the coming months preparing the data and stories they gathered to the community.Since that first census in Atlanta's Inman Park, the team has hosted 3 more, including most recently an ambitious foray into Central Park. More than 500 New Yorkers came out to count squirrels with them, and it was all over the news, spurred on by features inThe New York Times, support from leaders at the Parks Association, and pun-filled tweets by the NYC Mayor's Office.If you want to get involved with the Squirrel Census, check out their hilarious website thesquirrelcensus.com or scope them out on Twitter @squirrelcensus.Grab your copy of GET TOGETHER—our handbook on community-building 🔥: bit.ly/gettogetherbook 

Girls' Night In started as a simple but remarkable newsletter to 300 of Alisha Ramos' friends and family in 2017. It took off immediately. Now, there are more than 150,000 subscribers. As the Girls' Night In audience has grown, it’s transformed into more than just a media company. As more passionate readers came into Alisha’s world, she activated them, turning women into local book club leaders, employees and contributors. Alisha is swinging big to bring her mission of making wellness, and social wellness, available to more and more people. She quit her tech job to focus on Girls' Night In full time, and even raised venture funding. How did Alisha get “GNI” off the ground? What made the early newsletter so popular? How has she transformed the media company into a community, and how does she think about the business side? Tune in to find out. Grab your copy of  GET TOGETHER—our handbook on community-building 🔥: https://amzn.to/2SxKUCOIf you want to get involved with Girls' Night In, whether it's starting or joining a book club in your area, or tuning into their email, just go to their beautiful website girlsnightinclub.com (http://girlsnightinclub.com/). They also have a gorgeous Instagram account where they spotlight members of their community: @girlsnightinclub. And you can follow the brilliant Alisha Ramos on Twitter: @alishalisha.

August 20th, 2019 is a momentous day for us. Our book "Get Together: How to build a community with your people" is now officially out in the world. This book is a handbook, and it's full of both clear steps and principles and inspiring stories. It’s the book Kevin and I wish we had back in the day when we were working at Instagram and CreativeMornings, but it just didn’t exist yet. If you need help getting a community off the ground, or just understanding the work it takes to organize a passionate group of people, this book is for you. Because y’all are our loyal podcast listeners, we thought we’d share a sneak peek of the audiobook with you. So instead of an interview in this podcast episode, we’re going to share the first chapter of our audiobook with you. We hope you enjoy it. Grab your copy of GET TOGETHER—our handbook on community-building 🔥: https://amzn.to/2SxKUCO Learn more about us and our work with clients as People & Company here.

Today we're talking to Cassandra Lam, co-founder of The Cosmos. Cassandra and co-founder Karen Mok started The Cosmos with a simple question: what does it mean for Asian women and gender non-binary people to not just survive, but to thrive? To not merely assimilate, but to carve their own paths? For their first community event, 20 strangers from all around the country flew to Seattle to meet Cassie and Karen and explore these questions together. After that weekend, Cassie and Karen put the attendees in a Slack group together. Then hosted another retreat. And another. Now The Cosmos has more than 5,000 members in cities around the country. Their book club was just featured in The New York Times and in just a few weeks, 500 members will gather for their very first summit here in New York City. What motivated Cassie and Karen start this group? How did they get it off the ground? What’s their big, bold vision for the future? Tune in to find out. Grab your copy of GET TOGETHER—our handbook on community-building 🔥: https://amzn.to/2SxKUCO If you want to get involved with The Cosmos, whether it’s joining a chapter in your area, getting into the slack group, or coming to their summit in August, you can find all that information at jointhecosmos.com. They also have a rad Instagram account where they spotlight Asian women who are thriving. Follow it here: @jointhecosmos

Today we’re interviewing… ourselves! Bailey, Kevin and Kai, the voices behind the “Get Together” podcast and brains behind People & Company. Three years ago, we started People & Company to help more people bring their people together. We work with organizations to make smarter bets about investing in their communities. We also interview extraordinary people organizers on this podcast. And in August 2019 we will publish a book called "Get Together" on how to build communities today. It's based on the conversations, research and strategy work we've done with hundreds of community organizers. In the past, Bailey grew the communities around Instagram, IDEO, StoryCorps, Pop-Up Magazine and The California Sunday Magazine. Kevin breathes strategy and structure. He advises dozens of grassroots communities and in the past operationalized CreativeMornings, rolling out events to 100 cities. Kai focuses on how true communities fuel growth for companies. He helped pioneer Facebook’s growth discipline and launch Instagram’s business internationally. Why did we start People & Company (http://peopleand.company)? Why did we start a podcast and write a book? What have we learned in the process? We’ll dig into all of that in this podcast together. GET TOGETHER—our handbook on community-building 🔥: https://amzn.to/2SxKUCO Our show is on the Listening Party Network and is recorded at Canal Street Radio!

Courtland Allen, founder of Indie Hackers, talks about how he started a community of over 60,000 entrepreneurs by sending 150 personal emails. They discuss the importance of sharing revenue numbers, the challenges of building a business while building a community, and the motivation behind starting Indie Hackers. They also explore the impact of the community on individuals and share ideas for small businesses.

“At headquarters, you are in service of the community.” - CreativeMornings Chief Community Officer Kyle Baptista Since the very first CreativeMornings in Brooklyn over ten years ago, the grassroots events have spread to more than 200 chapters around the world—everywhere from Louisville to Tehran. The concept is simple: breakfast and a short talk one Friday morning a month. Every event is free of charge and open to anyone. Lecturers include founders like David Kelley and Jason Fried, artists like Jonathan Harris and Lisa Congdon, and writers like Maria Popova. How did CreativeMornings onboard more than 1,500 volunteer organizers and spread all around the world? Our very own Kevin Huynh, employee #1 at CreativeMornings, sat down with current Chief Community Officer Kyle Baptista and Head of Community Lisa Cifuentes to learn more. 🔥 Check out our book Get Together: How to Build a Community With Your People 📙 Get Together is a podcast about the nuts and bolts of community building. Hosts Bailey Richardson and Kevin Huynh of People & Company ask organizers who have built exceptional communities about just how they did it. How did they get the first people to show up? How did they grow to thousands more members?

“I don’t think there’s much secret. Get the product right, treat the customer well, and get them talking. And that’s it.” - Instant Pot founder Robert Wang Instant Pot, the multipurpose pressure cooker, is so remarkable that it has spurred an outpouring of enthusiasm from a community of fans around the world. Some Potheads name their Pots, while others knit sweaters for the appliances. That zeal wasn’t a surprise to founder Robert Wang, due to a core insight he had early on. “Cooking is not a solitary practice. It’s very much a social practice,” he tells us. “You cook for your family, you cook for your friends, you’ll throw a party if you make a dish.” Today, more than 1.8 million “Potheads” of all ages, languages, and backgrounds have joined their Facebook group to share recipes and Instant Pot fandom. Robert and his team opened the group in 2015, imagining it as a space where customers separated by geography could help each other with Instant Pot questions—both connecting superfans and lightening the burden on the company’s customer support team. We talk to Robert in this episode about how this community sparked and grew, and how they've approached their Facebook group as it's grown. 🔥 Check out our book Get Together: How to Build a Community With Your People 📙 Get Together is a podcast about the nuts and bolts of community building. Hosts Bailey Richardson and Kevin Huynh of People & Company ask organizers who have built exceptional communities about just how they did it. How did they get the first people to show up? How did they grow to thousands more members?

"I've always dreamed of a soup party." - Liz Alpern On today’s show we interview Liz Alpern, one of the founders of Queer Soup Night. Queer Soup Night started in Brooklyn with a simple event format. Liz, a queer professional chef made a soup, attendees got to enjoy that soup (and a party!) in exchange for a suggested donation to a cause. The first one went so well, Liz and her partners Jen Martin and Kathleen Cunningham knew they had to keep going. Now, there are Queer Soup Nights in chapters round the country - from Oakland and Portland to Gainesville and Boston. Their events have raised thousands of dollars for Queer and Queer adjacent causes, from New York Transgender Advocacy Group to the Center for Anti-Violence Education. Why soup? Why a party with a charity? Why launch chapters? We'll get into the whole story with Liz today on the podcast. 🔥 Check out our book Get Together: How to Build a Community With Your People 📙 Get Together is a podcast about the nuts and bolts of community building. Hosts Bailey Richardson and Kevin Huynh of People & Company ask organizers who have built exceptional communities about just how they did it. How did they get the first people to show up? How did they grow to thousands more members?

We’re definitely much more about community—bringing people together and having a good time. The competition is almost the excuse for doing that." — says Tim Williams, CEO of the World AeroPress Championship (W.A.C.). Last year, the World AeroPress Championship (W.A.C.) season brought together more than 3,000 competitors at 120 events in over 60 countries. But the idea started with much humbler beginnings—three coffee geeks and a cake in a small room in Norway. Why start a competition? When the organizers, internationally renowned baristas Tim Wendelboe and Tim Varney, hosted the first event in 2008, the AeroPress brewing device had only recently been released on the market. Instead of spending months in isolation trying to work out how to develop better AeroPress brewing recipes on their own, the Tims decided to crowdsource ideas from other brewers through a small competition in Oslo, which they called the “World AeroPress Championship.” In the years that followed, fans all around the world asked to lead their own events, and the format began to spread. We interview the CEO, Tim Williams to learn more about what makes the competition special and what structure he and his team offer organizers from HQ. 🔥 Check out our book Get Together: How to Build a Community With Your People 📙 Get Together is a podcast about the nuts and bolts of community building. Hosts Bailey Richardson and Kevin Huynh of People & Company ask organizers who have built exceptional communities about just how they did it. How did they get the first people to show up? How did they grow to thousands more members?