Create Community

Healing Through Plants and Community with Jodianne Beckford

Jodianne Beckford created Noire Girls Plant to foster healing through plants and highlight and connect Black people who have a love for the outdoors.

She's the creator and host of The E Project podcast, which explores the ‘Epiphany’ moments that lead individuals to do what they love. Jodianne is also a commercial lifestyle photographer and a direct support professional helping adults on the spectrum.

Jodianne shares her journey with depression and imposter syndrome, and shares how we can create community to find meaning and beauty in the world when everything seems bleak. This episode is raw, vulnerable and provides a unique look at hope and community.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/jodianne-beckford

 

Dating, Religion and Community in Modern Times with JSwipe’s David Yarus

David Yarus is the Founder of JSwipe, the #1 Jewish dating app with a community of 1M+ users worldwide. He’s also the founder of mllnnl, an agency that helps global brands and Jewish non-profits understand and engage the millennial consumer. Previously, David ran the youth marketing for brands like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Spotify. 

 

David and Marsha chat about how people can approach their cultural and religious communities in ways that feel modern and accessible, dating during COVID-19, and David’s personal journey with love and community. 

 

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

Healing Societal Division Through Community and Technology with Lisa Conn

Lisa is the co-founder and COO of Icebreaker, an online event platform that builds community and gives people a sense of togetherness. Previously, Lisa held leadership roles at Facebook, the MIT Media Lab, FWD.us, and President Obama’s campaign. 

 

Lisa's on a mission to heal societal division through community and technology. Throughout her career, she’s launched dozens of partnerships with academics, peace-builders, and community leaders around the world. She's on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and her work has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Vice News, and more.

 

In this episode, Lisa and Marsha chat about community across politics and tech, how to create a sense of togetherness virtually, finding common ground with people we don’t agree with, Lisa’s incredible wedding, and so much more. 

 

Episode Notes: createcommunitypod.com/episodes/lisa-conn

 

Is Your Community Truly Inclusive? A Conversation with Shopify’s Prasanna Ranganathan

Prasanna is the Diversity and Belonging Lead at Shopify where he leads the development of Shopify’s Global Diversity and Belonging Strategy. He’s previously worked as a lawyer, human rights investigator, producer, social media strategist, red carpet correspondent and so much more along his very unique career path.

As a community builder, he’s had the opportunity to work with Oprah Winfrey and curate an online book club and film discussion community.

Prasanna proudly claims his identity as an LGBTQ2+ and racialized person with a disability. In this episode, Prasanna and Marsha take a deep dive into how to make communities truly diverse and inclusive.

Episode notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/prasanna-ranganathan

Scaling the World's Largest Startup Community with Startup Grind's Derek Andersen

How exactly did Startup Grind grow to become the world's largest community for entrepreneurs? In this episode, Derek Andersen (Co-Founder & CEO of Startup Grind) and Marsha Druker (Founder of Fuckup Nights Toronto) chat about growing a global community, letting go of control and empowering chapter leaders, why right now is such an exciting and pivotal time for the community industry, and so much more.

Startup Grind is a community of 600 Chapters in 125 countries designed to educate, inspire, and connect startup people. Since 2012, Startup Grind has hosted 10,000 events for more than 500,000 people.

Derek is also the Co-Founder & CEO of Bevy, a SaaS product that helps companies like Salesforce, Atlassian, Asana, Slack and Duolingo build virtual and in-person communities. Derek has been building communities for the past 15 years.

Episode notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/derek-andersen

 

Creating Accessible Communities with Fiverr's Beth Wiesendanger

As Fiverr's Senior Community Programs Manager, Beth Wiesendanger is a champion of bringing people together and leveraging resources to educate, inform, and inspire the community. Beth has worked in community building since 2011. She began her career in politics, joining Grassroots Campaigns, then later moved to corporate community building. 

In this episode, Beth and Marsha chat about creating accessible communities, growing a community for a marketplace like Fiverr, pivoting during COVID-19, Beth's personal journey to belonging, and more.

Episode notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/beth-wiesendanger

Fuckups, Community and Gin with Leora Golomb

Leora is one of the most well-known voices in the community leadership scene in Israel. In 2015, she founded the Israel branch of Fuckup Nights, changing the way that Israelis view and share failure.

Leora’s career has taken her across activism, social impact, NGOs, high-tech, community and so much more. Along her journey, she’s worked in Australia, in one of Israel’s biggest social impact NGO’s and at Wix as a Community Manager. She’s currently the Head of Employer Branding & Internal communications at eBay.

In this episode, Marsha and Leora take a deep dive into what makes the community profession unique in Israel, how Leora recruits and leads impactful volunteer teams, and Leora’s personal journey and community.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/leora-golomb

 

Connecting the LGBTQ+ Tech Community with Stefan Palios

Stefan is a co-founder of Venture Out, Canada's largest LGBTQ+ tech nonprofit, connecting LGBTQ+ people to opportunities, mentors and each other. 

These days, Stefan spends his days helping scaling tech companies and VC firms with content marketing. He also publishes Remotely Inclined, a newsletter about remote entrepreneurship. 

Stefan has raised over $1 million for LGBTQ+ nonprofits and charities since 2013 and built an incredible sales model for Venture Out. In this episode, Stefan and Marsha take a deep dive into growing a community through partnerships, data and feedback, diversity and inclusion, impactful content, and so much more.

Show notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/stefan-palios

Inside Slack's Community with Elizabeth Kinsey

Elizabeth is a Senior Marketing Manager at Slack where she leads community programs for Slack developers, builders, and makers.

Prior to launching Slack Platform Community, Elizabeth was the Director of Marketing at Branch, where she co-founded the Mobile Growth Community and expanded it to more than 25,000 members in 60 cities across the globe.

In this episode, Marsha and Elizabeth chat about growing a self-organized community, how to evaluate whether your company should run community internally or hand over control to volunteer-led efforts, how to keep volunteers motivated, and so much more.

Show notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/elizabeth-kinsey

Eat Out Madrid - Uniting Foodies With Valentina Ruffoni

Are you a foodie? Valentina Ruffoni sure is - that's why she founded Eat Out Madrid, a Facebook community of food lovers who share their reviews, recommendations and photos from the best places to eat in the Spanish capital.

Originally from England, Valentina has spent the majority of her working life at sea for a major cruise line, in entertainment and events, and some time in the air as a flight attendant.



In this episode, Valentina and Marsha chat about scaling a Facebook community and keeping it authentic, pivoting during COVID-19 times, and Valentina's winding journey of living and working all over the world.

Show notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/valentina-ruffoni