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Welcome to the Get Together.

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It's our show about ordinary people building extraordinary communities. I'm your host, Billy Richardson. I'm a partner at People and Company and the coauthor of Get Together How to Build a Community with Your People.

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And and wouldn't you go to a get together correspondent?

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In each episode of this podcast, we interview everyday people who have built extraordinary communities about just how they did it. How did they get the first people to show up? How did they grow to hundreds, maybe even thousands more members? Whitney, who did you choose to interview today? Today we are talking to Larry King.

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Whether the community that the fearless community. And what's one thing that you took away from our conversation with Lewis, one thing that really stood out when talking to Lewis is the power of leading and building with purpose. Lewis emphasized the importance of communicating your wife and bringing people together for your community, because that's what people resonate with. The allies ability to build in committee is by being a servant yourself. This enables you to lead both the community and yourself as it opens you up to growth opportunities while serving the community at the same time.

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Last but not least, the best advice. The building committee is going back to the basics of bringing a gathering of people together, doing personal records, seeking feedback, building with as opposed to four, which is a principle we people and companies stand by.

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Absolutely, and I'm excited to bring this episode to everyone from the fearless community because I think a lot of us are finding ourselves in communities like these during the pandemic. And Lewis is so brilliant about how he thinks about his role stewarding a local community within the broader fearless umbrella. So let's jump in. You ready?

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Yes. Lewis, welcome to the podcast.

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We're so excited to have you. And I want to kick off with the first question that we we love to ask everyone who comes on our show. We love to say that you can't fake the funk. People who are organizing communities often have their own personal motivation for doing so and for getting involved. So I'm curious, what what drew you to the fearless community? What were you going through in your life when you decided to get involved? Thank you very much for bringing me on board and thank you for the question.

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So we've all been about ready communities and the one thing that I would say is extended while I was still in primary school, when we have we used to have a school collapse and that motivated me to have this passion towards bringing people together so that you can share as well as each other. So how I went about joining Phyllis was Phyllis used to exist before me and she said to, as it was called, candles. So candles was about mentoring people.

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So Tom, together with Tavaris, came together and they're like, we want to help people, especially designers, in terms of mentoring. And then after some time, the community to talk shop of its own. And then covid happened after a couple of years covid happened. And then so many designers reached out to Tom, who is now the organizer for that particular community, candles. And he was like, OK, so designers, they were really impacted by covid.

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And he was like, let's do this. Let's bring together all the designers know setting a different community. Let's bring all designers so that they can connect first to check their mental health because because sometimes people lose their jobs and then they're like, OK, it's also a good opportunity to help us find a place to continue working because most of them were laid out in terms of their jobs. And at the time, I was currently living in Nairobi. So I was recognized that I had what I had worked with and was was an organizer for around.

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I think that's around one year, one year, seven months. And we had started building a community around people who are interested about management. So we did around 15 plus Mujib's and got super excited. But I felt it's time for me to take over a different challenge. And that's when we ended up having a conversation with the company that talking with I like history with communities and they to actually champion this conversation about Feelies knows that throwing these clues, moving on to a different country was like, yeah, why not all this passionate about design?

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That's why I joined Fearless. And I was like, let's just take a chance. And that's how I went about finding Fearless as an African.

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So you've been organizing communities, bringing people together since primary school.

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I think that that might be the longest running organizer that we've had on the podcast. So, yeah, tell me just tell me a little bit about that, if you don't mind.

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What did that look like when you were in primary school? And what do you remember from that?

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What made it so meaningful to me? It wasn't the best thing because I was supposed to be a great guy and because of my academics, teachers like Lewis, you need to run the mathematics club because I get the questions about the match. And you. Yeah, you're a smart boy. I was like, OK, why not? I can't even say no because again, I don't know if it's an African thing. It's hard to say no, especially when the teacher asks.

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There's no option and no option. It's easy. Yes or yes. Exactly. So why not let me just take your time. So it ended up joining other clubs in the school. So this one was really academic, but also was like most Kenyans actually know that these are live club when the primary and it happens to be one of the Ötzi leads in that community. So we were doing a couple of trips, went to high school, joined the clubs for business, for doing technical drawing so many things, and then after campus in campus actually ended up doing a lot of, I would say, community work.

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So we started a tech community where which inspired me to actually go and understand more about the tech market, which coincidentally is still doing my bachelor's in I.T. So I ended up loving technology as well as doing going to work for free. I just love the fact that they bring together people with the same passion that both want to learn as well as share together so that they can drive to make sure that you have for the particular community. So that's how I ended up motha when I was a young kid.

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What do you think made fearless the fearless community appealing to you? You know, you mentioned the mentorship piece and also how much designers were affected by the lockdown and how fearless allows people to stay connected. But but what what do you think makes it so appealing to so many people?

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So the first thing is Tom walks in the recruiting space so he helps companies get the best design teams. And because they already had started Kandos, which was not the mentoring one, and proprietarily rechartering. So there was that relationship. That he already built using the previous community and at that particular time, he was very empathetic enough to him and his wife came together and they were like, we need to help designers. Designers have been reaching out to us because they are known in the industry for bringing or helping designers get jobs as well as companies get are designers.

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And we need to help them find a place where they get their mental health is well understood. They can be helped. So that helps. That creates an environment for them to actually feel at peace. And in the second thing is because they still do recruiting as well as building up teams, they also wanted to help those people in need. So it came at the right time. And that, for me, felt like you actually understand the market and you understand that people.

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So first of all, they put the people in front of the company's mission, which are the companies to help companies get the best design. But in this case, the one thing that they looked at was we want people to actually have a good mental health state by bringing them together to share as well as learn from each other. Africa is one of those Odissi places that people don't know about. Is this stereotype. Again, this is something that experience a different community.

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When I was sharing about design, somebody asked me, do you guys actually have computers in your country? I was like, OK, oh God, I hope this isn't an American.

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Sounds like a classic American. And I was like, I'm not going to be offended. I understand where you're coming from. It's the problem is, as Africans, we really tell our own stories. And then I took it upon myself to actually champion the design conversation, because when people think about designers, we never think about Africa. But I think I actually appreciate and we're not people across the globe think about developers. We think about Africa. So that was my goal to my purpose.

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Now I need to change the narrative as well as allow designers in Africa to tell their story so that when somebody is thinking about design, Africa comes to mind. So how did you get started?

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I mean, to me, I think one thing that I think about leading Africa is, yes, that is a huge place and so many different cultures, so many different languages.

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It's so it's representing such a big swath of people and places and. But, yeah. What were those early days in priorities like and what are some of the key things you did to help grow the fearless community in Africa?

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So the good thing is that previous African leaders clearly had done a really good job of recruiting. And again, maybe something to emphasize was kind of was not closed. We just removed people from this group because some of them were very active and they wanted to create a new space. So the lurkers see.

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So unfortunately, not so many Africans were in that group. And when we took on the role itself, I would say there were a handful of designers in Africa. So she took on the mantle of trying to reach out to, of course, where she came from, in this case, South Africa, to reach to designers in South Africa to get to join. And when I was joining, I think we were around 50 and it was like, I need to figure a way of now onboarding more designers, especially in Africa.

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Africa has so many countries, again, that you mentioned that so many cultures. So I had to really think, what is it best to actually try to recruit? So into into peahens? I went on to Drupal directly messaging all these designers that I come across. So I tried to look at hashtags. Yeah. And just for the people who don't know the design world, that's that's where a lot of people post their projects and post their ideas and inspiration.

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So you went to the Internet and started basically sleuthing around, looking for interesting designers and reaching out?

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Exactly, exactly. So because I'm also a growth hacker, I had to give people a script from the social sites and then run a query to just send them a message and then I personalize it. So you say, Hey, Whitney, my name is Luis around Africa Community for Fearless you and then explain what exactly Fearless is all about. And then here's a link to site. So I would I would say I got around 10 percent conversion rate for people because again, I didn't know them.

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So it's getting a 10 percent pretty high. Yeah. What do you attract what did you put in that message?

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I mean, it sounds like I mean, now that I know you're a growth hacker, I'm sure you probably thought about different versions of communicating and who who to reach out to that actually resonated and worked and who didn't. Perhaps I'm wondering, did you have any insights about that process, about, you know, who who really wanted to be a part of Fearless after reaching out to lots of people? And maybe what message really, really resonated? The one thing that Otsu helped a lot in terms of getting a higher conviction was the quota that they had had selected to tell them this is the mission in terms of design for Africa and this is how it goes opening up.

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So until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt for the Hunter at one time was creating a space where designers in Africa can tell their stories. They're like, oh, yes, end of quote. The like, yes, let's jump on this ship. And that really resonated with other designers because we want to be heard. We want to stand out because I kid you not. One of the things that really frustrates me personally is when I'm trying to look for jobs, I'd say to Africa is, are you qualified?

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Like, I have so many years of experience and I'm a bit. But because I come from Africa, there's always that doubt. So fearless is a place because again, designers hire designers. Ozick fearless is a place that can help other designers, especially during covid, to actually get an opportunity to work as well as make a network with other designers across the group. I was wondering if if you would reinforce this learning that I've seen, but I wasn't sure if it was if it was exactly solid, which is that if you lead with a purpose, you know, a community is a group of people who align with a shared purpose.

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That's what brings them together. They care about the same thing. And so when you put that signal out into the world, instead of leading with logistics or pricing or like join the group, but lead with the reason why the group is coming together, that that's what can really get people to understand it and to join and participate.

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Yeah, for sure. So one of the things that we tried to do is, again, also bring a designer is you understand the pin point. So the point was it was covid and you are you are designing Africa and you still don't know how you're going to be held and where can you find your fellow designers. So understanding or being empathetic about these particular designers really helped me also in crafting that message to tell them let's come together and be part of this, going to let's do the mission.

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So don't don't start selling out to the features of that particular product or service. Try and address that pain point and show them this is the actual benefit of joining this particular community. You've talked about how the Internet played a huge role in the entire recruitment process in trying to grow the African chapter for the fearless community. What challenges have you experienced throughout that process?

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The challenge that comes to mind is how do we bring people who have different cultures? So I refer to a book called The Culture.

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I think it's by Internet. Yes, yes, yes. I refer to it whenever it comes to working with a diverse group. So they do it again. People have been raised different people of different values. And the biggest challenge was how do I bring all these people together to actually start conversing with each other? The challenge again, you know, I don't know if you but we need to know is Africans I don't know if they are shy or they just show from opportunities natural.

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But so the challenge was, how can I convince somebody who is of a different culture from MIT to actually come and sign up to this community and then we start driving the mission itself? Because you are Nigerian and Kenyan, what exactly do you have to share with each other? We've never met physically. So also the second challenge is because I've run communities before. When you are in the same space physically, it's easier, you know, you know, it's easier for you to reach me.

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You can either do or you can give me a call. You can send your SMS. We can even cross the road or even drive to where I am so that you can have that conversation. So as much as the digital tools that the Internet has really helped bridge or remove those barriers of getting access to each other a different will. Still, the physical connection is something that still, I would say, is still a challenge for me, especially regarding the Africa.

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But I wish I could be able to travel to different countries and meet these people, because when you have the personal relationship, it's going to be easier for you to reach out to them and start having those conversations. So that's the second one. So the third thing I would see as a challenge is how do we ensure that we bring all these people in different time zones to the same place? You know, again, they said it's morning on your end.

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It's raining on my end. So how do you strike a balance so that you don't miss out on us engaging especially in the topics that he would like us to address. So that one has also been a challenge not just for me running the Africa channel, but also communicating with other leaders, community leaders for others to see. Definitely Internet helps bridge that gap of basically getting to connect with the Internet. But the physical part of the community is what we are missing out on.

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And if we can use VR to bring to foreclose that, that's just about would that is a major challenge when it comes to that particular issue. Yeah.

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Tell me a little bit more about how the community is run on a day to day basis. So how what are the formats and ways that members of the fearless community interact?

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Yes, it's a very, very difficult to chronicle Internet age because the reality is you still have a day job and you still want to be a leader to this committee. So I would say for me, I try to run the community through the policy or the live the way we have set it up, especially for leaders in Fearless is looking once a they could just open a message or even answer queries so that I can also create these habits so that you don't forget that you actually serving people in the village community.

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So as much as possible to log in every day and go to the fearless specific channels that you are running and then posting anything that you think is useful. So we take note of the first few months by posting anything. So I think the one thing that really happened are those that are noticing is people are reacting to different types of content. So it's like today I'm going to ask an example is this have you actually created your calendar for the end of the year?

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And here are ways you can go about it to find that. I have posted that, but somebody in Singapore has posted something different. So we decided to come back together like, OK, yes, it's good that people are running the particular chapters in their own way with the community. But let's have a centralized place where we can be sharing content. So we find that now we are trying to create content. We're actually creating content and trying to post it on slack so that people starting getting on it.

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And so that's the first thing. So we try to post on a daily basis something that will actually spark the conversation and it's reflecting on the different channels. And then are you saying that the chapter leaders are looking into each other's channels to see what things are being posted? So you're learning from each other? Exactly.

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So I. Like I would say eight private channels, because they belong to specific regions, so I see some of the things and I can also engage with them. Of course they know. And one of the things is when you join Fearless, you attach a flag or your name so differently when they see my father crawl in Singapore so we can have a conversation. And one of the things that being human is I don't know if there's a word for it is if you see somebody reacting to something, I don't know if it's something psychological, but you end up reacting to it.

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So if you post something on us channel and I engage or need somebody else would be OK. That's an interesting things. Then they start engaging more. But if you post and nobody reacts to it, so no one can get you. So we encourage each other in this specific subgroups as leaders so that we can get other people for this specific conversation.

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Exactly.

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So smart guys have it figured out. Yeah, it's it's quite interesting, actually.

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I like the way people actually respond to, you know, start noticing the differences and the way that people think. And then the other thing is what we do in terms of format is there's a section for people asking questions. So that's where everyone is in terms of the whole time on seven thousand. So I only get so when somebody asks that question, we try as leads to answer from our own experiences again, the committees about designers so people have their own expertize.

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So we bring it together, we address these problems. And these are for you as a member, you feel OK. So we actually see the value of coming back to Fearless because they want to address might be to the. And so they are always there to poke me in terms of the way I think and really brings people back to engage. The other thing is we also try to do meet ups. So Virtual Meetup is the only country that did a physical meetup during one day because Mauritius, for some reason, Mauritius was really safe.

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So, yeah, that's awesome. I envy them. But they did a physical event.

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I knew I would say that the conversion rate was around 60 percent because of meeting physical and maybe something maybe to add more context to the malicious, which is the thing was when the country for Muslims was trying to recruit the way I was recruiting, like for the whole of Africa is you discovered that designers impressions are not LinkedIn. They're not on behind's, they're not all dribble. They're not on all these social sites. So what she did was she went to the design institute because that's where they hang up.

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So she she went there physically and she's like, I'd like to do a session and invite all the designers. So by word of mouth, people ended up coming for that particular event and she didn't give them back to the fearless community. So for them, you find that the different regions have their own different challenges and others, because your design as much as possible to think outside the box to address these points. And for me, that was one of the best ways of addressing it.

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So trying to do a virtual meetup, if it's possible physical meet ups on a monthly basis so you can even collaborate between different regions like America, the America, America and then Phyllis Africa tried to come together and do an event to together. The other thing is we invite senior designers so people of around 16 years plus experience in the design community to start having conversations. So we have a panel of our own five people. And then somebody like Tom was the co-founder of Fearless leading the conversation.

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So we find again, because our community is made up of junior, mid-level and senior designers, we all want to use it and also meet with our insectary that gets InTech from the conversation. So we try to basically use different formats of content to engage the members. Again, we always knew People is joining in. I try to be each and every person in my Africa to us, to our fearless help you either bring value to you, especially during this time.

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So actually, funny enough is before the podcast, almost two years ago, I was individually sending SMS DMS, one of the people in the Africa channel asking them that. So how can I serve you better in this? Because the whole point of me being elite is to serve you and make sure that you are able to achieve your goals with Fearless. Louis, you are such an amazing community leader. I get it, I get it. So, yeah, it's really great.

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One thing that I love about Fearless is the website so clearly communicates what you do together that there's slack if you're talking about which is in leading and then these fits called video podcast series.

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So we're talking about these senior design leaders that are brought together for a conversation about a topic like building a design culture, building and scaling design. And those videos are made available to so you can watch them. And then there's also this stay connected series where different topics were discussed like mental health and remote collaboration. But I am just curious, on the meta side, the virtual meetup side, that's something I think a lot of people are trying to figure out right now is sort of what you're navigating.

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Maybe they want to start or stoke the fires of a community right now in this extended period of not being able to meet strangers in person. So what has worked well for you in terms of designing the format of these meet ups or thinking about how to bring people value with a virtual gathering?

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I would say for virtual meetup, definitely. The key thing is when people are joining. So one of the things that we have, Mussad, is when you're it, we ask you what will you like from us? So there is already a huge resource there of knowing this is why people have actually joined us. And we take that as one of the things that can help us to come up with things to address it. Again, we use different formats to actually address those issues.

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So when people are being bullied or that we are signing up, we capture the actual need that they want to address with this. So from there, we can split up to become something of interest with the. I was just wondering what you've learned about how to make a virtual meetup meaningful because so many people are trying to figure that out and as a designer and a problem solver, I was curious what you've noticed about what makes those gatherings special, valuable to your community.

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Definitely have fun.

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So don't make it too serious a gift as designers. So what's interesting is, designers, we we love memes where we somehow create the memes insults. So we try as much as possible to again, because you really what your other designer working with clients or working for your employer, everything superstation that. And so when you come to this one, we want you to feel as if you are at home and it's fun. So these are your brothers, sisters, physical relatives, friends.

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So it's a fun place to be so great, that environment for them to feel that they really want to enjoy and even extend their reach up. So have fun games, have great icebreakers. The second thing is don't do it too much. So I think that was that two days ago when somebody asked in one of these communities that I belong to, which is how frequently you run your virtual meetup, you don't want your community members to forget that you actually exist and you don't want to be like notifications where they are all over your face and you feel extremely awful.

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So definitely make sure that you address or that you try to make sure that when you are setting up the time, the frequency, that it's the right time for your community, if they are too busy, can be doing it every two months, or even if they're not that too busy and you tend to see this little hunger for it, then do it. But the other thing, too, is when we were doing a little meetup and what I've learned is topics always come from conversations inside of slack, especially for us, I would say the phosphine in terms of running a virtual meetup with a lot of people you love as if it was possible and just do small surprises, for example, when again, because physically what I used to do is the person what I was, Alice, a gift too.

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So if it's about because I stood up for this community, if you're the first person towards the end of the meetup, I would do a personal finance book.

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So for all the research, I figured out how to award your members, especially for billing themselves. So if somebody was basically, I would see engaging a lot in the conversation within the discussions to award them and make sure that it's public so that you can also encourage them to actually participate next day. And lastly, as the fifth one of the lessons that I've learned doing virtual writeups is at the end of the day, you need to make sure that you say thank you to everyone who joined and those who didn't join.

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And also do a follow up by sharing the video of the ordeal and even the incense. So people normally feel good after a meetup. They just tell that to the video, go have fun with your own, but proceed where they just to make sure that it's a reality check for everyone to see community of. People don't have time to actually sit down and watch the video. We are always rushing, especially as designers or rather as your members in your community.

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So just set aside some time, use the just transcribe the whole session and share the insights of the particular meetup or effect so that people actually would be incentivized. OK, so these are interesting insights. I'd like to understand more context. So you end up going back to the video audio to listen to it and get more context about it. So to those are the five things I've learned personally for ending of actual steps that are really engaging and quite useful to your members.

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This interview is so wonderful. You are such a thoughtful person and such a structured thinker. So I am writing down in my notebook right now. You're the principles of virtual meet up.

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Quite impressive. There is the pandemic has proved a case for staying connected and being part of meaningful communities. And I think this speaks a lot to staying connected series. How is covid-19 affected the fearless community and are there any one or two lessons that you've learned that you're looking to incorporate into the community moving forward?

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Unfortunately, there are casualties because of covid, but the people who saw or who saw an opportunity to actually help others, especially doing that, that at times was like fearless. Fearless was like, let's bring designers together. Come let's first talk about. Well, being and then let's talk about the next steps forward for you as a designer. We got a ton of sign ups from from designers across the globe and we didn't use any websites. We were like, here is a place that is safe for you to actually use as well as connect with other people.

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covid made sure that everyone is locked in their houses and to interact with your neighbor, with your colleagues, even with your friends. But it feels like, OK, so here's a space where you can connect with your friends because what happens. I've also noticed is when somebody is joining the shrillest community, they not only just joined by themselves, but they also bring the whole team. So from a senior designer or a designer, I tell the designers, come and join, let's do something for you.

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And this also created job opportunities, created more networks. I think I've also seen that other designers, because they lost their jobs, they met on set and having a conversation and even builds products such and problems as well as events, such startups in the sense so that for me it was really, really impactful, especially for families. And in terms of what exactly I have noted in terms of changes is there was a ton of sign ups just to emphasize there was a ton of sign ups because we were very authentic and we wanted to address the problem at hand.

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So then one challenge is different because I have an eight to five job. It's really challenging to actually set aside time working in a startup if you have actually worked in a startup. It's crazy. It's like you feel as if you owned the actual problem, because being a designer, you have to be empathic. And when you're empathetic about the users, you can't actually sleep. You end up spending most of your time actually trying to address the issue, which again reduces the time that you can have committed to the community.

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So that's the main challenge that I've had, especially with Phyllis, because it's close to my heart. And also the problem that I'm trying to address in the state of the country working is also close to my heart. So trying to balance that is super hard. But with a lesson that I have learned so far in terms of how to navigate or address a particular issue is I need to have a schedule. And now, especially with covid, Desailly taught us more about state management, because if we don't actually have a work life balance or if we don't know how to manage your time, you will end up forgetting yourself as an individual as well as your priorities.

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So my biggest lesson is how I schedule. Stick to your schedule, make sure that you commit to all your goals as well as the tasks that you had intended to do and publicize. You end up being accountable for your own tasks. And this helps or that has helped me a lot in terms of making sure that I'm leading the Africa chapter as well as helping other leads in achieving the particular goals. What have you learned you've done you've organized so many different communities since you were a young boy.

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What have you learned about community building from from being a part of fearless, so fearless?

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I've been able to lead myself because I have got an opportunity to get out of my cocoon. So fearless has what I've been has been battling a lot with so many companies so that you can with a listening network, with other designers as well as company. And that created a space for me to actually discover more about myself because I was really afraid of speaking in front of people and leading a community has actually made me to I don't know if it's addressing the issue of being shaped, but it has made me to share with or to share away from these opportunities.

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I remember when I was running the previous product production because it was a physical event. You know, when you are there, you are helping the speaker to actually do the talk and making sure that the members are seated and they have this next. And then after the event, I thought people do it the way I used to finish the event to go. But what ended up happening is people start queuing in front of you wanting to know more about you as well as the community.

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There's no way you can run away from it. So you came to the reality that whenever you're a community leader, you need to own it as well as come out of your shell and help these people. In the same case to these great stories that you've had, Nelson Mandela and other great leaders, they hope to see. I am not I'm not going to be proud of what I'm going to do is be humble service people and make sure that they are able to achieve their goals.

[00:36:30]

So been great is one of them. You're able to take in positive or negative feedback and making sure that always I am serious about the job that I'm doing because you're responsible for each and every individual in that community.

[00:36:45]

So that that has that has been my biggest lesson being according to the Infernus, if you were to offer anyone advice, if they were getting started on a community right now planning to use technology to bring people together, what's one piece of advice that you would leave an aspiring community leader and listen to the podcast?

[00:37:10]

Not just my impression, but implicit. Oh, yeah, we didn't tell you to say that. So we take it as being serious. When I started out, unfortunately, I didn't know this podcast actually existed. So it was just me running my own experiments. So being across Hepcat, you have to run small experiments and then iterate from there. But now that I know it exists, it's actually OK. So this is the first place you need to come and learn more about building.

[00:37:46]

Sure. That being a community leader, because the other community leaders that have actually spoken before me and say this is quite intriguing, the the running or the this in a different we mission and have picked certain lessons that you could use in the way I normally run the committee that I'm currently running. So it's the number one thing is listen to all these podcasts. And that will be just to add, the second thing is you need to evaluate yourself.

[00:38:19]

Running a community is not for everyone. I have been in people think that, but in a community, they do end up being a superstar because you end up getting to know so many people or so many people end up doing you. So like, OK, this is interesting. I can grow my network through being a community leader, but it takes more than just being famous to actually be a successful community leader. So just evaluate yourself. Do you really, really want to serve people and keep seeing if you are running a community?

[00:38:51]

Just know that you're like a servant and every or every successful servant always puts other people in front of them or even before them. So just know if you're getting into this, you need to evaluate yourself. Is this thing for me or not?

[00:39:09]

If people want to get involved with the Fairless community, how how can they do that? Where should they head?

[00:39:15]

So if you want to meet us or engage with us, just go to triple W, its vls dot com slash community DOCTYPE. It's Felis refiner's on all the different social channels. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. I think of any triple. I think we are featuring kids there. Yeah. So that's where you can find us. So reach out to us. You can even reach out to the individual community leaders who are all happy to have you in our community.

[00:39:43]

So I want to say something. Yeah. Yes, so I normally go two things. So first of all, I don't normally like selling myself, but in this case, since I got a podcast, I would say just Google me. It's slurries coming here, then go get this handled. If you actually put the F symbol and g e. S huge l e w so it doesn't get you will find me anywhere, every single thing I've ever done.

[00:40:13]

The Internet is completely out there. So that's how you find me. So the second thing I'd also like to mention that maybe I had forgotten to add is when you are doing a community, the most important thing is to remember you're not doing it alone. So you need to partner with other companies or other teams or other people. So this can be with inspiration brands to bring meaningful conversations. For example, as having this conversation is I would treat it as a partnership because we are talking about we are having a meaningful conversation and it's generating thoughtful content.

[00:40:50]

The other thing is we need to run charity initiatives. So use your networks to actually build your community because you are sharing the same values as your networks. So that means there's going to be a purposeful change in the narrative that you want to address. And lastly, what I'd like to also mention is get content from people. So team up with actual people from all corners of the world because you're going to bring a different perspective that create. No, I know it's morning.

[00:41:21]

I don't know if we're having an American here. Opinion. The different cultures are really bringing in together an interesting voice as well as support in the community leadership industry. So to get content from people, make sure that you are driving Chota Initiative and do as many partnerships as you can so that you can make your community successful as well as you as a community you become more successful by. Thank you so much.

[00:41:52]

And as Whitney said, that was if you have such structured thinking and it's so wonderful to hear you communicate so clearly about your learnings, and I really, really enjoyed that conversation. So thank you to you. And Whitney, thank you for bringing Louis a podcast. Thank you.

[00:42:13]

If you aren't connected, then you can go to Matt Lewis movie on Tuesday. Thank you to our team. Thank you. Who's going to Kobun for engineering and editing, Greg?

[00:42:23]

Well, his design work and Katie O'Connell for marketing this episode, who you can find out more about the work Kevin Kay and I do as people and company helping organizations get clear on who their most important communities are and how to build with those people by heading to our Web site, People and company. Also, if you want to start your own community or supercharge one you're already a part of like Lewis has, our handbook is here for you. Visit, get together dotcom to grab a coffee.

[00:42:53]

It's full of stories and learnings from conversations with community leaders like the ones we've had on this podcast. And last thing, you enjoyed the podcast. Please review us on your local podcast or click subscribe. It helps get these stories out to more people. See you all next time.