In Before The Lock

🔓 109: Various forms of hybridity

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Should your community be public, private, or a hybrid of both? What about free vs. paid? Erica and Brian break it all down.

🔓 108: The Ericas

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

And The Erica Goes To…Erica! 🏆🥳 Brian is joined by a gaggle of family, friends, and co-workers to present Erica with awards on her birthday.

🔓 107: Under the surface

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian talk about the bones of your community and how they work together to create a cohesive experience. Previous episodes about the "above...

🔓 106: The Golden Hoodie

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Brian and Erica deep dive into customer awards programs and how to get them right. 🔓 5: A whole bag of crap The Golden Hoodie Alteryx Excellence ...

🔓 105: Measurin' vibes

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian push back hard on the idea that measuring community ROI isn't important (we can't believe we had to talk about this or are typing this...

🔓 104: A really great activation

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian talk about their favorite community activations for in-person conferences.

🔓 103: Part of the master plan

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brian and Erica discuss the launch of Community Strategy Academy. Use code INBEFORE at checkout for 15% off of any course, bundle, or membership.

🔓 102: Scale, success, service, and hubs

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The state of the market, why Customer Success is driving community inside of organizations, and how we can partner to deliver value. Resources about ...

🔓 101: They want the ugly

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian navigate through developer landing pages and communities from Google, Salesforce, Apple, Visa, and more. Developer Community 🔓 60...

🔓 100: Win the interview

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian run down the most common interview questions and how to answer them. Community Industry News: Quinn McCully joined Vesta as Communi...

🔓 99: Looking to break in

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How to build a career in community from scratch. Community Industry News: Hugh Lashbrooke joined Constantia.io as Director of Community Melissa Sp...

🔓 98: 10x Community Pros

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian talk through the traits and skills required to become an elite community professional and people to look to for inspiration. Communit...

🔓 97: People, time, money, and outcomes

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to operationalize your plans and collaborate for success from pre-launch to maturity. Community Industry News: Holly Rieke joined Board Interna...

🔓 96: Our favorite things

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this special Thanksgiving episode, Erica and Brian dig into the things that make their personal and professional lives easier. Community Industry ...

🔓 95: An expectation that you're listening

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to get started collecting feedback and ideas from your community when you can't commit to full-blown ideation and complex processes. Community In...

🧵 94: Popping up every day

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"There are lots of new community platforms and tools coming up. How to keep up with all of them?" — Tiffany Oda

🔓 93: Do more with less

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why community is one of the best investments a company can make during an economic downturn. Community Industry News: Rachel Basoco joined Fidelity...

🧵 92: Early indicators

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What do you do if you don't have access to relevant data to be able to measure the impact your community efforts are having on the business?" — Ale...

🔓 91: A list of links

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to make navigating your community intuitive and fast for your users. Community Industry News: Colleen Curtis joined Reddit Will Manchin joined...

🧵 90: Opportunities

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Thinking more about ambassador programs. The problem with most is that the benefits to the ambassador don't immediately benefit them personally or pr...

🔓 89: To delete or not to delete

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to handle the archiving of old, outdated, and irrelevant content from your community. Community Industry News: Work with Brian Work with Alex An...

🧵 88: A part of who they are

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What are some crucial qualities of a community leader? Do you suggest promoting from within and how do I know who to target?" — Kelly Klein

🔓 87: Acceptable trash talk

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian take a close look at how to create compelling community user guidelines. Community Industry News: Evan Patterson joined tender.ai a...

🧵 86: It's all about culture

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Are there certain company characteristics that are indicators whether a community will have a higher chance of success?" — Brian Koffler

🔓 85: A map of your brain

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian dive deep on how to translate your strategy into action. Community Industry News: Danhel Fajardo joined Vyond as Senior Community S...

🧵 84: Don't expect miracles

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What are the biggest things you tell companies to watch out for when they come to you with the idea of 'I want to launch a customer community' for th...

🔓 83: Expert elitism

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian explore how Autodesk, Splunk, and Salesforce built pages for their superuser programs. Community Industry News: DL Grant joined Com...

🧵 82: A room full of mercenaries

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"NFT and Web3 communities: does financial incentive dilute the sense of community? Is financial incentive/interest a good 'common interest'?" — Ilke...

🔓 81: I love a good seasonal engagement program

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian explore how OpenSpace and Guru delivered great engagement programs. Community Industry News: Valentina Ruffoni joined Disciple Medi...

🧵 80: Get aligned

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"How best to approach when you work for an org that already has a wider community - but you're asked to build a secondary community for something more...

🔓 79: Even Littler Erica

09 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erica's Mom, Donna, joins Brian on this extra-special birthday episode to talk about an award Erica won in high school, her history as a criminal mast...

🔓 78: Begin again

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Expanding the number of use cases your community addresses beyond Support. Community Industry News: Sarah Wylie joined 6sense as Communities Market...

🧵 77: Shattered

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"How do you rebuild trust in a community where trust has been shattered?" — Cole Zerr

🔓 76: Combo pages

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian explore Zendesk and Atlassian community landing pages. Community Industry News: Katharina Koidl joined Equalture to run Community &...

🧵 75: We're not that important

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"How do you handle 'turning off' when your community is always on?" — Alex Angel

🔓 74: Leading thought

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to bring Thought Leadership into your community to expand your reach, engage senior personas, and inject your perspective into an industry. Commu...

🧵 73: Very boondoggle-y

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What are your thoughts on an in-person Community summit? When is a good time in the Community lifecycle to consider hosting one? What benefits/ROI do...

🔓 72: People who say nice things

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to build a successful advocacy program. Community Industry News: Jessa Brown joined Alma as Senior Manager, Community Engagement Tess Brown joi...

🧵 71: It ain't dead

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"How do you see the role of email in connecting with your community? And how do you see it changing?" – Hannah Whalen

🧵 70: Behaviors and indicators

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"How can you gauge the 'health' of a community? What indicators or behaviors do you look for?" – Jessica Erhart

🧵 69: It pains me to this day

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What is one thing you wish you'd done better in the early days of your community careers?" – Scott Baldwin

🔓 68: The real work begins

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian discuss the actions and activities you need to engage in directly after launching your community. Community Industry News: Aima Ati...

🧵 67: Stuck in a loop

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Growing into management is an exciting opportunity, however, the team still isn't large enough for you to step away from the IC work (yet). How do yo...

🔓 66: Like magic

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Taking an integrated approach to building the dream customer community experience. Community Industry News: Chitra HL joined Oracle as CX Community...

🧵 65: Try a bunch of stuff

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"How can I manage and set engagement expectations/goals when our community members don't use our service/product everyday therefore may not interact d...

🔓 64: Inception

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to persuade others through the use of an age old framework. Community Industry News: Vincent Mayers joined Gradle as Director, Community Operat...

🧵 63: Just two?

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What would be your strategy for a community that holds two distinct personas? In this case, HR managers / People Ops and then their employees? Essent...

🔓 62: Read the room

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Presenting your strategy to an executive audience. Community Industry News: Sweta Shetty joined Hindustan Times as Community Manager Amanda Martin...

🧵 61: We have a couple

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What are the top reasons you see new communities fail?" — Vishwas Katti Brought to you by Commsor.

🔓 60: Just a couple lines of code

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Developer communities and working with DevRel. 🇺🇦 Community Industry News: Ashley Dodge promoted to VP, Community at Copado Luiza Drăghicea...

🧵 59: A big difference

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What differentiating values, if any, do you see in having a new customer join a community versus one who has been using your product for a good amoun...

🔓 58: Be yourself

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to tell your story and build your personal brand. Community Industry News: Linda Haviland was promoted to Lead Community Manager at DataRobot ...

🧵 57: Don't take the bait

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"How do I deal with competitors in my community?" — Seth Wylie Brought to you by Commsor.

🔓 56: I don't want flowers

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why it's time to leave CMAD behind and level-up as an industry. Community Industry News: Kimberly Ndolo joined Wonder as Community Manager Michell...

🧵 55: Fractions of fractions

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Do you think there is a minimum size of customers/users that you need to have to make a community successful?" — Yeori Hokken Brought to you by Com...

🔓 54: A secret weapon

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How motivating Partners to engage in your community can accelerate outcomes. Community Industry News: Gainsight acquired inSided Sofia Losada join...

🧵 53: What's in it for me?

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"What is the best way to get stakeholders excited about getting involved and engaging in your company community?" — Tessa Kriesel. Brought to you b...

🔓 52: Out of scope

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What is Community Operations, why is it so important, and why should you hire someone specifically to execute it? Erica and Brian give you the rundown...

🔓 51: Top 10ish

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We close out 2021 by talking about our favorite happenings in the community industry. Community Industry News: Ashley Townsend joined JP Morgan Cha...

🔓 50: The cold start

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What you should do in the first few months at a new company where you're building community for the first time. Community Industry News Molli Aronc...

🔓 49: Gratitude and thankfulness

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian deliver messages of gratitude and thankfulness across the community industry. Community Industry News: Emily Wirth joined Paper as ...

🔓 48: A beautiful call to action

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How to understand the motivations of your visitors to create incentives for them to join. That's not it, though — don't forget to onboard them prope...

🔓 47: A numbers game

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Promotion is the #1 driver of traffic and acquisition for communities. Don't forget to tell people about it. Community Industry News: Lauren (Saar)...

🔓 46: Make learning a team sport

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How you can integrate learning and community to drive product affinity, customer happiness, and retention. Community Industry News: Facebook was dow...

🔓 45: Money on the table

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How Sales and Community can partner together to build trust, educate customers, and drive revenue. Yeah, you read that right. Stick with us. You'll le...

🔓 44: Localization = hard

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Localization of communities is becoming more common, but it's more complicated than you think. Erica and Brian walk you through the finer details in a...

🔓 43: The UI of your operational plan

31 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian talk about why you need a community roadmap, how to build it, and how to present it in your organization. Community Industry News: ...

🔓 42: Ask for 5, get 3

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's headcount and budget planning season! Follow along as Erica and Brian take you step-by-step through the process so that you can secure the commun...

🔓 41: It's not apples to apples

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian weigh in on a long-standing contentious debate — Social Media vs. Community. Community Industry News: C School 201 Jodi Meier joi...

🔓 40: The unsexy reality of launch planning

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian dive deep into the tasks required to get a community off of the ground. Community Industry News Rich Millington's new book: Build Y...

🔓 39: Standing on the shoulders of a 4-foot giant

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Brian and special guest host Holly Firestone celebrate Erica's birthday by heaping praise, talking about what she's taught us, and telling embarrassin...

🔓 38: More of an AND than an OR

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Should you host your community on Slack, Discord, or a purpose-built community platform? Community Industry News: Jenny Weigle launched her communi...

🔓 37: A good vanity plate

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How to choose a name for your community. It's more complicated than you think. Community Industry News: The State of Community Management 2021 Repo...

🔓 36: The stress test

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Soft Launch — the who, what, when, where, and why. Erica and Brian talk through how you can use it to set your new community up for success. Commun...

🔓 35: Relocating their house

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How to successfully (and unsuccessfully) migrate your community to a new platform. Community Industry News: Mary Yakuri Hodges was promoted to Comm...

🔓 34: The "S" stands for "Success"

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How Customer Success and Community can partner to ignite education, adoption, satisfaction, upsells, renewals, retention, and advocacy. Brian Rights ...

🔓 33: Everybody wants a purple pony

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How to drive product enhancements and innovation through crowdsourced ideation programs with your community. Community Industry News Erin O'Neill j...

🔓 32: They love it when you say "Agile"

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Working with Product and Engineering to gather customer feedback, increase feature adoption, and build better products with communities. Community In...

🔓 31: Relatable pain

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Preparing for crises in your community before they happen, acting (or not) in the moment, and recalling some of our most painful/hilarious brushes wit...

🔓 30: A nice, big, warm hug between Marketing and Community

16 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How Community and Marketing teams can partner together to attract new prospects, convert them into paying customers, and educate them about new produc...

🔓 29: Post, vote, comment, ask a question, answer a question, or attend a user group

02 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Defining, measuring, and executing community engagement programs to grow your community and achieve your business goals. Also, Peeps. Community Indus...

🔓 28: Keeping you out of prison

16 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Partnering with Legal for all of your community needs, staying out of prison, and an egregious misuse of the Salesforce blue cloud logo. Community In...

🔓 27: Content is Queen

02 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Everything you need to know about building world-class content programs for your community, step-by-step. Community Industry News: Happy CMAD! Kh...

🔓 26: Groupopolis

19 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How to leverage Groups to strategically scale your community. Community Industry News: Khoros acquires TopBox IBM acquired 7Summits Alteryx Commu...

🔓 25: A Costco-sized warehouse full of Support Engineers

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Working collaboratively with Customer Support to build a self-service community, ramping efficiency, and creating business value. Working with Custom...

🔓 24: Preparation meets opportunity

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian revisit their 2020 predictions, discuss current trends, and look ahead to 2021. Trends and Predictions: 2: The next normal Communit...

🔓 23: Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How to effectively engage Executives to sell the idea of community, gain their buy-in, and partner for success. Gaining Executive Buy-In: 3: Sell t...

🔓 22: Lead with gratitude

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A Thanksgiving Special: Extending gratitude and telling stories about people that changed our careers and lives forever. Giving Thanks: Jon Wishart ...

🔓 21: Everyone wants the big title

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A special live episode recorded at Vanilla Conversations. Erica and Brian talk about their experiences as VPs of Community and what it takes to get to...

🔓 20: Employees are customers, too

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Enlisting, enabling, and motivating internal employees to take an active role in the success of your customer community. Employee Engagement Sample...

🔓 19: Impostery

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian take a break from election results to talk about imposter syndrome, mental health, and finding trusted confidants. All the feels: J...

🔓 18: I'll take one Culture, please

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Creating a culture in and around your community. Also, epic story time with Erica and Brian — you don't want to miss it. Some personal news: brian...

🔓 17: Minimum Viable Community

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this very special episode of the pod recorded live at CMX Summit 2020, Erica and Brian walk through the finer points of launching a new community u...

🔓 16: Presentations, networking, and food

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A special live episode about community events - user groups, VIP events, and conferences - on Khoros' new events platform. Events: Event page on Kh...

🔓 15: Steer, edit, lock, remove, ban

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Custom shirts for community pros, moderation best practices, and a role-play in which Erica drops the ban hammer on Brian. Get Your Community Shirts!...

🔓 14: Close to the money

15 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian answer the question "where should community live in an organization?" and detail the pros and cons of each department. Where should t...

🔓 13: Get rid of your stupid hero

01 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Data-driven community UI/UX design, best practices, and Brian's hatred of ridiculously large hero images. Design: Hero image Joe Cothrel "Above the ...

🔓 12: People are #1

18 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Architecting a team, building culture, and leading people to be the best they can be. Also, epic rants by Brian. Architecting a Team Resource: Comm...

🔓 11: You get what you pay for

04 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Translating your strategy into technical requirements, engaging with community platform vendors, and negotiating the best deal. Pre-Show: Brian does...

🔓 10: Back to Failtown

21 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Erica and Brian return to Failtown to tell tales of some of their biggest screw ups. We innovated these failures so that you don't have to. #Fail E...