Community Strategy Office Hours—Time for Community Leaders Talk Things Out.

What I look like when I’m asking questions 🤨.

Every day, I take an hour meeting with a different community leader/organizer. Jamming with people cultivating communities big and small energizes me. And folks seem to really benefit from talking through strategy and structure!

These coffee chats are pro-bono. (More formal coaching/workshops happen through my team at People & Company!) I do these 1:1’s as an investment in my daily motivation.

So far, I’ve had the pleasure of advising incredible people who get people together (40+ this year). I wrote about the experience and spoke about my coaching process on the Get Together podcast🎙. These leaders span companies, startups, nonprofits, and independent projects.

I’ve helped Jess and Brie scale their meetup to gather female changemakers in multiple cities, strategized with Hadley on how to shepherd the Edcamp education movement, jammed with Slant’d Media on the ambassador program for their community of Asian Americans, helped Jiwon prioritize as she launches accelerators for female and immigrant founders, and more.

What I look for in the folks I meet with:

Here’s how I prioritize:

Preference to folks bringing together an underrepresented/underestimated community.
👍 if your group has an in-person element. All-online isn’t my jam.
Extra points if you’re in or coming through NYC. I like face to face. But Google Hangouts work too.
I like talking ops—structure, process, systems. (But not only that stuff.)
Kudos if you’ve already gotten started. The less hypothetical the better.
Doesn’t matter if this is a side project or full-time thing.
Finally, I don’t have the secret to turn your community into a million dollar business. (Wish I did!)

(Still consider reaching out even if you don’t neatly fit the criteria.)

How these sessions work (it’s casual):

Free/pro bono unless you run a profitable business.
I’ll ask you lots of questions 😏 in-person or on Google Hangout.
If you find the convo valuable, please introduce me to another community leader.

If you’re keen, send me an email (kevin@kiwimonk.com) with a few sentences about you, the community you’re building, and what’s on your mind.

Thanks for doing what you do.

— Kevin