Ember Consulting

02/22/2023

I’ve decided to sunset my Ember IG and FB. You’ll still see my account, but I will not be logging in or posting moving forward. Find me on LinkedIn!

I’ve wrestled with the decision for months and for those wrestling with a similar decision, here is my thought process.

Instagram is built to share your message with an audience. My actual work is in building community, not speaking to an audience. The more I engage on this platform, the more I find my ideal client is not spending as much time here.

On the one hand, Instagram is the exact place that NEEDS more education on how to build a community (again, not an audience), but I’ve found that the people congregating here are so far at the beginning of that journey it takes a TON of time and energy to educate them on what community is (spoiler: it’s not people commenting on our post). That education NEEDS to happen and I hope to support those who are doing it, but my content is not created for that target in mind.

My content is for brands that
- Are ready to launch an all-in-one community space for their customers
- Want to become community-led but don't know how
- Want tactical tips to approach their greater strategy
- Already have or have plans to hire a community manager

My content is not for brands who
- Think their audience is their community (and would need me to educate them differently)
- Are more focused on creating content for their audience than creating a gathering place for their community
- Want me to convince them of the ROI on community
- Want me to prove that community is a strategy they should pursue

But I AM talking a LOT about how to design and architect your community home of on LinkedIn and it’s been a blast! So join me there, because I won’t see your message here.

TTYL! 💛

11/03/2022

The kindest recommendation I have ever received came from Murtaza, the founder over at Heartbeat.

This one is going in my wins folder for rainy days 😭🥰 and I will shamelessly share it here

“Bri is one of the most thoughtful and intentional community builders I've ever worked with. She helped us architect, build, and scale up our customer community from 20 members to over 900 in 6 months.

“Operationally, Bri planned & ran most of our events. She took time to iterate & experiment on each event set to ensure it was hitting larger company goals — specifically improving customer retention & reducing set-up time for our customers. Before leaving, she prepped clear frameworks to pass on to our team, making her transition off one of the cleanest I've ever seen — 1 week, zero headaches or worries.

“More strategically, Bri built out a series of surveys, feedback channels, and used live events to help us better understand our customers to a degree we had never dreamed of. We still use all of the feedback and survey data she aggregated to drive product improvements, community improvements, write ad copy, and much more.

“Bri helped us shift from a sales-led company to a community-led company. Working with her has been one of the best decisions we've made at Heartbeat. I'd happily work with her in the future & recommend her to any companies looking to make a similar shift.”

11/02/2022

Noticing, not judging.
Noticing, not judging.
Noticing, not judging.

A mantra for the things I see in myself on this brisk morning.

11/01/2022

Hiii, it’s me, Bri Leever, Brand Community Strategist over here at Ember. 👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼

October's newsletter was longer than what I normally write, but I wanted to talk about something that's come up a lot in recent discussions with friends and colleagues and I wanted to share a bit more here too ✨

Many people in the community space have been affected recently by layoffs, and I found myself thinking about the motions behind what I do as a community consultant.

If that's you, or if you've been feeling the itch to make a change from salaried work, I hope this gives you permission to consider a road less traveled.

Why consulting work?

There are so many reasons why I love consulting, but they all boil down to one simple thing: agency. 

As a consultant, there are natural mechanisms that help me feel empowered in my relationship with my client. I have all the power to do my best work, set their expectations, and protect my time. And yes, that includes taking vacations and living a pretty rockin' life.

TO BE CLEAR, as I am writing this article, I don’t have a full list of clients. I am in the grind, on the hunt, not on top of the world. But I still feel more confident, secure, and abundant than I did in my salaried role. 

WHY TF?

When I have a discovery call with a client, I tell them my exact zones of genius: "This is my list of deliverables. These are things you get when you work with me and I am excellent at delivering them." I then tell them my pricing and they tell me if that works for them or not.

Now, keep in mind it is a lot of work to hone my zones of genius and position them in the market so my best clients can find me. I'm not saying it's easy, but the pressure is off because I'm not trying to catch the golden goose of all geese. I'm only looking to add another egg to my basket. If it's not the right egg, there are more eggs.

If you want to read more about how I do my consulting work and the single best thing I did to get started, you can read my newest article on my blog (link in bio).

And if you are considering doing something like this, slide into my DMs! I’d love to hear about it and see how I can support you 💛

10/31/2022

10/27/2022

There is one simple reason I'm obsessed with focus groups: hearing directly from your people is the best ingredient in crafting a framework that serves them. And hearing from your best people is even better. Before I ever launch a community, I host a focus group to test the first set of assumptions we are making about the community. Seeing how communities evolve over time, I also encourage community managers to host one at least once a year because the definition of your best community member will evolve over time and your framework needs to evolve with them.

How to Structure Your Focus Group

I like to break each focus group into two parts: survey + interview. I’m always testing out new ways of getting feedback, so it’s an ever-evolving process and there are several factors to consider in crafting your survey: target, timing, and attention.

Target - who are you talking to?

I recommend starting with the top 20% of your customers in either spend or engagement (in whatever ways you quantify that). Be especially mindful not to only pull the top 20% in spend - take time, even if it’s manual, to find the people who are engaging with you (even if it’s just on social media).

Timing - when will they give feedback?

Consider the timing of asking for feedback. Pro tip: everyone basically leaves over summer so avoid asking for feedback June-July. Also, after your first draft for all coms, cut your word count in two. Get the point faster and your odds of them getting to the end are better.

Attention - how will you get + keep attention?

You want to be able to answer the question: WHY would someone fill out your survey? What’s in it for them? You’re looking for an intrinsic value that you can bake into the process. Avoid throwing out prizes to motivate them and try to articulate what the result of their feedback will be. Bonus points if you follow up afterwards with a personal thank you where you connect their feedback to a decision you made about the program.

When was the last time you talked with your customers?

10/26/2022

The #1 question I get and see in the community space: which all-in-one platform should house my community?

Whether you are creating a new community or you’ve outgrown your Facebook group or Slack channel, every community manager will at some point wonder which community platform is a good fit for you. I’ve found this process to be daunting with tons of overpriced options and few resources to help compare and contrast.

I selected two of my favorite platforms: circle and heartbeat, and another platform (Mighty Networks) that I don’t recommend, but that I find people are often drawn to because it’s shiny.

The purpose of this article is not to declare a winner between these three platforms, but rather is to help you put the pieces together more easily to understand the best fit for your community. Link in bio!

07/28/2022

Got to sit down with Wilson at Piktochart and talk shop about community and why it's a business decision (not a marketing decision!) 💥💪 Check it out here ⬇️

Season 2, Ep 3: Why Community Building Is A Business Strategy (featuring Bri Leever, Community Architect at Ember Consulting)What is a product, service, inte...

04/14/2022

For all the people out there, have you considered how the four stages of competence can impact your onboarding flow for community members?

I explored this in an article here:

04/12/2022

So this was fun 🎉 What's your community superpower? I put together a short, fun quiz to find out.

I hope it brightens your day and even gives you a nugget of wisdom to take with you for the road. ✨

https://quiz.tryinteract.com/ #/6254d326ee7aa900187ac4fb

01/14/2022

It was my first KPI meeting of my career. My manager was explaining the concepts of attrition and retention and I had a number in front of me: what % of the community (that I was building) would leave every month.

To my young brain, this was quantifiable evidence, measured each month, of whether or not people liked me. If they liked me and my efforts, they would stay in the community. If they didn’t like me or my work, they would leave.

Never have I been so terrified of a number.

Don’t get me wrong, I was terrified of the other numbers too, but this one was especially horrific. What if more people left than we expected? How would I justify myself? I had to work really hard to make sure I never upset too many people. I wanted to design a system that allowed enough people to stay so I could make sure I hit that number. My boss wasn't even particularly concerned about this number - I was concerned.

My working hypothesis is I (and so many other community managers like me) allow lurkers and energy vampires to stay on in our community because we are scared. We are scared to report a lower number. We are scared that we’ll have to face that not everyone is resonating with our content or vision. And we see only scarcity.

My latest post is a love letter to that former, terrified, Bri.

Link to blog in bio ✨

📸: Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

10/12/2021

We are loving the energy of this rowdy crew we just joined to get more connected on the Big Island!

As we’ve spent more time on the island, it became clear that our philosophy and concepts at Ember can be implemented to help foster deeper relationships with the small business superfans.

This group has been so warm and welcoming and helped make new connections. Word of mouth is critical, and they are proving that every day.

Cheers to a bright year ahead!