February 24, 2025 • 34 mins
Katherine Martín-Fisher sits down with Jeffrey Roe to explore his journey from a New Yorker affected by 9/11 to an influential figure in community management. They discuss the shift from community challenges to social media, highlighting a case study on the Facebook Watch show "Returning the Favor." Jeffrey shares insights on how podcasting enhances community engagement and speculates on future trends in community management. The discussion covers identifying the ideal client and making a significant impact through community efforts. Jeffrey also reflects on his evolution from entrepreneur to mentor, offering ways to connect with him. The episode wraps up with Katherine's closing thoughts.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
I am Catherine Martin Fisher, and I helpbusiness owners who have lost their vision
because they're struggling with cash flow,sales, marketing, which also affects their
company culture, by showing them to implementproven systems that increase their revenue by
30% in ninety days, and this allowing them toreignite the passion and that big dream that
(00:27):
they started with.
So the reason that I started this podcast wasto celebrate businesses who have overcome
adversity and have come out on the other sideof it.
And I want you to know that you are not alone.
Good afternoon.
This is Catherine with the Beyond Businesspodcast.
(00:48):
Welcome back.
And we are so excited because we have JeffreyRoe with here with us here today.
He's a community manager.
He currently serves as a fractional director ofcommunity at Sways University.
He is his his current role is buildingcommunity for podcast called the Rap Dads Show
(01:10):
as well as the Sway in the Morning Show on cSiriusXM.
Whoops.
And over the course of his thirteen yearjourney as a community professional, he's had
the privilege to work with dozens of brands inroles leading teams of community managers that
helped empower organizations to achievemeasurable business growth by building
(01:34):
meaningful relationships with their customers.
And this includes strategizing, execution, andmeasurement of community.
Community programs for brands like Facebook,Best Buy, H and R Block, Meta Quest, Red Table
Talk, and Bear.
What?
Oh my goodness.
I think everybody needs a community manager.
Welcome.
Welcome, Jeffro.
(01:55):
Hey, Catherine.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's a pleasure to be here.
I'm excited.
So am I.
I'm excited to hear a little bit about thisjourney.
You know, I alright.
So I'm gonna say this.
You know, we've got that New Yorker accent inyou.
Yeah.
Like, let's let's just start there.
Right?
Because that's the way we hit it off.
(02:16):
Yeah.
So You know, once you're born in New York,you're, you know, you're a New Yorker for life
no matter where you live.
Yep.
That's it.
You can take the boy out of the city, but youcan't take the city out of the boy.
Right?
That is so true.
Would you not say that that's just, like, it'sjust in your blood being
%.
I think that was one of the first things thatwas very top of mind for me, especially as I
(02:39):
entered college.
Right?
Because my I was born in New York City.
My mother's Puerto Rican, and my father'sIrish.
And my parents moved to Jersey City veryquickly after I was born.
So growing up, it was like I felt like I was inthe city, but I also felt like I was just
outside the city.
You know?
I grew up with this longing for, like, I wannago back and, like, learn New York City like the
(03:03):
back of my hand.
You know?
Even even when I was younger, I I must havebeen about 10 years old, and my mother used to
work right by the World Financial Center, youknow, World Trade Center.
And I got out of school one day, and I withouteven telling her, I got on the train.
There's a train that that connects Jersey Citywith New York, and it goes through other parts
(03:24):
of of Jersey into Newark and stuff like that,but it's called the path train.
Right?
Port Authority, transit something or other.
Right?
And the part of Jersey City that I grew up inwas Downtown Jersey City right on the
waterfront.
So I could literally hop on a train and be inNew York in ten minutes.
So I got out of school one day.
I got on the train because I had my mother hadtaken me to her job enough times that I
(03:46):
memorized how to get there.
And I just went to be like, hey.
Hey, mom.
I took the train by myself.
You know?
And she was like, oh my gosh.
What are you doing here when I got to heroffice?
No.
That was always something that was important tome growing up.
And I mean, by the time I got to nine elevenwas junior year of high school, and my my high
school was only just over a mile away from theapartment building that I grew up in.
(04:11):
And, I mean, Jersey City is so close that,like, you can literally feel the ground shake
when those buildings fell.
It was crazy.
And even even getting home that day, right,from school
So you were you were already living in NewJersey then when 09/11 happened.
Yes.
How old were you when you took that train thatfirst time?
I must have been, like, 10 years
old.
Yeah.
(04:31):
That would just be like, what are you doing?
It's right.
Right.
Right.
She was like, I can't believe you had.
I didn't tell her I was doing it or anythinglike that.
So, you know, that would that gave her a littlebit of a heart attack, but she was, you know,
pleasantly surprised ultimately.
Right.
And I mean, yeah, 09:11 getting back home thatday was I mean, my the high school wasn't far.
(04:52):
I watched the second plane fly into the WorldTrade Center from the from the window of
history class in high school.
Out of all classes, I was walking into historyclass when it was happening.
So but to get home that day, it was just anightmare.
I was just over a mile away from my apartmentbuilding and driving to get over an hour
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because all the streets were shut down.
It was.
It was lovely.
Little bit about that.
Let's talk a little bit about the impact ofthat moment.
It was hugely impactful.
I mean, I I got out of school.
I I I walked into history class.
I saw all of my classmates gathered around thewindow.
Right?
And, you know, I was like, what's going on,guys?
(05:34):
And and they were like, oh, a plane just flewinto the World Trade Center.
And I was like, you know, me being the classclown that I am.
I was like, what's going on?
The pilot having a couple of drinks.
And and then I walk up to to watch what'shappening.
I'm just seeing the smoke, and then the secondplane flies in.
I'm like, this is not Not a coincidence.
You know?
Like No.
This is not an accident.
(05:54):
No.
So the professor, when I went I went to HudsonCatholic High School in Jersey City.
So shout out to that that high school.
It's run by it's a Catholic school that's runby Jesuit brothers.
There's there's a difference between, like,when you go to Catholic school, there's, like,
fathers, the priests, and then they have oh,no.
They're called the brothers.
(06:16):
So it's another sort of priesthood also verysimilar, but they are called brothers instead
of father.
So little little fun fact about Catholicism.
So so, yeah, the the brother who was teachinghistory class out of all classes, he says, you
know, students, you know, take your seats, youknow, settle down.
We're about to get class started, and thenwe're trying to let him know, like, hey.
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Something's going on over here.
Two planes just flew into the World TradeCenter.
He's like, oh, that's not possible.
I said, well, hey.
You wanna come over and take a look?
Because we're watching it happen right now.
You know?
Wow.
So we end up getting called to the auditoriumand dismissed, of course, but even in the
auditorium was you could just see the panic onpeople's faces.
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There were guys that were, you know, fellowclassmates, other, you know, cohorts of
students in in the high school that runningaround the auditor crying, just panic because
their parents they lost their parents.
I almost lost my mother.
My mother at the time was working, I wanna saysomewhere in Midtown Manhattan.
But the way that she used to take the train togo was going through the World Trade Center.
(07:21):
Through there.
And she missed the second plane hitting by fiveminutes.
She didn't even know what was happening untilshe got to work, and all of her coworkers were
panic stricken.
And they're like, oh my gosh.
I can't believe you're okay.
She's like, what happened?
My goodness.
Can you imagine?
Just like if you had left a few minutes later,who knows?
So I was living in New Jersey when thathappened.
(07:44):
No.
Sorry.
I was not living in New Jersey.
I had New Jersey in my mind.
It was another big event that happened in NewJersey.
I was actually I meant to say I was living inMaryland at the time.
Yes.
Honestly, I just remember the panic, and Iremember literally the very first reaction
being I need to go get my children right nowand literally running to their schools to get
(08:10):
them and gather them because you just you know,when because we had also in Pennsylvania, they
had the other plane.
You know?
There was all these things, and Washington isright near me, and so you had that piece of it.
So I had all of those, you know, those so manyemotions come up.
So that being said, this is the Beyond Businesspodcast, and I love these conversations that we
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have because these are true life conversations.
And whether it be life or business, there'salways this adversity that we deal with.
Right?
There's always something that we have tonavigate through the emotions of things that
happen, whether they be in business or in life.
Life.
So that being said, I would love for you togive us an example of just maybe a time in your
(08:58):
life that you've had to navigate and you'vebeen able to come to the other side of it.
Like and and we're all going through it.
It's not there's never an end to thenavigating.
Right?
Right.
But just just give us and maybe maybe we shouldsay it more like a setback.
So a period of time, an example of a setback,and how you're able to navigate that and come
(09:20):
to the other side of it.
I mean, there's due to the nature of theindustry that I work in Right.
As professionals you know, and I'm sure thatthere's the circumstances around this look
different depending on what it is that you doin business.
But as community managers, we are uniquelyfaced with setbacks on constantly.
(09:42):
Right?
And we can talk about examples that youexperience on the job, like the micro examples
that you experience in your day to day or themacro ones that we experience as an industry.
So let's start with the the micro.
Right?
Like, let's start small.
Building community in a professional contextrequires a lot of work.
(10:02):
It's it's not as simple as it sounds.
A lot of folks tend to confuse communitymanagement with social media management, which
is a question I get a lot.
That's what I would like you just to give us anexample of the difference.
What do you consider to be the difference inthe two that you can help our audience
understand?
Absolutely.
I I love this question.
(10:23):
So, social media management is a digitalmarketing tactic that is designed to build
brand awareness, and it's really a customeracquisition tool.
So when you think about social mediamanagement, you wanna think about what it is
that you're saying to the world.
Right?
(10:44):
The communication is one to many because you'retrying to let people know, hey.
Hi.
I'm here.
Pay attention to me.
You know?
So you're using it as a tool to build brandawareness and bring new customers in the door.
Unity management, on the other hand, is acustomer retention tool that's designed for you
to build authentic and meaningful relationshipswith your current customers.
(11:10):
So in that way, you are reminding them of thevalue that you represent that you represented
to them when they first made a purchasedecision for you, whether you're buying a a
product or a service, whatever it is thatyou're doing.
You are establishing a relationship with themthat's rooted in a mutual exchange of value.
(11:32):
If you win, I win.
And if I win, you win.
And round and round we go, like Robert De Niroand meet the parents.
Right?
Like the circle of trust.
So, you know, it gets a little tricky.
Right?
Because if you think about now I'm gonna gomacro a little bit.
One of the things that companies are very, veryfocused on, rightfully so, is revenue
(11:56):
generation and growth.
Right?
So the mistake that's often made in theexecution phase of community management for
companies that are so hyperly focused on thatis that if you think about it this way.
If you're attempting to create an authentic andmeaningful relationship with your customers
that's rooted in a mutual exchange of value,quite oftentimes, not all of the time, your
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community members are gonna be able to tellwhen you're trying to sell them on something.
Right.
And that is a slippery slope.
And most companies, especially the at theenterprise level, do it in in such a poor way
that you ultimately what happens is you end uplosing a customer.
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So you sort of if community management wasdesigned to be a customer retention tool, you
did the complete opposite of that, and youactually affected your churn in a in a negative
way because you scared off a customer.
They thought that you really cared about them,but they figured out that you're really just
trying to make a sale.
So
(13:02):
So give us an example.
What do you I'm I guess I'm a little lost onthat one.
Think about the emails that you get when yousign up for a newsletter.
Correct.
Every site has a newsletter.
They wanna keep you updated.
What's the latest and greatest and everythingthat's going on?
And then picture how like, what what was yourmotivation when you first clicked to to
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subscribe to the newsletter and then fastforward to, you know, three weeks later, and
you're like, wow.
These people just won't stop in my inbox.
Mhmm.
You know?
Because they're constantly hitting me over thehead trying to sell me something.
Right.
Instead of what you should be doing, especiallywhat if you're trying to court a new community
member is give away the value for free.
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Figure out a way to segment whatever yourcontent offering is because most businesses
that are out there have to have some kind of acontent strategy.
Right?
How can you segment your content in such a waythat you are creating you're repurposing
content in different formats?
So that way, hey.
(14:08):
Here's a white paper.
Free.
Here's a PDF.
Free.
Here's a few links that we found that wethought you'd, you know, find valuable.
Rather than saying, I'll subscribe, and thenyou'll get it.
You have to give away some of that valueupfront in the beginning to show your community
members or a prospect prospective customer thatyou really care about their success.
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And then if they wanna make a purchase becauseyou're offering something that is, like,
tangible value that you can justify that, hey.
We had to make we had to, you know, incur someoverhead in order to create this other resource
that we know is gonna be hugely valuable toyou.
And this for this, you're gonna have to pay forthis.
Right?
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Like, if you're if you've given them enoughcarrots, you know, and really prove it and
you've established trust with that customer,you're gonna you're you're starting to
effectively activate on community management,and you're building that trust.
And little by little, you're gonna end up witha customer for life.
So give me an example of some of a customer.
(15:12):
You don't have to give us their name, but just,an example of how you were able to help them in
your community management and just you know,because those are little obstacles sometimes
that you have to overcome to get people tounderstand these are the needs that are
necessary for you to be able to build thatbrand awareness.
So how do you help them manage that, maneuverthrough that, see the value, see the value in
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that, and be able to get their head out of thewhole, like, oh, this is not just social media.
This is community management.
And not everybody understands that that'swhat's necessary for branding.
Give us an example of someone you've been ableto help do that with.
So the example that I'm thinking of is, I Iused to live in Austin, Texas.
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After I left Jersey in 2017, I was living inAustin, Texas for three years, and I was
working at a company called Corals.
The department that I worked for in Corals wascalled strategic services.
And we basically function like an agency withinthe business because Koros is one of the most
well known community management softwareplatforms on the market.
(16:17):
And some of our clients had no communitymanagement teams to speak of or just had small
teams that weren't operating at scale yet, sothey would tap my strategic services team for
additional services.
And one of our biggest clients, our largestcontract was with Facebook.
So I worked on several communities forFacebook, and one of them, was a show that used
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to have a streaming, TV platform calledFacebook Watch.
Watch.
And in addition to Red Table Talk, which wasone of the shows that you mentioned, that's
Jada Pinkett's talk show.
There was another show by a gentleman namedMike Rowe.
No relation to me.
He's r o w e.
Some of you may know him from a DiscoveryChannel show called Dirty Jobs.
But he had a show on Facebook Watch calledreturning the favor.
(17:04):
And returning the favor was a show a realityshow where he would go to different he used to
call them do gooders, but it's basically folksthat are doing random acts of kindness in their
community.
Like and a lot of them are at scale.
We're talking about so the example that I have.
Right?
So he went to one town.
I forget exactly where in America this was, butthere is you get you can look this up.
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It's on YouTube.
There was a young woman somewhere in Americawho runs a summer camp program for young girls.
We're talking between the ages of eight and 10called Girls Build.
And it's a summer camp program that shows girlshow to, you know, carpentry skills, like how to
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how to build things, how to, you know, hammerand nails, all of the the big heavy work that
most of us consider to be associated with men.
We're showing our girls how to do it because weyou know, female empowerment and showing these
girls that they can do anything they want.
Right.
You know?
So a beautiful mission.
Right?
And after she was featured on the show becausewhat Mike Rowe does is he comes up he comes to
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the town and introduces himself like he's justdoing a little news segment.
Right?
They don't know Mike because they don't knowthat he's really got a show with Facebook
watch.
But what he gives them is a very sizabledonation for them to continue doing the great
work that they're doing.
And what Micro gifted this young woman with wasan entire school bus filled with the most state
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of the art carpentry equipment, you know, powerdrills, all of it.
It was fully outfitted.
Beautiful, beautiful bus.
And, you know, every every reveal, forget it.
Like, the community that he built around thisshow, they would be, like, engaging me after
every episode.
Oh my god.
There's there's onion ninjas in the room.
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Everybody's just crying because it's such afeel good show.
These people have doing great altruistic work,and they are really making an impact in their
community.
You can imagine.
Like, it's so it lends itself so well tocommunity management because it's so community
driven in actual in real life.
So it's, like, almost a perfect setup to tohave a digital community.
(19:15):
Mhmm.
After the show aired, she made the local news,and somebody came and robbed the bus.
Yeah.
Horrible.
That is horrible.
Right?
But because the community let us know, I wasable to flag it over to Facebook real quick and
say, hey.
You need to contact the producers of the showbecause this is messed up, and they gave her a
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replacement right away.
And the fact that we were able to find thatinformation out and activate on it so quickly,
they loved us for
it.
Wow.
That's so interesting.
Yeah.
That what a story.
I mean, that
that's that's kind of like a more of aqualitative example.
Right?
Like, you know, there of course, there areother ones where I can tell you about projects,
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and we can talk about numbers and KPIs andstuff like that.
But when we think about community managementand trust me.
The quantitative side of this is equally asimportant.
But that qualitative, that storytelling side,that is what really when you're talking about
proving the value of community Right.
You can't just be numbers driven.
(20:21):
You have to be, like, oh, are we actuallymaking an impact in the world?
Like, something tangible that we could see.
You know?
You know, that being said, I would love for youto tell our audience a little bit about how you
feel podcasting will help in your in thecommunity management as well.
(20:42):
Well, being that I am working to launch apodcast of my own, if I'm taking a look at the
current landscape of the industry, because manyof my colleagues have podcasts that are out
there, And a lot of them are great, and Ilisten to them.
And the one constructive criticism that I wouldmake is that we're too like, they're all kind
(21:03):
of very much the same in that we're we'refocusing too much on theory stuff.
Like like I just explained, the numbers part ofit.
Like, the metrics and the frameworks and thestrategies and all of that stuff, all of that
information is out there, especially duringCOVID.
There was an explosion of communities forcommunity managers, by community managers.
(21:24):
You know?
And it's like, okay.
Enough is enough.
You know?
Like, not enough is enough.
Like, please, like, I love it.
And, of course, my podcast will have stuff likethat as well, that evergreen content.
The time has come for us.
So we've made some really good progress as anindustry in terms of establishing our footing
in the business world, but there's still a lotof work that needs to be done.
(21:46):
Because if we're really thinking about it andwe just recently went through this, I think it
I think it's starting to bounce back, but it'sstill a very tumultuous landscape.
As soon as there's economic strife and thingsget a little weird, budgets have to be cut,
community is the first thing to go becausepeople don't value it enough yet, although they
should.
Every company that's out there knows thatcommunity management is the future of business
(22:10):
development.
Mark my words.
In another five to ten years, every companywill have a community team.
There are companies out there right now thathave chief community officers.
Yeah.
So we know this to be true, yet we don't valueit enough to commit to it or double down on it.
(22:31):
Why?
Why?
Are we just are we just overly concerned withwhat's the answer to 99 out of a hundred
questions?
Money.
How much does it cost?
So That's right.
You know, my to answer your question, I thinkthat we need a little bit of Sasson.
For lack of a better word, I'm gonna get on youhere for a second.
(22:55):
You know?
We need a little bit more flavor.
We need to be talking about industry in aprofessional way, but also in a very real way.
Mhmm.
Right?
And most of what I'm seeing out there is thatwe're still sort of kowtowing and kissing up,
frankly, to corporate America because that'swhere the money is.
What would you say is a mistake that mostpeople make when they when they're looking at
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community managers?
The biggest mistake that most people make whenthey look at community managers outside of the
fact that they confuse them with social mediamanagers is that community is not monolithic.
You're looking at it through one lens becauseyou only think you can do this one thing when
in actuality, it can provide value to everypart of your organization.
(23:44):
Think about how some of the biggest companiesdo it.
Salesforce, one of the largest customerrelationship management companies on the face
of the world, has one of the biggest and mostwell respected communities in the industry, the
Salesforce Trailblazers.
Right?
Now I'll give you here's another example ofcommunity gone awry.
(24:04):
Okay?
Salesforce has one of the biggest and most wellrespected communities in the industry, the
Salesforce Trailblazers.
One of my colleagues worked was the VP ofcommunity at Salesforce for over twenty years.
She now runs her own consulting practice.
She will not take a client who's buildingcommunity on Salesforce.
And the reason for that, Salesforce, inaddition to their CRM platform, Salesforce has
(24:29):
many products as I'm sure most of your audiencemembers know.
And one of those products used to be calledSalesforce Community Cloud.
It was a product that allowed you to create acommunity site, to build a community site from
scratch.
Community sites work similarly to otherwebsites, but and this is probably why people
confuse community management to social mediamanagement.
(24:53):
If you go to a community site that's owned bythe brand, by the company, it lives on their
domain.
Right?
Once you're in the community, the look and feelof it, the user experience is very much like
social media.
Right?
So it's just the only real difference is, like,you're not doing it on the platform directly,
(25:16):
natively.
You're on the company website.
But you'll have things like a timeline andevents and, you know, calendars and stuff like
that.
So Salesforce took their product that did that,Salesforce Community Cloud.
And in 2019, they changed the name of theproduct to Salesforce Experience Cloud.
And that degraded the the product in a lot ofways where all of those functions that were
(25:44):
specific to a community became sort ofdeprecated.
And now now what the product does is it basicit's a website builder.
There's nothing uniquely community about itanymore.
So Salesforce has deemphasized their focus oncommunity probably because they have other
products that are their bread and butter.
(26:04):
And that's that's just proof right there of,like, corporate America and and, you know, a
company that was once very well known forcommunity, but scaled to the point where it's
like they're too big.
What?
You're too big and good for community now.
Like, what's up?
Now tell me what would be your, you what wouldbe
(26:25):
What would be my perfect client?
I am seeking to work with small to medium sizedbusinesses.
And, you know, specifically, given mybackground, one of the other things that I've
noticed about the industry is that it's fromwhat from what everything that I see, at least
from my perspective, I can't speak for anyoneelse.
And if anyone out there knows of a company thatembraces community in this way, please let me
(26:52):
know because I'd love to work with them.
But, you know, to be very, very candid, it alllooks really vanilla to me.
You know?
And I'm half Irish, so I can say that.
Okay?
As a half white man, I can say, we're a littletoo white, man.
Like, what's up, the the my Puerto Rican sideis saying, where's the sassonne?
(27:14):
You know?
Like
The flavor?
Where's the flavor?
Where's the flavor?
So my my consulting practice, which is thecompany that I'm starting, I'm ready to step
into the consulting space.
I'm ready to talk community in a very real andhard hitting way, is seeking to work with
brands and companies that are owned by membersof the BIPOC community and those of their
(27:36):
allies.
And for those of you who don't know what BIPOCstands for, it's black indigenous people of
color.
So all of my black and brown folks, all oftheir allies, if you have a small to medium
size brand or company that you're seeking thatyou wanna grow and you wanna use community to
to build around your brand or your company,come talk to me.
(27:59):
Love that.
So I I wanna ask you this.
Can you share a specific way in which you aimto positively impact the lives of others?
Because I feel would you not agree that throughcommunity management, that is an impact because
you're able to tell a story.
When you're branding companies and businesses,you're able to actually create that impact.
(28:21):
Share with us an impact or a way in which you'dlike to make a difference through what you're
doing.
The way that I'm seeking to make impact,specifically by working and I think that by
working with small to medium sized businessesthat are, you know, in the BIPOC community, I
think I'll be able to positively affect changewith the kinds of individuals that that need
(28:45):
the most help because, you know, think I mean,just look at me.
I'm embarking on my first entrepreneur.
You know, I recently established my first LLC.
This is I'm a newbie to this.
I'm a newbie to being an entrepreneur.
I've been an entrepreneur for my entire career,but there's a difference when you make the
decision to go out and do it on your own.
(29:06):
So there's a lot of things to figure out.
There's a lot of things to figure out.
And, hopefully, through my experience, not justin community management, but in building my own
business, you know, all a lot of us aren'tnatural born marketers or business majors even.
Right?
Like, I went to school for marketing.
I have a degree in business administration, soI'm uniquely qualified to help out folks who
(29:31):
have have started a business, but they don'treally they're maybe not they're not too tech
savvy.
There's people out there that own businessesthat don't even know how to use an Excel
spreadsheet.
That's right.
You know?
And there's that generation in there that is
Right.
And now that they're owning and operating abusiness, they don't have the time to learn
themselves.
They need somebody to do that for them.
(29:52):
Right?
But if I if I have a partnership with a smallto medium sized business, I can bring them into
that, then I can give them some of those toolsand information and resources and empower them
to be successful.
That So I love that.
So I do wanna talk that's one of those piecesthat I wanna share.
You were an entrepreneur for so many years.
(30:13):
What made you decide to be an entrepreneur andswitch that space?
After seeing community go awry so many times,you just get fed up.
You just get fed up.
And you're like, you know what?
If if I'm I'm I'm done with, like, doing thisfor organizations that don't understand it,
(30:33):
that they don't get it.
I'm not gonna drop any names or anything likethat, but, you know, I think in what I've
described and and some of the the the mistakesthat I've, you know, sort of highlighted in
this conversation, you know what I'm talkingabout.
You know?
Like, I don't wanna put anybody on the spot.
I don't know.
I know we talked about Salesforce, but, I mean,that is well documented.
(30:53):
You can find, you know, you can findinformation on that online if you poke around.
But, yeah, you just get fed up.
You know?
And and and and I and I'm sick of having to gothrough the process So I'm like, okay.
Gosh.
I gotta talk about I gotta what am I gonna do?
Join get get on the unemployment line again andgo through the the job interview process
another time?
(31:14):
Brandon, I'm still doing all of that.
But, you know, at least now I can do it knowingthat I'm doing work that provides me with a
sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Because, ultimately, that's what matters themost.
You don't wanna just exist in this life.
You don't wanna just work a job for your entirelife.
You want a career.
You know?
(31:34):
And and in 2024, forget it.
You don't just need a a a career.
You need a career, a side hustle, about 20other revenue streams, right, just to be able
to live the life that you envision foryourself.
Nobody wants to exist and just survive in thislife.
You wanna thrive.
So that's, yeah, that's that's kind of my why.
(31:55):
Love it.
I love it.
I wanna thank you so much for sharing today.
This was great.
Here's what I do love.
I love that you're gonna be able to go into thesmall businesses, small to midsize businesses,
and and add some salsa to it.
And, you know, so so that flavor and being ableto to help them in telling their story as
they're building their community.
(32:16):
So if you are a small business or midsizebusiness owner and you would need to get in
touch with Jeffrey Rowe, how are they gonna getin touch with you, Jeffrey?
I would say that the best way to find me youcan definitely find me on LinkedIn if you just
search Jeffrey Rowe and look for the guy withthe backwards hat, you know, because that's how
(32:36):
I show up on LinkedIn.
But probably the fastest way to get in touchwith me, if not through there, then definitely
on Instagram.
I go by Jersey City Jeff.
It's very simple, one word, no underscores, nospecial characters, just Jersey City Jeff.
I love it.
Jersey City Jeff.
Well, Jersey City Jeff, I wanna thank you somuch for being here with us today and for
(32:59):
sharing with our community.
And Thank
you so much for having me.
Had a
great conversation.
Absolutely.
And thank you so much for doing everything thatyou do, you know, with with your show, the
Beyond Business podcast.
You know?
I know that you're helping a lot of people outthere to just go beyond information that that
they would find elsewhere.
So continue to do what you're doing, and, stayamazing.
(33:20):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And, again, I just wanna thank you so much forlistening today.
This is the Beyond Business podcast, and I'myour host, Catherine.
And, looking forward to meeting up with you onthe next show.
Well, if you made it to this point, then youmade it to the end, and you are my star.
(33:41):
And I just wanna thank you from the bottom ofmy heart.
I hope that you enjoyed the conversation withtoday's guest.
And if you did, please leave us a review onApple Podcasts and Spotify, and share this
episode with others who may be interested inthis topic.
Also, please feel free to let us know whattopics you'd like to see covered in future
(34:02):
episodes.
Get in touch in the comments or in RocketGrowth social media platforms.
To have conversations with me, my booking linkis in the comments.
See you next week for all for a all newepisode.
I am Catherine Martin Fisher, and I helpbusiness owners who have lost their vision
because they're struggling with cash flow,sales, marketing, which also affects their
company culture, by showing them to implementproven systems that increase their revenue by
30% in ninety days, and this allowing them toreignite the passion and that big dream that
(00:27):
they started with.
So the reason that I started this podcast wasto celebrate businesses who have overcome
adversity and have come out on the other sideof it.
And I want you to know that you are not alone.
Good afternoon.
This is Catherine with the Beyond Businesspodcast.
(00:48):
Welcome back.
And we are so excited because we have JeffreyRoe with here with us here today.
He's a community manager.
He currently serves as a fractional director ofcommunity at Sways University.
He is his his current role is buildingcommunity for podcast called the Rap Dads Show
(01:10):
as well as the Sway in the Morning Show on cSiriusXM.
Whoops.
And over the course of his thirteen yearjourney as a community professional, he's had
the privilege to work with dozens of brands inroles leading teams of community managers that
helped empower organizations to achievemeasurable business growth by building
(01:34):
meaningful relationships with their customers.
And this includes strategizing, execution, andmeasurement of community.
Community programs for brands like Facebook,Best Buy, H and R Block, Meta Quest, Red Table
Talk, and Bear.
What?
Oh my goodness.
I think everybody needs a community manager.
Welcome.
Welcome, Jeffro.
(01:55):
Hey, Catherine.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's a pleasure to be here.
I'm excited.
So am I.
I'm excited to hear a little bit about thisjourney.
You know, I alright.
So I'm gonna say this.
You know, we've got that New Yorker accent inyou.
Yeah.
Like, let's let's just start there.
Right?
Because that's the way we hit it off.
(02:16):
Yeah.
So You know, once you're born in New York,you're, you know, you're a New Yorker for life
no matter where you live.
Yep.
That's it.
You can take the boy out of the city, but youcan't take the city out of the boy.
Right?
That is so true.
Would you not say that that's just, like, it'sjust in your blood being
%.
I think that was one of the first things thatwas very top of mind for me, especially as I
(02:39):
entered college.
Right?
Because my I was born in New York City.
My mother's Puerto Rican, and my father'sIrish.
And my parents moved to Jersey City veryquickly after I was born.
So growing up, it was like I felt like I was inthe city, but I also felt like I was just
outside the city.
You know?
I grew up with this longing for, like, I wannago back and, like, learn New York City like the
(03:03):
back of my hand.
You know?
Even even when I was younger, I I must havebeen about 10 years old, and my mother used to
work right by the World Financial Center, youknow, World Trade Center.
And I got out of school one day, and I withouteven telling her, I got on the train.
There's a train that that connects Jersey Citywith New York, and it goes through other parts
(03:24):
of of Jersey into Newark and stuff like that,but it's called the path train.
Right?
Port Authority, transit something or other.
Right?
And the part of Jersey City that I grew up inwas Downtown Jersey City right on the
waterfront.
So I could literally hop on a train and be inNew York in ten minutes.
So I got out of school one day.
I got on the train because I had my mother hadtaken me to her job enough times that I
(03:46):
memorized how to get there.
And I just went to be like, hey.
Hey, mom.
I took the train by myself.
You know?
And she was like, oh my gosh.
What are you doing here when I got to heroffice?
No.
That was always something that was important tome growing up.
And I mean, by the time I got to nine elevenwas junior year of high school, and my my high
school was only just over a mile away from theapartment building that I grew up in.
(04:11):
And, I mean, Jersey City is so close that,like, you can literally feel the ground shake
when those buildings fell.
It was crazy.
And even even getting home that day, right,from school
So you were you were already living in NewJersey then when 09/11 happened.
Yes.
How old were you when you took that train thatfirst time?
I must have been, like, 10 years
old.
Yeah.
(04:31):
That would just be like, what are you doing?
It's right.
Right.
Right.
She was like, I can't believe you had.
I didn't tell her I was doing it or anythinglike that.
So, you know, that would that gave her a littlebit of a heart attack, but she was, you know,
pleasantly surprised ultimately.
Right.
And I mean, yeah, 09:11 getting back home thatday was I mean, my the high school wasn't far.
(04:52):
I watched the second plane fly into the WorldTrade Center from the from the window of
history class in high school.
Out of all classes, I was walking into historyclass when it was happening.
So but to get home that day, it was just anightmare.
I was just over a mile away from my apartmentbuilding and driving to get over an hour
(05:13):
because all the streets were shut down.
It was.
It was lovely.
Little bit about that.
Let's talk a little bit about the impact ofthat moment.
It was hugely impactful.
I mean, I I got out of school.
I I I walked into history class.
I saw all of my classmates gathered around thewindow.
Right?
And, you know, I was like, what's going on,guys?
(05:34):
And and they were like, oh, a plane just flewinto the World Trade Center.
And I was like, you know, me being the classclown that I am.
I was like, what's going on?
The pilot having a couple of drinks.
And and then I walk up to to watch what'shappening.
I'm just seeing the smoke, and then the secondplane flies in.
I'm like, this is not Not a coincidence.
You know?
Like No.
This is not an accident.
(05:54):
No.
So the professor, when I went I went to HudsonCatholic High School in Jersey City.
So shout out to that that high school.
It's run by it's a Catholic school that's runby Jesuit brothers.
There's there's a difference between, like,when you go to Catholic school, there's, like,
fathers, the priests, and then they have oh,no.
They're called the brothers.
(06:16):
So it's another sort of priesthood also verysimilar, but they are called brothers instead
of father.
So little little fun fact about Catholicism.
So so, yeah, the the brother who was teachinghistory class out of all classes, he says, you
know, students, you know, take your seats, youknow, settle down.
We're about to get class started, and thenwe're trying to let him know, like, hey.
(06:37):
Something's going on over here.
Two planes just flew into the World TradeCenter.
He's like, oh, that's not possible.
I said, well, hey.
You wanna come over and take a look?
Because we're watching it happen right now.
You know?
Wow.
So we end up getting called to the auditoriumand dismissed, of course, but even in the
auditorium was you could just see the panic onpeople's faces.
(06:57):
There were guys that were, you know, fellowclassmates, other, you know, cohorts of
students in in the high school that runningaround the auditor crying, just panic because
their parents they lost their parents.
I almost lost my mother.
My mother at the time was working, I wanna saysomewhere in Midtown Manhattan.
But the way that she used to take the train togo was going through the World Trade Center.
(07:21):
Through there.
And she missed the second plane hitting by fiveminutes.
She didn't even know what was happening untilshe got to work, and all of her coworkers were
panic stricken.
And they're like, oh my gosh.
I can't believe you're okay.
She's like, what happened?
My goodness.
Can you imagine?
Just like if you had left a few minutes later,who knows?
So I was living in New Jersey when thathappened.
(07:44):
No.
Sorry.
I was not living in New Jersey.
I had New Jersey in my mind.
It was another big event that happened in NewJersey.
I was actually I meant to say I was living inMaryland at the time.
Yes.
Honestly, I just remember the panic, and Iremember literally the very first reaction
being I need to go get my children right nowand literally running to their schools to get
(08:10):
them and gather them because you just you know,when because we had also in Pennsylvania, they
had the other plane.
You know?
There was all these things, and Washington isright near me, and so you had that piece of it.
So I had all of those, you know, those so manyemotions come up.
So that being said, this is the Beyond Businesspodcast, and I love these conversations that we
(08:34):
have because these are true life conversations.
And whether it be life or business, there'salways this adversity that we deal with.
Right?
There's always something that we have tonavigate through the emotions of things that
happen, whether they be in business or in life.
Life.
So that being said, I would love for you togive us an example of just maybe a time in your
(08:58):
life that you've had to navigate and you'vebeen able to come to the other side of it.
Like and and we're all going through it.
It's not there's never an end to thenavigating.
Right?
Right.
But just just give us and maybe maybe we shouldsay it more like a setback.
So a period of time, an example of a setback,and how you're able to navigate that and come
(09:20):
to the other side of it.
I mean, there's due to the nature of theindustry that I work in Right.
As professionals you know, and I'm sure thatthere's the circumstances around this look
different depending on what it is that you doin business.
But as community managers, we are uniquelyfaced with setbacks on constantly.
(09:42):
Right?
And we can talk about examples that youexperience on the job, like the micro examples
that you experience in your day to day or themacro ones that we experience as an industry.
So let's start with the the micro.
Right?
Like, let's start small.
Building community in a professional contextrequires a lot of work.
(10:02):
It's it's not as simple as it sounds.
A lot of folks tend to confuse communitymanagement with social media management, which
is a question I get a lot.
That's what I would like you just to give us anexample of the difference.
What do you consider to be the difference inthe two that you can help our audience
understand?
Absolutely.
I I love this question.
(10:23):
So, social media management is a digitalmarketing tactic that is designed to build
brand awareness, and it's really a customeracquisition tool.
So when you think about social mediamanagement, you wanna think about what it is
that you're saying to the world.
Right?
(10:44):
The communication is one to many because you'retrying to let people know, hey.
Hi.
I'm here.
Pay attention to me.
You know?
So you're using it as a tool to build brandawareness and bring new customers in the door.
Unity management, on the other hand, is acustomer retention tool that's designed for you
to build authentic and meaningful relationshipswith your current customers.
(11:10):
So in that way, you are reminding them of thevalue that you represent that you represented
to them when they first made a purchasedecision for you, whether you're buying a a
product or a service, whatever it is thatyou're doing.
You are establishing a relationship with themthat's rooted in a mutual exchange of value.
(11:32):
If you win, I win.
And if I win, you win.
And round and round we go, like Robert De Niroand meet the parents.
Right?
Like the circle of trust.
So, you know, it gets a little tricky.
Right?
Because if you think about now I'm gonna gomacro a little bit.
One of the things that companies are very, veryfocused on, rightfully so, is revenue
(11:56):
generation and growth.
Right?
So the mistake that's often made in theexecution phase of community management for
companies that are so hyperly focused on thatis that if you think about it this way.
If you're attempting to create an authentic andmeaningful relationship with your customers
that's rooted in a mutual exchange of value,quite oftentimes, not all of the time, your
(12:21):
community members are gonna be able to tellwhen you're trying to sell them on something.
Right.
And that is a slippery slope.
And most companies, especially the at theenterprise level, do it in in such a poor way
that you ultimately what happens is you end uplosing a customer.
(12:42):
So you sort of if community management wasdesigned to be a customer retention tool, you
did the complete opposite of that, and youactually affected your churn in a in a negative
way because you scared off a customer.
They thought that you really cared about them,but they figured out that you're really just
trying to make a sale.
So
(13:02):
So give us an example.
What do you I'm I guess I'm a little lost onthat one.
Think about the emails that you get when yousign up for a newsletter.
Correct.
Every site has a newsletter.
They wanna keep you updated.
What's the latest and greatest and everythingthat's going on?
And then picture how like, what what was yourmotivation when you first clicked to to
(13:24):
subscribe to the newsletter and then fastforward to, you know, three weeks later, and
you're like, wow.
These people just won't stop in my inbox.
Mhmm.
You know?
Because they're constantly hitting me over thehead trying to sell me something.
Right.
Instead of what you should be doing, especiallywhat if you're trying to court a new community
member is give away the value for free.
(13:47):
Figure out a way to segment whatever yourcontent offering is because most businesses
that are out there have to have some kind of acontent strategy.
Right?
How can you segment your content in such a waythat you are creating you're repurposing
content in different formats?
So that way, hey.
(14:08):
Here's a white paper.
Free.
Here's a PDF.
Free.
Here's a few links that we found that wethought you'd, you know, find valuable.
Rather than saying, I'll subscribe, and thenyou'll get it.
You have to give away some of that valueupfront in the beginning to show your community
members or a prospect prospective customer thatyou really care about their success.
(14:29):
And then if they wanna make a purchase becauseyou're offering something that is, like,
tangible value that you can justify that, hey.
We had to make we had to, you know, incur someoverhead in order to create this other resource
that we know is gonna be hugely valuable toyou.
And this for this, you're gonna have to pay forthis.
Right?
(14:49):
Like, if you're if you've given them enoughcarrots, you know, and really prove it and
you've established trust with that customer,you're gonna you're you're starting to
effectively activate on community management,and you're building that trust.
And little by little, you're gonna end up witha customer for life.
So give me an example of some of a customer.
(15:12):
You don't have to give us their name, but just,an example of how you were able to help them in
your community management and just you know,because those are little obstacles sometimes
that you have to overcome to get people tounderstand these are the needs that are
necessary for you to be able to build thatbrand awareness.
So how do you help them manage that, maneuverthrough that, see the value, see the value in
(15:36):
that, and be able to get their head out of thewhole, like, oh, this is not just social media.
This is community management.
And not everybody understands that that'swhat's necessary for branding.
Give us an example of someone you've been ableto help do that with.
So the example that I'm thinking of is, I Iused to live in Austin, Texas.
(15:56):
After I left Jersey in 2017, I was living inAustin, Texas for three years, and I was
working at a company called Corals.
The department that I worked for in Corals wascalled strategic services.
And we basically function like an agency withinthe business because Koros is one of the most
well known community management softwareplatforms on the market.
(16:17):
And some of our clients had no communitymanagement teams to speak of or just had small
teams that weren't operating at scale yet, sothey would tap my strategic services team for
additional services.
And one of our biggest clients, our largestcontract was with Facebook.
So I worked on several communities forFacebook, and one of them, was a show that used
(16:40):
to have a streaming, TV platform calledFacebook Watch.
Watch.
And in addition to Red Table Talk, which wasone of the shows that you mentioned, that's
Jada Pinkett's talk show.
There was another show by a gentleman namedMike Rowe.
No relation to me.
He's r o w e.
Some of you may know him from a DiscoveryChannel show called Dirty Jobs.
But he had a show on Facebook Watch calledreturning the favor.
(17:04):
And returning the favor was a show a realityshow where he would go to different he used to
call them do gooders, but it's basically folksthat are doing random acts of kindness in their
community.
Like and a lot of them are at scale.
We're talking about so the example that I have.
Right?
So he went to one town.
I forget exactly where in America this was, butthere is you get you can look this up.
(17:28):
It's on YouTube.
There was a young woman somewhere in Americawho runs a summer camp program for young girls.
We're talking between the ages of eight and 10called Girls Build.
And it's a summer camp program that shows girlshow to, you know, carpentry skills, like how to
(17:48):
how to build things, how to, you know, hammerand nails, all of the the big heavy work that
most of us consider to be associated with men.
We're showing our girls how to do it because weyou know, female empowerment and showing these
girls that they can do anything they want.
Right.
You know?
So a beautiful mission.
Right?
And after she was featured on the show becausewhat Mike Rowe does is he comes up he comes to
(18:12):
the town and introduces himself like he's justdoing a little news segment.
Right?
They don't know Mike because they don't knowthat he's really got a show with Facebook
watch.
But what he gives them is a very sizabledonation for them to continue doing the great
work that they're doing.
And what Micro gifted this young woman with wasan entire school bus filled with the most state
(18:32):
of the art carpentry equipment, you know, powerdrills, all of it.
It was fully outfitted.
Beautiful, beautiful bus.
And, you know, every every reveal, forget it.
Like, the community that he built around thisshow, they would be, like, engaging me after
every episode.
Oh my god.
There's there's onion ninjas in the room.
(18:54):
Everybody's just crying because it's such afeel good show.
These people have doing great altruistic work,and they are really making an impact in their
community.
You can imagine.
Like, it's so it lends itself so well tocommunity management because it's so community
driven in actual in real life.
So it's, like, almost a perfect setup to tohave a digital community.
(19:15):
Mhmm.
After the show aired, she made the local news,and somebody came and robbed the bus.
Yeah.
Horrible.
That is horrible.
Right?
But because the community let us know, I wasable to flag it over to Facebook real quick and
say, hey.
You need to contact the producers of the showbecause this is messed up, and they gave her a
(19:37):
replacement right away.
And the fact that we were able to find thatinformation out and activate on it so quickly,
they loved us for
it.
Wow.
That's so interesting.
Yeah.
That what a story.
I mean, that
that's that's kind of like a more of aqualitative example.
Right?
Like, you know, there of course, there areother ones where I can tell you about projects,
(19:59):
and we can talk about numbers and KPIs andstuff like that.
But when we think about community managementand trust me.
The quantitative side of this is equally asimportant.
But that qualitative, that storytelling side,that is what really when you're talking about
proving the value of community Right.
You can't just be numbers driven.
(20:21):
You have to be, like, oh, are we actuallymaking an impact in the world?
Like, something tangible that we could see.
You know?
You know, that being said, I would love for youto tell our audience a little bit about how you
feel podcasting will help in your in thecommunity management as well.
(20:42):
Well, being that I am working to launch apodcast of my own, if I'm taking a look at the
current landscape of the industry, because manyof my colleagues have podcasts that are out
there, And a lot of them are great, and Ilisten to them.
And the one constructive criticism that I wouldmake is that we're too like, they're all kind
(21:03):
of very much the same in that we're we'refocusing too much on theory stuff.
Like like I just explained, the numbers part ofit.
Like, the metrics and the frameworks and thestrategies and all of that stuff, all of that
information is out there, especially duringCOVID.
There was an explosion of communities forcommunity managers, by community managers.
(21:24):
You know?
And it's like, okay.
Enough is enough.
You know?
Like, not enough is enough.
Like, please, like, I love it.
And, of course, my podcast will have stuff likethat as well, that evergreen content.
The time has come for us.
So we've made some really good progress as anindustry in terms of establishing our footing
in the business world, but there's still a lotof work that needs to be done.
(21:46):
Because if we're really thinking about it andwe just recently went through this, I think it
I think it's starting to bounce back, but it'sstill a very tumultuous landscape.
As soon as there's economic strife and thingsget a little weird, budgets have to be cut,
community is the first thing to go becausepeople don't value it enough yet, although they
should.
Every company that's out there knows thatcommunity management is the future of business
(22:10):
development.
Mark my words.
In another five to ten years, every companywill have a community team.
There are companies out there right now thathave chief community officers.
Yeah.
So we know this to be true, yet we don't valueit enough to commit to it or double down on it.
(22:31):
Why?
Why?
Are we just are we just overly concerned withwhat's the answer to 99 out of a hundred
questions?
Money.
How much does it cost?
So That's right.
You know, my to answer your question, I thinkthat we need a little bit of Sasson.
For lack of a better word, I'm gonna get on youhere for a second.
(22:55):
You know?
We need a little bit more flavor.
We need to be talking about industry in aprofessional way, but also in a very real way.
Mhmm.
Right?
And most of what I'm seeing out there is thatwe're still sort of kowtowing and kissing up,
frankly, to corporate America because that'swhere the money is.
What would you say is a mistake that mostpeople make when they when they're looking at
(23:20):
community managers?
The biggest mistake that most people make whenthey look at community managers outside of the
fact that they confuse them with social mediamanagers is that community is not monolithic.
You're looking at it through one lens becauseyou only think you can do this one thing when
in actuality, it can provide value to everypart of your organization.
(23:44):
Think about how some of the biggest companiesdo it.
Salesforce, one of the largest customerrelationship management companies on the face
of the world, has one of the biggest and mostwell respected communities in the industry, the
Salesforce Trailblazers.
Right?
Now I'll give you here's another example ofcommunity gone awry.
(24:04):
Okay?
Salesforce has one of the biggest and most wellrespected communities in the industry, the
Salesforce Trailblazers.
One of my colleagues worked was the VP ofcommunity at Salesforce for over twenty years.
She now runs her own consulting practice.
She will not take a client who's buildingcommunity on Salesforce.
And the reason for that, Salesforce, inaddition to their CRM platform, Salesforce has
(24:29):
many products as I'm sure most of your audiencemembers know.
And one of those products used to be calledSalesforce Community Cloud.
It was a product that allowed you to create acommunity site, to build a community site from
scratch.
Community sites work similarly to otherwebsites, but and this is probably why people
confuse community management to social mediamanagement.
(24:53):
If you go to a community site that's owned bythe brand, by the company, it lives on their
domain.
Right?
Once you're in the community, the look and feelof it, the user experience is very much like
social media.
Right?
So it's just the only real difference is, like,you're not doing it on the platform directly,
(25:16):
natively.
You're on the company website.
But you'll have things like a timeline andevents and, you know, calendars and stuff like
that.
So Salesforce took their product that did that,Salesforce Community Cloud.
And in 2019, they changed the name of theproduct to Salesforce Experience Cloud.
And that degraded the the product in a lot ofways where all of those functions that were
(25:44):
specific to a community became sort ofdeprecated.
And now now what the product does is it basicit's a website builder.
There's nothing uniquely community about itanymore.
So Salesforce has deemphasized their focus oncommunity probably because they have other
products that are their bread and butter.
(26:04):
And that's that's just proof right there of,like, corporate America and and, you know, a
company that was once very well known forcommunity, but scaled to the point where it's
like they're too big.
What?
You're too big and good for community now.
Like, what's up?
Now tell me what would be your, you what wouldbe
(26:25):
What would be my perfect client?
I am seeking to work with small to medium sizedbusinesses.
And, you know, specifically, given mybackground, one of the other things that I've
noticed about the industry is that it's fromwhat from what everything that I see, at least
from my perspective, I can't speak for anyoneelse.
And if anyone out there knows of a company thatembraces community in this way, please let me
(26:52):
know because I'd love to work with them.
But, you know, to be very, very candid, it alllooks really vanilla to me.
You know?
And I'm half Irish, so I can say that.
Okay?
As a half white man, I can say, we're a littletoo white, man.
Like, what's up, the the my Puerto Rican sideis saying, where's the sassonne?
(27:14):
You know?
Like
The flavor?
Where's the flavor?
Where's the flavor?
So my my consulting practice, which is thecompany that I'm starting, I'm ready to step
into the consulting space.
I'm ready to talk community in a very real andhard hitting way, is seeking to work with
brands and companies that are owned by membersof the BIPOC community and those of their
(27:36):
allies.
And for those of you who don't know what BIPOCstands for, it's black indigenous people of
color.
So all of my black and brown folks, all oftheir allies, if you have a small to medium
size brand or company that you're seeking thatyou wanna grow and you wanna use community to
to build around your brand or your company,come talk to me.
(27:59):
Love that.
So I I wanna ask you this.
Can you share a specific way in which you aimto positively impact the lives of others?
Because I feel would you not agree that throughcommunity management, that is an impact because
you're able to tell a story.
When you're branding companies and businesses,you're able to actually create that impact.
(28:21):
Share with us an impact or a way in which you'dlike to make a difference through what you're
doing.
The way that I'm seeking to make impact,specifically by working and I think that by
working with small to medium sized businessesthat are, you know, in the BIPOC community, I
think I'll be able to positively affect changewith the kinds of individuals that that need
(28:45):
the most help because, you know, think I mean,just look at me.
I'm embarking on my first entrepreneur.
You know, I recently established my first LLC.
This is I'm a newbie to this.
I'm a newbie to being an entrepreneur.
I've been an entrepreneur for my entire career,but there's a difference when you make the
decision to go out and do it on your own.
(29:06):
So there's a lot of things to figure out.
There's a lot of things to figure out.
And, hopefully, through my experience, not justin community management, but in building my own
business, you know, all a lot of us aren'tnatural born marketers or business majors even.
Right?
Like, I went to school for marketing.
I have a degree in business administration, soI'm uniquely qualified to help out folks who
(29:31):
have have started a business, but they don'treally they're maybe not they're not too tech
savvy.
There's people out there that own businessesthat don't even know how to use an Excel
spreadsheet.
That's right.
You know?
And there's that generation in there that is
Right.
And now that they're owning and operating abusiness, they don't have the time to learn
themselves.
They need somebody to do that for them.
(29:52):
Right?
But if I if I have a partnership with a smallto medium sized business, I can bring them into
that, then I can give them some of those toolsand information and resources and empower them
to be successful.
That So I love that.
So I do wanna talk that's one of those piecesthat I wanna share.
You were an entrepreneur for so many years.
(30:13):
What made you decide to be an entrepreneur andswitch that space?
After seeing community go awry so many times,you just get fed up.
You just get fed up.
And you're like, you know what?
If if I'm I'm I'm done with, like, doing thisfor organizations that don't understand it,
(30:33):
that they don't get it.
I'm not gonna drop any names or anything likethat, but, you know, I think in what I've
described and and some of the the the mistakesthat I've, you know, sort of highlighted in
this conversation, you know what I'm talkingabout.
You know?
Like, I don't wanna put anybody on the spot.
I don't know.
I know we talked about Salesforce, but, I mean,that is well documented.
(30:53):
You can find, you know, you can findinformation on that online if you poke around.
But, yeah, you just get fed up.
You know?
And and and and I and I'm sick of having to gothrough the process So I'm like, okay.
Gosh.
I gotta talk about I gotta what am I gonna do?
Join get get on the unemployment line again andgo through the the job interview process
another time?
(31:14):
Brandon, I'm still doing all of that.
But, you know, at least now I can do it knowingthat I'm doing work that provides me with a
sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Because, ultimately, that's what matters themost.
You don't wanna just exist in this life.
You don't wanna just work a job for your entirelife.
You want a career.
You know?
(31:34):
And and in 2024, forget it.
You don't just need a a a career.
You need a career, a side hustle, about 20other revenue streams, right, just to be able
to live the life that you envision foryourself.
Nobody wants to exist and just survive in thislife.
You wanna thrive.
So that's, yeah, that's that's kind of my why.
(31:55):
Love it.
I love it.
I wanna thank you so much for sharing today.
This was great.
Here's what I do love.
I love that you're gonna be able to go into thesmall businesses, small to midsize businesses,
and and add some salsa to it.
And, you know, so so that flavor and being ableto to help them in telling their story as
they're building their community.
(32:16):
So if you are a small business or midsizebusiness owner and you would need to get in
touch with Jeffrey Rowe, how are they gonna getin touch with you, Jeffrey?
I would say that the best way to find me youcan definitely find me on LinkedIn if you just
search Jeffrey Rowe and look for the guy withthe backwards hat, you know, because that's how
(32:36):
I show up on LinkedIn.
But probably the fastest way to get in touchwith me, if not through there, then definitely
on Instagram.
I go by Jersey City Jeff.
It's very simple, one word, no underscores, nospecial characters, just Jersey City Jeff.
I love it.
Jersey City Jeff.
Well, Jersey City Jeff, I wanna thank you somuch for being here with us today and for
(32:59):
sharing with our community.
And Thank
you so much for having me.
Had a
great conversation.
Absolutely.
And thank you so much for doing everything thatyou do, you know, with with your show, the
Beyond Business podcast.
You know?
I know that you're helping a lot of people outthere to just go beyond information that that
they would find elsewhere.
So continue to do what you're doing, and, stayamazing.
(33:20):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And, again, I just wanna thank you so much forlistening today.
This is the Beyond Business podcast, and I'myour host, Catherine.
And, looking forward to meeting up with you onthe next show.
Well, if you made it to this point, then youmade it to the end, and you are my star.
(33:41):
And I just wanna thank you from the bottom ofmy heart.
I hope that you enjoyed the conversation withtoday's guest.
And if you did, please leave us a review onApple Podcasts and Spotify, and share this
episode with others who may be interested inthis topic.
Also, please feel free to let us know whattopics you'd like to see covered in future
(34:02):
episodes.
Get in touch in the comments or in RocketGrowth social media platforms.
To have conversations with me, my booking linkis in the comments.
See you next week for all for a all newepisode.
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