I had the distinct honor of sitting with this most amazing human being.

Abagail McKiernan and I discussed the origins of HelpLink the 501-c3 charity that is redefining what it means to be a successful nonprofit by using their social media platform to connect people in need directly to resources and members in their community who are able to help in times of crisis.

Bring your tissues for this one, It is heartwarming and inspiring to say the least.

For more info:https://helplink.org/

Please enjoy a wonderful conversation we had with the amazing Piper Wilson. We will talk about our foundational experience with community, current status, AI, and its role in social media. We will learn all sorts of fun and meaningful parts of her journey. And if we are lucky, we will find out why purple hair is the most fabulous color.

Jeri creates the world's most beautiful and unique hand-crafted custom guitar straps, incredible replica guitar straps and her own "off the rack" guitar strap line. Our top-of-the-line custom guitar straps are worn by today's most popular musicians, as well as favorite sports heroes, politicians.

Checkout the site for more info

Jeri Designs

Dee Dee is a parent of a Virginia Tech Hokie alum and serves as lead admin for the Virginia Tech Parents Facebook group and founder of University Parent Group Admins for community managers like her who run university parent groups.

With 28K members, Virginia Tech Parents is the largest parent-only university parent group in the US. University Parent Group Admins has 672 members representing nearly 300 university parent groups across the US, UK, and Canada.

With a background in marketing, PR, and crisis management, I helped manage multiple communities through several crises: an active shooter incident, the pandemic, student suicides, and more. Through these tragedies, Dee Dee saw the superpower of community come to life as her admin team and members came together to create meaningful impact on each other’s lives. It continuously stirs her passion for community management, bringing her back to it day after day. At the same time, she has authored several case studies and spoken about crisis management at Meta’s global headquarters.

She is a Meta Certified Community Manager and was hired as a full-time contingent worker on Meta’s Community Management Team.

For more than 15 years now, she has also managed online health communities for hospitals and health systems, crafting and telling the stories of healthcare heroes and other brands “doing good” for the communities they serve. Ask her about the time a Navy jet crashed in Virginia Beach (all survived), or when a hospital patient caused a shocking stir with a fake bomb threat and how she managed that active shooter incident she mentioned, as well as ongoing critical global health discussions in several official Meta-managed online communities.

Jennifer is a passionate career coach whose mission is to empower women in the tech industry. Her personal journey positions her well to help women accelerate their careers. Her LinkedIn profile gives you a glimpse into her amazing process.

The Up-Cycled Cloth Collective is a global movement of textile enthusiasts sharing ways to reduce textile and fiber waste in landfills and promote ethical buying behavior. This podcast was extra fun, and what a joy it is to spend any time with Melanie,

Raissa Ruschel, the Nostalgia Chick,

Her Instagram community currently has 328,000 followers, Posting all about pop culture and nostalgia from 90s and early 00s tv shows, movies & fashion for all the hopeless, nostalgic hearts out there.

This community is a welcome respite from the seriousness of today. It brings you back to a more fun enjoyable time.

https://www.instagram.com/nostalgiachick/

We dive into how community threads its way through all we do today. Family, friends, clients, and all the other things.

• Communities of researchers and other like-minded people
• How communities make decades-long connections
• How has our concept of privacy changed today compared to days gone by
• If you chat with her, ask her about the panda bears ;)