 Landefeld, sorry, it's Raquel Landefeld She's a serial volunteer with a young soul in 2010. She co-founded sorry guys Mode effect a Phoenix based WordPress agency that specializes in Woo Commerce integration Intentional about community building. She believes that wherever her feet are is where the building happens Okay, currently she is active in several communities from tech to government to neighborhoods and more you can usually find her Organizing a word camp or volunteering pretty much anywhere Thank you Okay Hi guys, thanks for coming Yeah, I'll let her stick to the intro and we'll just continue on I do like humans and Really truly believe in community building and I'll tell you why That's me and my good friend Shada I Co-founded mode effect in 2010 and didn't think I was going to it happened and did a lot of admin and operations and Discovered that I was good at that, but it's not what I loved and through between sometime From then to now I discovered what I do love and am passionate about and that is community building and that's what I call myself a community Builder self-proclaimed So what is community building? Anybody so I'm sure you heard it. It's very trendy. It's I believe a buzz phrase right now And I don't know about you, but I'm sure you've seen on Twitter that it's what we're supposed to be doing Everyone talks about it. It's hashtagged. It's it's buzzing right now. It's trending So what I believe community building is is intentional relationship building with humans That's what I believe it is. So how does it start? Social media is a start. We know all the platforms I do a little shout-out to swarm because I love swarm and you guys should get on swarm So we can connect and see where each other are Because we know each other that's why Networking events we meet-ups Tech networking events word camps. Those are good places to start Community building you start to meet people there and oh, yeah, that was the last one. Maybe a meet-up I feel like meet-ups are a little bit more intimate than actual just networking Those are usually the first places you'll see it. That's yeah good start to community building But what happens I believe is we get stuck there we get stuck with going to the latest meet-ups a Bunch of different ones Networking and what do we do at networking events? Yes, and what do you do with the business cards? And forget about them or or maybe you do put them in but yeah, what does that mean? Where do you connect where you go from there? and What I've noticed with social media is and I'm sure everyone's noticed we kind of get stuck there We get we hide behind social media We do a lot of interacting with others and that's kind of where it stops We tweet at each other or Facebook each other or Instagram and say hi or that's cool But I mean it doesn't go much further from there from what I've seen so far And this is what I'm passionate about changing Also, I've noticed that there are some that work for agencies and They are trained on how to engage in social media or there's maybe social media influencers I'm sure we've all heard that gurus. They're like thousands of followers and And they know how to engage but do you see them in real life? Do you see them outside of social media? So I've noticed this is a trend amongst amongst corporations and particularly in the WordPress community You know a lot of our sponsors they they're really good at that and what I love about our WordPress community Is that they're also good in real life, but Well, we have maybe ulterior motives with our It I mean is do we do we When you're meeting people are you? Do you want the business? Are you handing your business card and that's what our motives are or that's what we need to check We need to check what why we're doing this why we're going to meetups why we're going to networking events So that is what we're checking our purpose. Do you want to pass out business cards? Do you want to generate leads or? Maybe it might be relationship building so with that I've discovered that Handing out business cards and generating leads is Is Superficial it doesn't grow anything What I have discovered over the past gosh eight and a half years is that when you build relationships over time Everything gets better and everything wins With the challenges are though that we're humans and We're silly we Sometimes there's conflict Sometimes there's problems. Sometimes we're There are personalities that maybe we don't gel with and that sometimes scares us and we kind of stop there We have to check ourself Actually with community building with networking. We need to check our motives. What what do we want? What is the long run? What is the short run? Are we overly sensitive are? And you really just need to self-evaluate Agnus so those main two challenges are humans in general, but first let's look at ourselves and we can better ourselves So how does it grow? Cultivate relationships not business cards. That is my motto Be a friend just be a friend to others show up show up and and and Interact with people and but be genuine about it We could still use social media. I am very avid on social media, but I'm Love face-to-face. That's my favorite and yes be genuine on and off the computer It's important that people see what they see in social media, especially if you have a bigger presence there That it's the same in real life. That's the big one. I've noticed there's a lot of just Superficial and We're powered behind that keyboard. There's something that turns us into a superhuman I think and then we we kind of lose it in real life. So let's check that. Let's take little steps forward So what I really really believe community building is intentional human connecting and relationship growing it is others focused How can I help you? What do you need? Be make friends by being the friend to begin with that's really super important and smile I'd love this. This is Some word pressures you might recognize us We were all at Disneyland Paris for a word camp Europe last year And that's I love that picture because it's an excellent example of how communities grow and you make friends like legit friends and That's pretty much it I do like you and I do think we should go out and play and I am a young soul And so I mean that like how a kid would want to play But that was very fast and a general looks that you have any specific questions. That's where we're at now Yes Definitely going to any meetup you can networking events but with the intention of building relationships I mean bring business cards We all have I mean we are having business as we want to grow it But if you're looking for that immediate business connection, it's just going to be superficial so I would recommend smiling and And really a shift of focus that brings it toward toward making friends. That sounds silly, but I'm not kidding. That's Sorry, I got stuck. That's that's really where it starts is having this Shift of focus to not create leads to your business, but create relationships Yes, yeah Yes, like implementing with Twitter specifically. Yeah hashtags pictures on Twitter Swarm is a good one. I check in everywhere I go and I tag my swarm friends and there's a lot of wordpressers on swarm and when you post a picture and And you're you tweet the swarm check-in it actually Translates at it looks like a legit tweet as opposed to like the swarm tweet if that makes sense Yes hashtags wherever you're at for word camp Miami for instance other hashtags Asking people to hey, I'm gonna be right here come join me during an event or telling people ahead of time I'm heading to this WordPress meetup Maybe you should come with me and make sure you're tweeting the link with the with your tweet Yeah Yes, yes, and it sounds like when I first saw that I almost thought it was a little pretentious But that's where you check yourself. What is my goal is my goal to make friends with people and to build Relationships because eventually what happens is and now maybe some of you guys can test with a test This is business happens you get clients that way you you Meet bigger agencies who who are overloaded and they need to offload and then they send you referrals so Yes fiction Yes yes, I Honestly don't have any like how-to's it, but I really truly believe Fiction is what gets our brains going in our creativity and I mean how many of that it's all relationship and conflict and I mean any fiction you could think of sci-fi is my fave Yeah, yes, yes top Denim you can probably answer both I will usually answer with what they mean when they say what do you do and it means like how do you make money? I will say that but then I will talk it will direct it to but what I love is relationship building and community building Yeah, or then that if it's not going there on its own. Yes. Oh, yeah Yes, well if you one way I know that I've found mentorship becomes super easy to get into and to Take advantage of is co-working spaces I know I've been a part of several and Every single one of them has offered free mentorship and usually they're part of the co-working space So then you you are already building relationships and you see them often That's a very fast way and then otherwise if you're at a networking event and you meet one of Then it is from that point It's interacting with them probably on social media connecting with them getting their business card and then actually intentionally connecting with them on Twitter and Instagram things like that because then you already met so now there's you're seeing each other and if you're interacting then They'll see you and then eventually you can use their services and also continue a relationship Yes, there is one of the big ones. I would say Instagram is probably right with their with Twitter I tweet regularly a Lot of day in the life because people want to do business with people not with businesses and But then I make sure that they know that I work for mode effect at least once you don't have to go nuts Yeah, but Instagram I love in insta stories As many insta stories as you want And it looks like that guys, but yeah, I'll hang out because I have any more questions at the happiness bar if that's still around Yeah, she'll be at the happiness bar if you guys have any more questions. So let's give her a hand And she did forget her speaker card so make sure you find her later to get them for her She's gonna have more for later. Okay