Holy Cow! Adrian wrote a Community book! “The Accidental Community Manager”

Chris Detzel: Welcome to another peers over beers. My name is Chris Detzel, and we have a super super duper guest today. He's a book writer. Now

Adrian Speyer (he/him): tell us about yourself what I is the term author. Now, that would that was

Adrian Speyer (he/him): well. It's hard to believe it. Actually, It's one of those things. Now, you know, I guess the A in my biography can start with Hi I'm Adrian Spyer and author,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): a lot of our speaker and Community builder. So you have a book. What is that?

Chris Detzel: What's the blood? Come?

Adrian Speyer (he/him): It's called the Accidental Community Manager, a guide to building a successful B Twob. Community.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): It only took four years to write, so i'm so happy. It's finally done,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know. I've known you for a long time, Adrian, and we've we've, I say, a long time at least for five years. Um! And you know we've talked on the phone several times in the past. Now it's been a while since you and I've had a conversation, but I was.

Chris Detzel: I guess I was. I think you told me about the book several years ago a few years ago, or said you were working on one. And you know when people say that you're just like, yeah, maybe whatever you know, like for that ever come out. But you really actually wrote a book about community management? B: Two B stuff, And you know what?

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Tell me more about that Like what led you to write this book and what it's about what it was your accomplish

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Great. Yeah. So I mean, I think it's. I think it's always funny. Um

Adrian Speyer (he/him): was telling as many people as I could. I was writing a book also to keep me motivated, and and you know It's kind of like you.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I don't know about you, but I've had some. Ah, I've I've gained weight. I've lost weight of gain weight of lost weight, but I found it like if you're telling people that you're working on something. And then everyone's like, hey? So

Adrian Speyer (he/him): how's that thing going that you're working on? So people would occasionally be like,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): hey? So uh, How's that? Right? Yeah. So um,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): really, what end up happening is I want to. I think I was, You know, about four years ago, two thousand and eighteen, I want to say, and I just had this idea

Adrian Speyer (he/him): about

Adrian Speyer (he/him): putting together all the information I had in that I had gained over time, and I knew that one of those things, if you, if you put it in the book, it's kind of there for prosperity in the sense that

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know you over time. You just forget things, and I and and as I was having great conversations with you and others, I would be like, Oh, let me! You know that's something interesting. I may maybe I should cover that. So I sat down, and I wrote out this whole ah table of contents,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): and I was like. You know what this book will cover. Everything suit to nuts, you know. I was also, you know, doing some internal training with the folks because I I worked at hire at the time I was working at Vanilla, which is now higher logic, and you know I would do internal training on that team, and I would write things down. And then I also realized, too, you know, even talking to you and other folks. They didn't realize my experiencing.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I've had it around stamps, and

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I had communities and all kinds of stuff, and um,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know, and I was always talking to folks, and everyone seemed to have the same story, which was I was doing X or Y. And then one day someone said to me,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): You seem like people like you, and you're friendly, and we need someone to do this. How about you? Go Run our community,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): and you know that that term the accidental community manager kind of stuck in my head early on I actually bought the Domain name, the accidental Community manager, Dot Com. Several years ago you caught up.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I was like this is gonna be the name of the book, and that was the thing that was the hardest thing was because I knew the book was the title was the The linchpin of the whole project

Adrian Speyer (he/him): that was dying inside, because I want people to know the title of book, but it's like I don't want anyone to steal it. I gotta wait till I I get this book out, because you know I mean how many, how many art of community books are there. I think there's like three now, so you know I just wanted to make sure that Ah, the accidental community manager I I had kind of a a bit on it. And so

Adrian Speyer (he/him): the broad strokes of the book were

Adrian Speyer (he/him): going back in time to my first job in A. B two B community, because I had done communities many times. Hobby stuff like that. But yeah, at the time it in the mid

Adrian Speyer (he/him): the mid two thousands late ninetys there wasn't really a lot of

Adrian Speyer (he/him): how to build community or all that stuff. I mean, I think, like, yeah, I want to like, Briefly, remember, there was some stuff like Jive had been putting out some stuff, and there was,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know. Ah, certainly. Lithium was out there at the time, But there wasn't really a lot of content out there, and I was like, You know what would be that book that if a time traveler went back in time and left it on my desk, what would be that book that I want,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): and the other thing I was like, and and um, Chris, you and I talked about this just before we went on. Which was, I'm: a big believer in niches in the sense that you need to. You need to. You need to find like, Okay, Why am I writing another book I mean. Carrie's got a great book. Jono's got a great book Rich has written,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know, great books, Charles Vogel, You know there's tons of community books out there. So what what was I going to add? That

is there really tons?

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I mean, that's just a few people.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, it's not that many, I mean at least a dozen, you know. There, I mean. So I mean, what What was I going to say? Different, or what was I going to bring to the party. And so, um early on, I said, you know what I'm going to write a very truthful first person,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): and of of as vulnerable as I could be about the mistakes I've made, and the things I've seen. The you know a first-person account of advice not not too heavy, based not not um. I didn't want it to be a boring academic book.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Not that academic books are boring, but I, you know, if you're going to sit down, and you're going to learn about it. I want something fun that I could talk about. You know the time I was in the restaurant biz, and how we ah like. I tell this story in the book I We were soft launch right, and we were getting ready to open the restaurant, and the lights are on, the

Adrian Speyer (he/him): people are outside ready to come in, and we realize that the pans don't work because

Adrian Speyer (he/him): the oven ah sensor didn't work for the pans. So our manager and her run out, and by all new pans where we had this rush of people that just wanted to come in and and do it. And so my point on that was about the soft launch, you know, with your community, and why that's so important, and you know, just correlated it through that.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): But why it's so important to me, and and and how I saw it firsthand. So I I kind of weave in all these different stories I talk about, you know. Ah, you know, Badminton Player High School went all the way to provincials, and what it was like to step in and replace a star, a community person, you know, like if they move on and like, How do you handle that,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know? So there's a lot of ah little stories out, you know, throughout the book. So I just tried to make it so that you could sit down hopefully, you know, give people a laugh, maybe. Ah, maybe that the tear Ah, and you know, hopefully highlighting a lot. That was the funny thing. When my wife first got the the copy of the book she like. It has to pass the highlight test and like, what does that mean? She's like, Well, I know, like when I get a textbook.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah. And if you look in the hard cover which I honestly love, I know It's a little bit price here, but it's such a beautiful

Adrian Speyer (he/him): a way that was done. It's It's like a textbook, so she's like I got to get my highlighter out and make sure. You know, when you highlight it it looks good, and she's okay. It passes So the moment the moment that she was happy with it, I clicked the publish button

right after Cmx. Unfortunately, I didn't have copies with me, and I know a lot of people were like, hey? I wish you were no good sign. But hey, I promise you, if you buy a book, and

Adrian Speyer (he/him): i'm at any conference that that you know with you folks. I'm happy to sign it, and i'll be in Vegas in a couple of weeks for the October seventeenth, and nineteenth, because I don't know when this will be

Adrian Speyer (he/him): broadcast, but i'll be in Vegas the seventeenth to the nineteenth for the Tsia, which is a

Adrian Speyer (he/him): okay technology support Industry Alliance event. And i'll be there if anyone's attending and happy to sign your book and hopefully have some giveaways as well of the book. If If you're attending that show as well,

Chris Detzel: i'll be in,

Chris Detzel: i'll be in Vegas, probably not until November at Aws, I don't know if you'll be there, but

Adrian Speyer (he/him): just the seventeenth and the Nineteenth Limited Limited time, you know I like to eat. You know I got my little spot, and i'll be signing stuff, and

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I mean i'm hoping not like Pete Rose, like you know, being like eighty years old at the Mall. Some, you know, signing sorry I ruined baseball. But

Adrian Speyer (he/him): oh, my God! Well, that's that's quite the story, Man. Ah, what what is it? What is it that at the end of the day that you're hoping that you or people that read it get out of it. You know. Just kind of experience from you or what? What's the

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, Any specific goals? Dots: Yeah. I have a lot of goals funny enough. So my

Adrian Speyer (he/him): ah, my ultimate dream in life was to get a book done

Adrian Speyer (he/him): so I really I really wanted. So I put

Adrian Speyer (he/him): the way I approach this book is, if I never am able to write another book ever again. I got all my wisdom, all my thoughts, all my ideas, I mean. Now I have a lot of other stuff like Oh, I should have included that, you know, like I don't talk that much about stamps in this book. Believe it or not.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Um, yeah, I know Crazy right, probably. But

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I think that I know you'll have stamps. Don't give her up. But yeah, well, I mean, I think the thing is, it's kind of how I start out the book. I want people to know that

Adrian Speyer (he/him): nobody knows anything. We're all just kind of making it up trying our best to get through the day, and There's a lot of,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know a lot of times we were like, Oh, you know, like you know so much or so and so know so much about community, and I don't know anything. And you know what we're all just

Adrian Speyer (he/him): suffering from imposter syndrome and trying to just do our best. And

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I just wanted to create a a book that someone had

Adrian Speyer (he/him): that kind of just. You know what I'm writing to this problem. Let me let me see what you know Adrian has some advice on it. I never, I never really expect. I mean I I trust me I love the fact that we're buying the book, and they're going to read a cover to cover. What I really want it to be is that kind of reference book that

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know, if someone was like, Oh, my God! Like I'm taking over the community. What do I do? Or my community's dead, or I need to hire a moderator, or I need to ask my boss for more money, so I can get Xyz, or how do I do a content program, or

Adrian Speyer (he/him): what do you address all that in the book

there there is little I mean

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Funny enough, I mean. I probably should have had a better editor in terms of cutting stuff out but it's three hundred and forty-ish pages, I think.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Okay in the in the paper back

Adrian Speyer (he/him): cover everything from seo to moderation teams to choosing

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Kpis to selecting a forum software to you should even have a forum, you know, building out a you say hire logic, or you know

Adrian Speyer (he/him): No? Well, you know what vanilla

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I don't. I don't make any recommendations. I The only thing that I say is here are the things that you need to ask, and you need to make sure that you check. But the the point is, yes, I do work at a forum vendor, and I have been since two thousand and thirteen. But what that comes to kind of the

Adrian Speyer (he/him): um. See this look kind of funny. I always say this: this is the This is the other reason that I did the book. The problem is, a lot of people will look at me and go. Oh, you work at a a vendor. I don't want you,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): and I appreciate you letting me be on this podcast? It's like, Oh, I don't want him on this because he's gonna try and sell me a platform or try to. How do you know you're not going to do that

Adrian Speyer (he/him): literal, But what what i'm saying is a lot of people like I mean. I don't care.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): No, but I know. But some people will do like Oh, you're You're out of vendors, so you need to pay a sponsorship fee, and this that, and the other. What I wanted to do this to me is a book of service. So what I wanted to do was, if you're going to buy a software You're the questions you need to ask. So you don't.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I have a situation because I can tell you I haven't been doing this a very long time. It happens that someone will choose a platform and not think about data, export or data ownership,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): or they may think about it. But then they don't think about. Oh, what format am I going to get the stuff out of the community?

Adrian Speyer (he/him): So yeah, they may be thinking, Oh, yeah, you know what? Maybe i'll migrate and they'll They'll give me a data data dump of my stuff. But then they find out that the data dump isn't a Pdf or something like that they can't use. And and so I kind of

Adrian Speyer (he/him): yeah. Well, I mean try importing a a community with Pdf: I mean, there's I mean, there's a whole bunch of platforms that if you you put your stuff on there, it's never coming up, and, like I have dealt, I have dealt with people that have kind of had to restart their community for the simple fact that the data was kind of just locked in like a hotel. California scenario. Um, and I kind of want to.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, I don't want that to happen. I don't. I don't That's a that's an interesting tip. I never thought about it. I guess. You know I've always selected the right vendor, but you know,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): getting your data out is got to be the single, most important thing that a community leader should think I say single most. But that's going to be an important thing to think about for the future. You don't know that you're going to stick with a vendor forever. You know what I mean. Yeah. And And then the other thing, too, is, you know,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I want to give that platform perspective as well, we at platforms. I'm: speaking for all the platforms, Koros, and inside it, and everyone.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): No one here wants you to choose the wrong platform.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, because at the end of the day, if you choose the wrong platform for your your your objective, what's gonna happen is the platform vendor will probably get the blame of it. Oh, your platform sucks because it didn't allow me to achieve my goals.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): It's like, Well, maybe it wasn't the right platform to start with. And I also address that, too, because I've had people that will, you know. Ah! Early on they would choose vanilla to be like a blog platform, like. If you want to do blogging like, get wordpress don't don't try to turn a form into a medium or something.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, it's just It's just a weird. It's a weird thing, and it's It's just the same like hierarchy does the association stuff Well, and you know I don't know if you go and take a

Adrian Speyer (he/him): whatever platform it is, and try to do something else with. And you kind of go. Oh, this is a really good platform for associations well like you know. Well, that's kind of a no-brainer that you chose the wrong platform. I I use higher logic and I've always been happy with what they do,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): and been using them for a long time. Right? You know there are specific reasons that I stick with them.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, Yeah. So we've talked about that, but that but that's what's important. Right like we don't like wherever you end up going next. If you want to make sure that you're making the right choice, and you know

Adrian Speyer (he/him): certainly i'm the head of evangelism. So of course I love. I I think the platform's great. I love it, and I think it does a great job, but at the same time I don't want people

to take the wrong platform, and then be like, Oh,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): it it! It's like it's your fault, and it's like well, so that, and and let's all be honest. And those platforms don't do all the things that you want, and there's there's always be gaps, but at the same time, you know. Let's go eyes open and hopefully in the sales process things go well enough that we

Adrian Speyer (he/him): they challenge you along the way to make sure that you're in the right spot, so that you don't end up with a surprise, and you,

Chris Detzel: you know, I think platforms. You know. It's an important piece of you know community

Adrian Speyer (he/him): the community decision, right? Like, you know. If you want to online platform you get it. You get to buy one, and you know, look at the big three or four. You know It's It's my recommendation around that. Um. Well, it's also important to like I I also like to point out it's It's not just about the platform like, Yeah, that's I think, too, like people get. Oh, your forum guy, and and I get It's one channel and a in a multi verse of different opportunities to engage with the community. And

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I I just, I think forums are great for the fact of all the benefits that I see from it, you know, like I was finally with Sales guy the other day, and he was like, Oh, this this the customer is on slack, and it's like Well, you know. How do I convince them to migrate off? Slack to go to a forum I like. No, it's. That's not the conversation you should be having. It's The slack has a very

Adrian Speyer (he/him): special characteristic about real time, and being a family really great like in a in that immediacy, just like discord, and some other platforms are.

Chris Detzel: That's right.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): But a forum has a whole different angle. That slack will just never be able to do which is. And you and you know this, Chris, because you've worked it.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Companies with people in different time zones. It's like a conversation starts at three Pm. Your time, and someone in Australia wants to comment. Well, if it's in slack by the time they get around it might be so far away. They miss out, and they don't know half the conversation that's happened, but a form at least it's. Linear They can see it. Oh, okay, you know. Chris said this, and Mike said that, and Joan says this, and you know, let's you know I can quote them and have that conversation. Um, you know there's a permanence to it as well, you know, from an seo perspective. You're not getting any seo benefits. Transfer

Adrian Speyer (he/him): community. It's it's kind of hidden, and you know, so I don't. I don't see this deal. People are asking the same questions over and over. It's not searchable or easily searchable. It's, I mean, and you know, but it's an end right like That's what I would say like. Use both like there's a slack is good. I love slots,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): but I would never use it for an all like honesty. You'd be amazed like I mean, I don't want to call them out. But there was, there was a company. Yeah, there is, there, is they? They had. They had a fantastic community, and they shut ah solely

Adrian Speyer (he/him): use the proper terminology. They had a forum that was fantastic, and it had a lot of great great content, and they decided to go to slack.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): They closed it down, and that's that information got lost to the ether, the

Adrian Speyer (he/him): yeah. And they went to slack. And about like a year later they realized they made a mistake,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): and part of the mistake was, they lost all the

Adrian Speyer (he/him): people and the conversations, and all the you know, all the great stuff that was there, and they went back to having a forum, and it never had never recovered, like they just weren't able, because, you know, people didn't trust them, and it was kind of really tough and back and forth. Yeah, I was kind of sad to be honest, because it was a It was a site I used to visit quite a bit to get information. I mean,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I don't know about you like I We use slack in my company. And yeah, you know there. How many times have you said. You know what I know. This conversation happened, but I can't find it.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, all the time. I'm like

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I was doing that this morning, and I was like. Ah, just ask it again, and then and then you try to, you know. Oh, maybe i'll use a filter with the files, and I believe was mentioned in it, and you still don't find it, and I just don't find forums have as much trouble in finding the content. I've never had especially open ones when you can find it on Google you just do a search instead.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, you know.

Chris Detzel: So

Chris Detzel: so we talked about platforms. You you talk about content, moderation. And you know things like that. Any other things that you want to kind of

Adrian Speyer (he/him): three out.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, I talk about health and taking care of oneself. I think that's an important aspect, and I talk about de Ib, which I thought is really important, you know, because what's de ib diversity and inclusion.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Um, it's really important, because you know um our Dei, or however

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know it's really it's really important that that conversation happened, and I thought you know it was kind of important to you,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): You know a book about community to at least have a chapter discussing it. And so diversity, equity, and inclusion. Correct. Yeah.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Got it? Yeah. Sorry I had a brain. It's Friday afternoon folks, so

Chris Detzel: I just googled it.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): But you know I had. I had that chapter on it, and I I really relied on a whole bunch of friends within the community space to kind of, you know. Check, Check it. I make sure that I covered all the things, and he had to be there and provide some resources through. So I mean that that's the main thing, and

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know now. Now the next step is just waiting for people to read the book, and hopefully start getting some reviews. I'm. Both excited and terrified by reviews. You know it it takes a long time to put put this together.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, you know, self-published all out of pocket to put it together. Part of. That was no publisher would have waited four years for this book.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah. And the other thing that's funny is well, not funny. But, as I say in the book, you know.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Covid had obviously a lot of impact on a lot of people's lives. The only thing that I had that came up that was positive. Covid was this book. The reason is, I I had a very lengthy commute to work. Most people know this. My bossy stories rolled her eyes. My old boss used to roll her eyes when I would talk about it. But yeah, it was. It was a fact of two and a half hours

Adrian Speyer (he/him): door to door just one way, one each way every day.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): So that was five hours. So five hours of my day was tied up in commute, and when Vanilla decided to go remote those two and a half hours. I then committed to writing the book before work, and, after all, so I was able to really start to churn, and

Adrian Speyer (he/him): at the start of this year I want to say it was January, I I, or maybe the end of last year I had finished the first draft, and I started to kind of go through. Okay editing. And are there things that are missing, And you know, refinements and things of this nature.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): It was really tough, because honestly right in the book was really easy. All the real hard work came after the book was finished.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Because here you are you have this word document? You've written all this stuff. It's seventy. I think it was like seventy-seven thousand words! But How do you get it from a word document to a book. I don't know about what publish these I know

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I was neither,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know, and i'd love to give a shout out to the folks at read C. Ah, R. E, d s Y. Dot com, If every you're looking to publish your own book, it's a marketplace, and I was able to. Ah basically find an editor. Find all these fine folks to kind of help me. Ah, you format the book into the you know the

Adrian Speyer (he/him): that you see today I found it in the community.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, I mean, yeah, in some sense it was kind of funny, too, because the first round for to get an editor. I you're allowed up to ten.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Oh,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know ten uh what do you call people that you can ask for a quote.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): So I sent out this quote to ten folks, and each one by one rejected the quote

Adrian Speyer (he/him): rejected in the sense that they're like, I don't know anything about community. This is not a It's not saying I'm interested, and I don't think I can help you. And then there was one guy. His name was Gregory Newton Brown. Ah, fantastic! I can't say enough good things about him. He's a freelancer who works at the harbor columns and random house.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): So he said, i'm gonna work with you on this book. I'm gonna make it happen. It was a real partnership. We had some zoom calls. You really got it? And what was great, is you?

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I'd shared this book with some some folks in the community space that read it before, and they they kind of got, You know we're kind of give me tips of like. I'll give credit like Carrie, Melissa Jones, and Nicole devilites

Adrian Speyer (he/him): who read through, and we're like, Oh, you know what this isn't clear, or maybe you want to expand on this, or you know I would rearrange the chapters like Nicole pointed out to me like I didn't have anything about private communities like You're right. I'll add a chapter on that. So you know all the blind spots. But what was great about Greg? Is he came at it from

Adrian Speyer (he/him): something that I couldn't have, which was someone who wants to build a community with fresh eyes, and he would point out stuff like. Oh, this is an acronym, or this isn't clear, or you know this doesn't make sense to me. Can you? Can you expand on it? Because you know you get so in inside baseball that any as in community would would kind of

Adrian Speyer (he/him): gloss over and not notice it. So Greg was doing a a a really great job, and then he was able to format it into the format needed. So he he got the word document all the way to to. You know the margins and all that Jazz: Yeah, Who are you publishing with? And I'll set it all up. And then I found this wonderful fellow in Ireland,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Spain. I'm. Not really sure where he lives. I know he's Irish, but

Adrian Speyer (he/him): pain, and he designed the cover of the book, and we went back and forth. But I mean he he just did a fantastic job,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): and it all just kind of kind of came together together really quickly, to be honest after that. And it was kind of one of these moments where each step of the way I kind of get a bit of anxiety because it's like, Okay, Well, what what do I do next?

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Like What what happens to them right now?

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah. So it it move really quickly, because I think in

Adrian Speyer (he/him): were you in Memphis at clicks.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): No, but I get together. Okay. So when was that it was April or February, April, something like that. Yeah. So So that was I added one chapter at that time. So yeah, just to give an idea of timeline. And then over the summer was when I was doing like the final editing Greg and all that jazz,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know. I had it ready in Amazon for a bit. But here's the thing I don't want to sell anything without physically seen

Adrian Speyer (he/him): the quality of the book, right? So I wanted to get a copy. I got it in my hands. I was like, Okay, it's good, you know people are gonna put harder and money. I want to make sure that it it looks the quality, and the second I was happy with it. I click the publish, but that that's That's that's kind of what I was waiting for, and I I literally pressed the button after I got off the plane from Cmx. Because I

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, this thing i'm up in Canada. I live in Montreal, and

Adrian Speyer (he/him): the thing that's crazy is I ordered the books at the end of August, and they only got to my house

Adrian Speyer (he/him): like when I got back.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): So you shipping these books to people when they order it. Is that how you?

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, It can be ordered from Amazon to nobles. Ah, it's available on the kindle. And yeah oboe on um at the apple. Ah, bookstore. No, I I You know the only thing that I had, and I have learnt so much about the book business.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): So so I have to. I have to apologize to all Canadians because I i'm Canadian myself, as as I mentioned, and I don't really control the pricing, which is really strange. So I've had a price, right like there's a upc code on the back. But

Adrian Speyer (he/him): yeah, Amazon can decide. And and Jono is is really funny. You'll see signs he'll share like Hey, my books on sound kindle because they just decide like they you don't have control over it, like I know. I think the hard back

Adrian Speyer (he/him): twenty-eight bucks or something.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Well, here i'll give an example. Um. The well in the Us. Price is pretty much what i'd set it at, but in Canada, for example, It's fifty two dollars for the hard cover, but it's really thirty seven dollars if you buy it from Amazon.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): But I had said it lower, but they kind of control it based on exchange rate and all that jazz, even though I want to be lower. But you

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Ah, I just got an email from chapters who's promised me so chapters is is our barns and nobles, I mean they're not affiliated, but it's kind of like the alternative to Amazon, and so um chapters. I they have to manually add my book. I know we live like in two thousand and twenty-two, but you know there's someone that has to actually like manually type it in. They told me that the book should be there in about two weeks.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Um: So

Adrian Speyer (he/him): yeah, they they have to manually type in.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Okay. But I mean the the ebook version is um, you know, and that's the thing, too, that I learned. Um, You don't need an apple or an Amazon device to use the kindle. If you. If you have a smart device of any kind or tablet, you download the kindle app and you can download the electronic version of the book.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Um,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Personally, I mean, you know, i'm not saying that because I want people to spend the money, but the hard back to me is the nicest version of it. It feels it's got that half to it. Feels like a textbook away. It's kind of also funny to

Adrian Speyer (he/him): i'll be on an Adrian. You don't have to apologize. You know

Chris Detzel: you want people to buy the book. So

Adrian Speyer (he/him): yeah, no, i'm. But I'm Canadian. So we naturally apologize. But what I find funny is to me. What makes me laugh is it? Looks like a textbook, and there's swear words in it. So I should what you know. This isn't a book for kids, You know there are some of my cursework, because, you know, life is full of sometimes, and it is.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, you know, I I wanted to have some fun like I wanted to give people a chuckle. So um, you know, I like one of the chapters is the complete shit show, like I don't know how I swear on your yeah. You are. Okay? Well, that's good. So yeah, I mean, I say, you know, stuff like that all the time.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah. So I mean, you know, I want to like what happens if you have a complete shit show that you have to deal with, or

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know. I also want to talk about like, what, if you have a support, community or a product community, and some of the advice in that, you know, because um! And I think you you've worked in support communities a while. But I wanted to remind you, you know, especially someone new to the community business. You are not a support agent.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): It can be very easy to fall into that if you're rendering a community. And someone says, Okay, we're doing a support community, and you're going to answer these support questions. Well wait a second. I'm a community manager. My job isn't support.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): I'm happy to build the community and make connections and and kind of be the conduit. But my job is not support. I'm not a support agent.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah. And I and I really that's the kind of stuff that's in the book I want to give you. You know. I tell early on one of the biggest regrets I had early on in my career was, I didn't a I didn't know better. But, P. I didn't have the confidence, you know, like I knew things are being done wrong,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): the community but I was kind of like Well, that's the boss, and that's what they want to have done. I was measuring stuff I shouldn't have been measuring. And

Adrian Speyer (he/him): yeah, you know, they had me doing all kinds of creating fake profiles and having conversations with myself. And I and like I didn't know any better. Um, You know, I was early twenties just out of school, you know. Kind of thing, and it's like, Okay, Well, you want fake profile? Sure i'll. I'll. I'll create fake. I'll have that conversation, and like, I mean, Hey, these are marketing executives. They They know better than me so i'll just. I'll, you know, do what's told,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know, and you know, and at the same time I that's on me right like I I take full responsibility in the book, like as the commute, the head of the community at the time it was on me to say what this isn't the way that we should do it. But I kind of took a ah a passive seat and kind of follow along. But I want to tell people, Hey, don't do this because there's a lot of people that say, Oh, you know

Adrian Speyer (he/him): um! You should just make some fake, you know. Here's the thing if you have to if you have to create fake conversations. Maybe the concept for your community is not a good idea

Adrian Speyer (he/him): he has. Maybe people don't want to talk about it.

Chris Detzel: It's right,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know, if you can't find it, at least someone. And and here's a thing like you, I mean, and that's everything I want to underscore. This is a book about B two B communities like, I know there's gonna be people that are gonna come at me like. Well, it's not true for nonprofit or different, and this is not the other um, but they creating fake profiles price.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): But what I mean is that if you're a B twob community. You have a community around you, right? The community exists. There's people that are, you know. Obviously there's an audience, and then there's a community right There's folks that are going out there, whatever product that you're you're working on selling. They they're talking about being in user groups or linkedin or whatever that's happening. So we're looking for people to talk to about the product, because that's either

Adrian Speyer (he/him): they need help. They need something to get done right.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, like, I understand a consumer product. It's brand new that no one's ever heard of, I understand. But I mean if you're adobe, or you, you know they have whatever brand you want. They've got a community where conversations are going to happen where that conversation could occur. And i'm saying, Hey, Well,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know, you should be able to find folks to seed your content, or possibly best folks to come in and have that conversation right like It's It's not a no-brainer.

Chris Detzel: Wow!

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Can't believe you wrote a book that's pretty awesome. I can't believe it either. I mean to me it's.

Chris Detzel: I think it's great man whenever you post up that like a couple of weeks ago, or something, and I was like, Hey, Turn wrote a book.

Chris Detzel: Wow! That's pretty awesome where I I know you mentioned where we can find. But what's the name of the book? Just kind of ended here but name of the book and

Adrian Speyer (he/him): um where you can get it, and all that kind of stuff. I'll put it up here, you know, for those that visually can see it. So it's called the Accidental Community manager a guide to building a successful B two B community. It's available at all find bookstores.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): And actually, the easiest way is just go to my website, Adrian Spire dot com um, and there's a link with a little icon for a book. I also have a Newsletter. People are interested that you know, around around the book when things are happening, because, you know, I hope to be out there talking about the book, and would love to hear from folks. And

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you're listening to this, and you've read the book, and you think it's worthy of a review. I'd really appreciate it. Yeah, one, because,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know, like I said, these are things that you learn about the the book industry. But the reviews are so important for discovery. And yeah, ah, you know, like i'm Very. Thank. I just also want to say, I'm very thankful for you, Chris, and and and just a larger community of community professionals that have supported this book, bought it, taking selfies, you know, shared it all over social that they bought copies of the book.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): But I also want to get to those folks that are brand new, that don't know that, you know, like as you know, right there. So how many times have you heard this, or someone brand new starts in community, and they're like. Oh, I didn't realize it was a thing I didn't realize there was an industry. I didn't realize there was a show. I didn't realize that right. So

Adrian Speyer (he/him): for me the reviews will help those folks that are,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): maybe you know, brand new to community, and they're searching, and they find a book like I don't buy stuff on Amazon without a review. So it's really important to me that you,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know hopefully it's worthy of five stars, and people think it's a great book, and and and want to leave that. But you know i'm a big boy, and I know that that doesn't always happen

Chris Detzel: is a gift,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): right? So we all need that, certainly for the book and for your next one, You know I I have some. I have some plans. I have some plans. I Okay, you know. Hopefully, it doesn't take four years. But

Adrian Speyer (he/him): you know well, you know what I have a recipe now. So I you know, I think.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Well, here's where i'm debating. I have potentially another book of round community stuff or a not a fiction book about a murderer and some money hidden in walls, and it's a very intriguing story that has also been on on. You know that that's also been around for four years as well. So,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Oh, really that now that I kicked one out, it's kind of like. Oh, now I have time to work on the asset. But

Adrian Speyer (he/him): yeah, we'll try and say. Well, you know, I was finding someone the other day about this. I don't know if people know this, but Anthony and Bordain, besides writing books about

Adrian Speyer (he/him): cooking. Mosul was a mystery thriller writer. He he's written a couple of books that you They're actually pretty good, and I was kind of skeptical at first, and like, What does a a chef know about the mobs and all this stuff? The books were really well written. I enjoyed they. They're kind of like trashing off as you read on the beach. But I mean they're they're I enjoyed it. Yeah,

Adrian Speyer (he/him): So I thought, Hey, that'd be fun to do. But I mean, hey? Once you kind of break the seal and figure out all the things you need to do. I've got the recipe so it's just. I don't know how to do it.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Yeah, it's. I think that's remarkable. And ah, you know. Unfortunately, I have to go. But it's remarkable that one. You had this idea you not just execute on it. I did you. You found the people to help you kind of do it in itself. Done and

Chris Detzel: that's That's a remarkable story, Adrian, and you should be proud of proud of that, and i'll definitely make sure to buy the book, probably right after the call I have here coming up, and i'll push that into the podcast link, and also to the Youtube Link. So

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Adrianne thanks so much for coming on to the show and and congratulations on your book. No, I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me, and thank you. Everyone and I look forward, you know, and at some point in person, meeting all the folks that read it and signing their copies, or, you know, tell me the bits that you love the most, or your own personal story about one hundred

Adrian Speyer (he/him): um absolutely being an accidental community manager. Love those.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Well, thanks everyone for tuning in to another peers of a beers. I'm Chris Detzel and I'm Adrian Spire. Thanks, Adrian.

Adrian Speyer (he/him): Thank you.