2023: Gratitude and Reflections on a Year of Change

The final grains of sand now pass through the hourglass marking the passing of the year 2023. In the words of Jerry Garcia, "What a long, strange trip it's been."

I'm deeply grateful for the clients and professional associates who have been a part of my life this year. Thanks to them, I was able to grow my business, do good work, and grow.

Clocktower Advisors and TalentLed

My company Clocktower Advisors did well this year, I'm grateful to say. I served a number of wonderful new clients as well as continuing to help some longtime ongoing clients with their online communities.

All of my work is performed virtually these days but with the help of wonderful tools like Miro I have been able to transition that work seamlessly, reducing my travel to zero while continuing to deliver a high standard of work.

I would be remiss if I didn't call out the invaluable help of Callisa Mickle who made all of my marketing and live streaming work look so much easier than I know it to be. She and Holly are extraordinary and highly competent operational helpers, always ready to jump in with a smile and a can-do attitude.

It was also a great pleasure to work shoulder to shoulder with advisors like Deb Schell (of Find Calm Here LLC - check out her new book on community building!), Jamie Langskov, MBA (of Chaotic Good Consulting), Carolyn Zick (of Bad Axe Enterprises LLC), Kelsey Dins Szymaszek, and Morgan Burns (of Purple Unicorn Branding).

My success has also been built upon the collaboration of truly wonderful community platform partners, including Gainsight , Khoros , Higher Logic , Disciple , LumApps , and KwaKwa . Special thanks to Gainsight for referrals that led to new business this year and to LumApps (looking at you John L. !) for the regular check-ins.

Many thanks go out to my excellent professional partners, Aurora WDC , Grazitti Interactive , Island23 Limited , Kane Communications Group , Inclusive Communications LLC , Purple Unicorn Branding , Talentpoel , VonGeyer Consulting , and Steegle.Com . I'd like to give a special shout out to Grazitti in particular for always reaching out to work with me on webinars, events, and client work.

And my service offerings have ben further enriched by my speciality partners: Appreiz , Checkstep , Konnect Insights , Mozzaik365 , SearchUnify , and Whatfix . Many thanks to the team at SearchUnify for organizing some great webinars with me this year on the topic of AI and community-building. And many thanks to Whatfix for the deep partnering this year.

It was a year of starting another new business venture, too, with my friend and trusted colleague Ilker Akansel. Our regular conversations about the community profession and broader business world led to the formation of TalentLed Community Consultancy, the world's first company dedicated to the idea of building communities of talent to enable organizations.

Community Consultant Collective is a go!

With the collaboration of some amazing, wonderful, and generous people like Mathijs Vleeming, Jamie Langskov, MBA, Deb Schell, John Summers, Marta Rocamora Gonzalez, Carolyn Zick, Laura Zug, Ilker Akansel, and Matt Jensen, I was able to realize a long-time dream to enable community consulting professionals by giving a transparent, open-hearted start to the Community Consultants Collective.

Through this group, I've deepened my friendship and connection with many new people--I'd never be able to name everyone, but those who quickly come to mind include ? Samantha "Venia" Logan , Bri Leever , Max Pete , Francisco Opazo , and Adam Krisko .

Introduction to Fractionals United

Early this year, I also had the good fortune to run into Karina Mikhli and her new Fractionals United community, one of the places I've come to feel at home and plan a more deliberate pivot of my consultancy into this line of work. (If you don't know what the fractional movement is about, I'd direct you to Karina's writings and that of the excellent John Arms whose book "Revolt" I read over the holiday break).

Thanks to an introduction to this space, I was able to secure my first fractional engagement as Chief Community Officer for a startup I've admired and advised for over a year now, kick back space where I'm working with the brilliant Rocco Haro and Brandon Sayers .

Through Fractionals United, I have also been able to meet truly impressive humans like Rachel Petzold , whose insights about building TalentLed and enthusiastic willingness to support my upcoming Q1 virtual summit on advocacy has been a huge windfall.

I'd never have found the fractionals movement or given it much thought if not for my consistently insightful and wise advisors Kurt Hahlbeck and Ryan Kauth.

The Braintrust

Speaking of Kurt and Ryan, they're just two of the people who have continued to be indispensable parts of my "braintrust," which includes people like Ilker Akansel , Adam Krisko , Jenny Weigle-Bonds , Si Alhir (Sinan Si Alhir) , Carolyn Zick , Arik Johnson , Darren Gough , Rachel Happe , Ahmadou DIALLO ? (always warm and wise), and Adrian Speyer .

You've helped me better understand how to run my business, build a social media following, think about new technology developments and be a better strategist. Thank you all, sincerely!

Community Leaders Institute

I'd like to add that not only has Adrian's friendship been really wonderful this year, it has also been my great pleasure to collaborate with him and William McGlade on the Customer Leaders Institute this year.

Community professionals have long deserved a professional organization that's unaffiliated with platform vendors and I think that everyone in our space should be willing to invest in themselves by helping this organization to grow in 2024, so that I can create programs and content to help us all.

Community-Building on the Home Front

2023 was also an opportunity to more fully embrace community-building in my hometown and region this year. I deepened my involvement with Rotary International through our local Rotary District 6270 as the new Public Image co-chair (along with Robert Grede) thanks to the encouragement of leaders like Don Griffing and Peter Bosch.

I continued working with the board of the Two Rivers Business Association (TRBA) as secretary and was gratified about our ability to rebuild the organization after the pandemic really decimated our ranks. Among our accomplishments this year: a $10K donation to the Central Park West part redesign project, a renewed strategic focus, a new website and collateral, terrific social events, and recruiting new board members. There's some excellent stuff on the horizon for 2024 with TRBA that I'm excited about, which will be a great way to top off my 2nd 3-year term as a member of that board.

It was also an honor to be asked to participate on the marketing committee for the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum and the Entrepreneur Coalition for Progress Lakeshore, Inc.

Personal Growth and Hobbies

Finally, on the personal and creative fronts, I've been fortunate that my family has done well with no major crises of health or finances. We grew a beautiful garden this summer and enjoyed lots of time taking walks on the beach and on our nearby gorgeous forest trails.

I also celebrated a second full year of an online Dungeons & Dragons game via Facebook/Zoom, which grew to 86 members, ran 38 gaming events, and averaged about 7 or 8 players in the group I ran. I'd particularly like to thank the wildly ingenious Joshua Selesnick of Expium - A Valiantys Company and and the Dungeons & Dragons LinkedIn group for inspiration and bringing my professional and hobby worlds into alignment. I continue to maintain the D&D has become "the new golf" for the business world.

Looking ahead to 2024

Where 2023 has felt like a year of profound change and flux, particularly in the online community space, I feel like 2024 has the potential to see some of the seeds planted this year come to fruition. My word for 2024 is "fulfillment."

As people settle into what it means to live in a world driven by further AI innovations and readjusted thinking about what it means to participate on big social media platforms (as opposed to cozier, more scalable online communities), I'm choosing to be optimistic and bullish about what's ahead.

Changes are sure to keep coming and to shock us, but the only way to be ready and resilient for these changes is to first of all adjust your own mindset. If you've read this far, you have now seen how I've gone about readying myself and my attitude for the 2024 to come.

I hope that 2023 has been a year of growth, enlightenment, and happiness and that you'll experience these in equal or greater measure in 2024. See you there.