EXPERIENCE AT SCALE
I’ve spent 25 years helping enterprise brands leverage the power of community and CX to deliver value throughout their businesses. Wherever you’re going, I can get you there.
MY APPROACH
A drive to be part of something bigger than ourselves and building meaningful relationships are at the heart of who we are as humans. I’ll help you tap into those powerful emotions using a proven customer-centric methodology to activate your community, deliver ROI at scale across the business, and make you a hero in your organization.
Brian shares his approach for building customer support communities at CMX Summit West 2016.
MY EXPERIENCE
Ever since I got online in the 1990’s, I have been fascinated with building communities and creating great digital experiences. I was fortunate to turn my passion into a career, helping hundreds of companies connect with their customers to build an engine for engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
From a Content Moderator to the Vice President of Customer Experience and Global Community, I have amassed a vast library of knowledge, experience, and wisdom through the benefit of hindsight that I can share to accelerate your initiatives. It’s like strapping on a jet pack.
► Learn more about my work experience on LinkedIn.
MY IMPACT
When I joined Alteryx as Vice President of Community, my goal was to take everything I had learned working with top brands and show the world what business could look like when community is a core pillar of the company culture and go-to-market strategy.
Alongside the teams I led focused on customer experience, community, social, learning, enablement, support, and advocacy, we did just that.
Visitors to the award-winning Alteryx Community learned the product quicker, converted to paying customers faster, expanded their accounts more rapidly, and remained customers longer. My teams' efforts contributed heavily to a customer-centric company culture, industry-leading NPS, and 8-figure cost savings/revenue generation return on investment.
Now, I’ll bring that same spirit and impact to the work I’ll do for you.
Brian and Julie Hamel accept a Lithy Award for their work on the Alteryx Community.
MY RELATIONSHIPS
— Joe Cothrel
Former Chief Community Officer @ Khoros
“He's created the strategy and plans. He's sold them to the CXO level. He's selected vendors and negotiated contracts. He's built teams and hired contractors and led them through project launches, refreshes, and day-to-day operations. And he's seen the whole show dozens of times, from every perspective — as team member, consultant, and executive-in-charge. There's just no one who can match this level of experience.”
— Lois Townsend
Former Director, Community @ HP, Autodesk, Microsoft
“Brian is a community and customer experience super hero. Not only has he worked the trenches, but he's led at the executive level - and everything in between. He has the wealth of hands-on experience and combines it with leadership gravitas - self assured, persuasive, tenacious. Oh, and boundless energy, too. I was a client of Brian's both at HP and Autodesk, and he was diligent and customer-focused. Once you know Brian, he will become a lifelong asset to your knowledge and career network.”
— Holly Firestone
Community @ Atlassian, Salesforce, Venafi
“Brian is a recognized as a leader across the community industry. Community professionals with his level of experience are few and far between, and that combined with an incredible record of success throughout his career truly makes Brian one of the best in the business. Brian is, simply put, a good egg. He’s generous with the knowledge he has gained over his many years of experience, which I have benefitted from personally. It only takes a few minutes with Brian to see the brilliance and passion he brings to everything he does.”
MY APPEARANCES
PODCAST: In Before The Lock
In Before The Lock is a podcast that I co-host with Erica Kuhl. We dive deep on topics ranging from community to customer experience to leadership at scale.
TALK: Measuring Community Value
I joined Jon Wishart on stage at CMX Summit 2022 in Redwood City, CA to discuss how to think about, measure, and communicate ROI across the business.
TALK: Defining “Community-Led”
I delivered the keynote address at 2022 Community-Led Summit to define the model, show real-world examples, and providing tangible resources to model your efforts around.
TALK: Solving Problems & Calculating ROI
I joined the ISCL Summit to deliver a Masterclass on tying community programs to business outcomes, proving ROI, and telling compelling stories to gain even more buy-in.
TALK: Effective Community Strategy
I partnered with Toucan on an event about why you need a strategy, how to turn your needs into goals, and how to measure the health and success of your community.
TALK: Launching a New Community
I’m joined by my podcast co-host at CMX Summit 2020 to talk about launching a new community using the free Community Launch Guide that I created.
TALK: Community + Support Strategy
I took the stage at CMX Summit 2016 to talk about how I successfully combined Community and Customer Support teams at Alteryx to deliver an amazing experience at scale.
PODCAST: The Community-Led Show
I joined the show to talk about how Community-Led organizations can benefit across many areas of business, especially in Customer Success efforts.
PODCAST: Masters of Community
We discuss how to plan community programs out for the long run and what community professionals need to do to help establish the community industry today.
INTERVIEW: The Social Influencer
In this interview, I discussed the importance of CX, the impact of COVID-19 on the industry, and the top three things a company launching a new community should do.
BLOG: Building Product Communities
My advice on activating community to improve your products through customer feedback, educate customers, build belonging, and drive feature adoption.
PODCAST: Community Roundtable
I share my perspective on why CX is a powerful brand differentiator, the impact of customer-centric programs on your business, and the power of communities at scale.
PODCAST: Peers Over Beers
In this podcast interview, I touched on the importance of community, why companies need to invest in customer experience, customer advocacy events, and more.
TALK: Community In An AI-Driven World
I took the stage at Community Rebellion Conference in Prague, CZ to predict the future of communities in an AI-driven world and provide practical advice on how to build toward it.
VIDEO: Integrate Community + Product
I demonstrate how we integrated community directly into the product at Alteryx. Bringing the experience directly to where customers live is a powerful strategy.
LET’S GET STARTED
Reach out and let me know how I can help.