Get Together: How to Build a Community with Your People

By: Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, Kai Elmer Sotto

Narrated by: Bailey Richardson, Kai Elmer Sotto, Kevin Huynh

Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

"With no jargon and no nonsense, Bailey, Kevin and Kai lay out simple, practical steps for helping people come together in meaningful and powerful ways." (Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps and winner of the TED Prize)

Although communities feel magical, they don't come together by magic.

Get Together is a practical and heartfelt guide to cultivating a community. Whether starting a run crew, connecting with fans online, or sparking a movement of K-12 teachers, the secret to getting people together is this: Build your community with people, not for them.

In Get Together, Bailey, Kevin, and Kai share true stories of everyday people who created thriving communities, both in-person and online. They untangle the challenge of getting passionate people together into clear steps, helping individuals and organizations navigate the intricacies of leading a community, including:

• How to rally the first people
• How to get people talking
• How to attract new, authentic folks
• How to develop leaders and expand globally

The People & Company team reminds us that we each hold the potential to spark a community.

Get Together shows listeners how if we join forces - as company and customers, artist and fans, organizer and advocates - we'll do more together than we ever could alone.

"I highly recommend Get Together for anyone who's looking to crack the code on building a community." (Alisha Ramos, Founder of Girls' Night In)

©2019 Stripe Press (P)2019 People & Company

Get Together should be an MBA course

The authors do a great job of communicating their ideas enthusiastically. Their passion draws you in and their expertise and examples keep you engaged.

Insightful Read

Experience from my job as a community organizer confirms many of these principles, and some fresh perspective and ideas were highlighted. Loved the simple breakdown that makes it feel less overwhelming.

Simple and useful

This is not the ultimate guide to build a community (I don’t even think our knowledge about the subject is there yet), but has very useful stories and frameworks to help build your own community.

Effective

This was a really good and workable roadmap for building community that didn't take long to present. I enjoyed it!

When the student is ready, the teacher appears

I've had this book in my library for a long time, just sitting there gathering dust. I've been struggling to understand how to grow the community I lead for a long time...it's just been sitting there gathering dust 😉. As soon as I started listening to this book my understanding expanded and my first official community meeting is in less than 24 hours, with 24 people registered to attend.
I feel calm and motivated, knowing that I have the steps I need to serve this community better than I ever have before.
Thank you to the authors!
With love
Nathan

It’s a good introduction to the steps of community

Spark the flame. Stoke the fire. Pass the torch.

That’s what is in this short book. It’s a quick read. 7 pages of good notes on the process of building communities.

Not a lot of novel ideas, just process. Beginner level book.

nothing new or amazing.

heard it all before. I was hoping, I was EXPECTING more ideas, insight and new innovations

Good Simple Advice for Building a Community of Interest

Straightforward Common Sense Principles useful for identifying the People you’re most likely to find approachable and dependable members of any Group you’re trying to create.

Three stars. ***

A self-aggrandizing commercial

I gave two stars because the language and purpose were clear - I just really did not like the message nor did I appreciate the condescending attitude.

I just let this run in the background once I realized what was happening; it never got better. Some of the points were useful - a very few. Otherwise the book focused on: "This what we have done. This is what you should do. This is why you should pay us to help you." The author and company might have something to offer, but the writer's attitude was off-putting - they should have hired a professional writer, or maybe should not have published at all.

Nothing you can't find by searching online

Aside from a few examples here and there, Get Together doesn't do a particularly good job of applying its espoused principles and practically applying them with the writers' organizational challenges. It's because of this that the book feels more like a general guideline of sorts rather than a helpful and in-depth "How To," often feeling as though there's a reluctance in sharing some of the kinds of real challenges that organizations building communities face.