Hello friends and soon-to-be friends!

I'm thrilled you're here and reading this. Seriously, I'm sure you have 10 other things you could be doing, and I appreciate it.

I'm Carrie Melissa Jones, Founder of Gather Community Consulting. I've been consulting with communities since 2013, with a break in between to work tirelessly on CMX Media (www.cmxhub.com). I am so proud of the work we did with CMX to elevate the community industry. The company continues to train the best and brightest community builders in the world, with a network of over 20,000 globally. 

During that time, I was lucky enough to interview some of the world's most brave and humble community leaders, including the Executive Director of Edcamp, community builders from Foursquare, Product Hunt, BuzzFeed, Salesforce, and more. I was also lucky enough to work on research projects, community launches, and even the ins and outs of finances, HR, and business operations. 

One thing I noticed during my time building CMX and just after were just how many companies - especially those who were not necessarily venture-backed but were very successful and profitable - had no clue how to architect thoughtful communities. I saw organizations closing their Facebook Groups. I saw agencies throwing up community spaces and letting them flounder. I saw consumer brands throwing around the term "community" hoping that saying "community" would make one appear. And, even more often, I saw companies who wanted deeply to build community and understood the business case (I met many of you at Seattle Interactive Conference, hello!), but just did not have the human power and know-how to build long-term community strategy. 

That's why I have decided to begin consulting again. It is my single-minded mission to get more businesses building brand communities that benefit the world as a whole but also serve their business. After all, you can't help others if you don't help yourself. You can't build community if the organizational infrastructure behind it is crumbling. 

I'm excited to get my hands dirty with community problems again. It's what I love doing. It's what I think about all the time. It's what I think I'm incredibly good at, if I do say so myself... and I do, even realizing that I think I sound ridiculous saying it, I'm doing it anyway! Look, no one is stopping me!

Let's walk down this road together, friends. And let's build unbreakable communities.

Watch this space for resources on community building (some of which I pare down because I use the longer-form resources for client work), thoughts, book reviews, and inspiration for your work!