Intro

She is

a force to be reckoned with

an industry veteran

a community builder extraordinaire

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Rosie Sherry is among the foremost thought leaders in the community building space

Before becoming all that, she was the founder of multiple software testing communities. She also created the Software Testing Club to integrate testing into the everyday work and life of software engineers, QA specialists and teams across organisations big and small. She is an indie hacker, and unschooling mother.

Fascinated by the world of community, marketing, ethical business, unschooling and technology/software testing, she is a self-employed community builder offering a variety of products and services. Since 2006, when Rosie Sherry found communities, she fell in love with them and has now after a decade has grown into a community expert.

Rosie Sherry is one of the foremost leaders in community building. She built the community for IndieHackers a community of more than 140,000 independent makers developing profitable side projects, and it's a pretty big community where daily 250 people post and posting something everyday and with around 1000 comments a day. She is also the founder of Ministry of Testing and Rosie Land. She currently does independent consulting for Indie Founders through Indiependent.

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A prolific tweeter, writer, and a strong supporter of newcomers to the field. She is an avid blogger and speaker who dedicates her time to sharing her knowledge with all those willing to listen. Being one among the 25,000 odd people who follow her on twitter, there is not a day that goes by when Rosie does not share wisdom with her characteristic wit. She talks about life as a woman in tech, her life as a mother of 5 living in Brighton, bootstrapping her business for over 10 years! and how to build vibrant communities.

She strongly believes that

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Read

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Rosie is a brilliant writer. I have enjoyed reading her work - be it her smart tweets or her long form blogs. Here are some blogs of Rosie’s which are a personal favourite.

Conversations before community

Kindess and love as a strategy

Preparing for a life that doesn't rely on social media

Seven Fears That Might Be Holding You Back

No one framework

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Watch

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On the decade of  Community: Rosie talks about the dawn of ‘ Decade of Community’ and how it is a way of life. Something that she foresaw even Covid and how it is going to stay for a long term. She advocates a long-term thinking for building sustainable vibrant communities. Watch here

On how to build Minimum Viable Communities: Talking on the show, Rosie tells us how we must approach an MVC, how they are a blend of starting small + thinking + goals + tweaking. And how to look at it in a similar way to building a product. When one is starting a community, one doesn’t realize it as it often doesn’t look like a community. The main point of it is to try it out and only continue with it if you like how it’s going. Starting a community is basically tapping into what you enjoy and inspiring others to speak about it. And how the past communities always worked towards progressing the community comparing it the present communities which are quiet candidly overwhelming  Watch the full video here for free.

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Listen

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Community is the future: Rosie talks about how when she first stumbled upon communities, she immediately fell in love and instantly knew that it was her. An ikigai moment! She talks about building her community from scratch , helping founders build their communities and doing it for free in the beginning. And how after three long free years, she finally decided to turn it into a business. Listen here

Real communities can't be faked: In a chat with Joel Hooks, Rosie shares that you can't a strong community has to have people who care, that's what it generally comes down to.  You can’t fake community. The people who lead it have to care, show that they care, and care about the industry as a whole. Tune in here

What community building really looks like (beyond the hype): On Creative Elements with Jay Clouse, Rosie shares her journey with Ministry of Testing, foray into community building and how she has become one among the foremost thought leaders in the community building space.

Listen here

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Learn

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💡 And I think its rough as well when you’re building community and when you start community, you don’t necessarily know where it’s going to head or where it’s going to be in the future.

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💡 Everything I've learned is has been through communities that people helping me make me helping people, talking about things, sharing things.’

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Words to remember

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I prefer to rustle than hustle. Rosie rustlin' things up since 1979.

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I keep having conversations about it, so I figure it is best to keep saying it.Don't start a community by choosing a tool.Start with your vision and your people, everything else will then fall into place.

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I know people say to hang out with people smarter than you.

"It's great for personal growth."

But that just feels like a shitty way to live.

Mix up the people you hang with. We all have something to give and learn.

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Founders get too obsessed with seeing failure as learning.

It's harmful.

We should be thinking in terms of iteration instead.

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Spicy community take:

It's not just about relationships, doing stuff together & having a common vision.

It has just as much to do with being inspired by each other's ideas & creating our own things.

We may never connect, and you may never know how your contributions matter.

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