Keep Connected with Meetup CEO David Siegel
Keep Connected is a podcast about the power of community hosted by me, David Siegel, CEO of Meetup. For nearly 20 years, Meetup has fostered connections and inspired lifelong friendships for its members. Ranked among the top 25 CEO podcasts, tune in to hear inspiring stories of how these connections have changed lives and learn from experts who will explain the real impact of community. Keep connected with us today! For podcast questions, topic suggestions, or just to connect, reach out to us at podcast@meetup.com
Episodes
66 episodes
How to Turn Any Idea into a Real Movement
The Ryan Meetup group has nearly 2,000 members whose common bond is simple: their first name! David sits down with founders Ryan Rose, Ryan Cousins, and Ryan Le to hear the amazing origin story o...
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30:49
An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Community Building
Before he was a co-founder of General Assembly and founder of Common co-living spaces, Brad Hargreaves was a Meetup organizer hosting tech events in New York. In this conversation with David Siegel, a legendary entrepreneur talks about how he’s...
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37:14
Change Your Negative Thought Patterns
Aldwyn Altuney’s path took her from a rebellious teen who ran away from home to a world-class journalist working with major news organizations on multiple continents. Her latest effort is Good News Day, a campaign to change the tone of the cont...
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35:41
How to Grow from Traumatic Experiences
Amnoni Myers has persevered through addiction, abuse, abandonment, homelessness, and the many difficulties of the foster care system to become an author and nationally recognized child welfare advocate. Her success story (recounted in the new m...
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37:09
Platonic Longing: Make the Friends You Want
Kat Vellos is a certified connections coach and the author (plus illustrator!) of We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships. She and David sit down to discuss why platonic relationships between adults are so ...
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41:20
How to Turn Off Your Inner Critic
Tara Schuster was Vice President of Talent and Development at Comedy Central, and much of her identity and self-esteem was founded on that Emmy and Peabody Award-winning work. But when she was laid off during the pandemic, a severe identity cri...
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38:15
How to Make Your Own Luck
Bakari Akil is a self-described scrappy entrepreneur bridging the gap between the corporate world and homegrown success stories. He’s also the organizer of two Meetup groups. His first, the Alternative I...
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34:21
Listen Up: How to Build Rapport
Ximena Vengoechea listens for a living, as an expert in UX Research for Pinterest, and previously for Twitter and LinkedIn. She is also the author of Listen Like You Mean It: Reclaiming the Lost Art of True Connection. Her book is a pr...
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42:30
How to Prioritize Fulfillment
Less than one year ago, Anthony Paul moved from Brooklyn to the Boston area without a single previous social connection. Today, he’s the organizer of the Cambridge "Finer Things" Culture ...
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33:38
The Skill of Adult Friendship
Dr. Marisa G. Franco is a psychologist, an interdisciplinary professor at the University of Maryland, and a top writer on Psychology Today. In her new best-selling book, Platonic, she shares her expertise in the subtle art and social science of...
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37:46
What Being Loyal to Yourself Means
Dr. Rick Hanson is a renowned psychologist and a New York Times best-selling author of several books, translated into over 30 languages with more than a million copies sold worldwide. His latest work, Making Great Relationships, shares the wisd...
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39:56
Life Advice to Take on Your Next Stroll
Ann Marie Rakovic and David first met on an eight-mile walk she organized through Meetup. Today they sit down to talk about the transformative power of her group, Central Park NYC Eve...
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34:57
Practicing Happiness with Jewel
Before becoming the world famous singer-songwriter, Jewel was a teen in rural Alaska surrounded by people in pain. Performing in bars with her father, she became acutely aware of the unhealthy ways people deal with their emotions. After leaving...
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41:57
Busting Myths about Introverts
Brenda Bea grew up being described as “shy” and “quiet.” In her adult life, she’s owned her identity as an introvert, and helped many other women do the same as an organizer of In...
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43:58
Embracing Our Differences
Known as the Renaissance Rabbi, Dovid Cohen is a spiritual leader, lawyer, therapist, writer, public speaker, and part of an organization that services individuals with special needs throughout the United States. In the course of these many rol...
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42:55
Sowing the Seeds of Joy
Monique Rhodes was adopted into a difficult situation in New Zealand. By her early teens she was quite depressed, and at 19 years old hit rock bottom when she attempted to take her own life. Since then, she’s been on a journey of resilience and...
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47:28
The Power of Introductions
From investment banker, to four-time CFO, to operating partner at a top venture capital firm, to board of directors member, to lecturer at Stanford University—Jeff Epstein has done it all. Over the years, his experience, contacts, and willingne...
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38:08
Why Happiness Needs Gratitude
Andrew Horn is the co-founder and CEO of Tribute, a company that has been called “Hallmark 2.0” because its modern technology is keeping the old tradition of showing appreciation alive. With nearly 6 million collaborative videos created, Tribut...
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44:11
The Underrated Power of Thinking Big
JeVon McCormick has a success story for the ages. The son of an orphaned sex worker and a drug dealer, JeVon grew up poor in the 1970s without reliable access to food, water, and electricity. Experiencing an identity crisis and lack of belongin...
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51:42
A New Chapter of Friendship
Alysia Allen is the founder of Mocha Girls Read, a Meetup book club that began with 12 women in Inglewood, California, and now has more than 10,000 members across the United States in 1...
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32:26
Deepening Connections by Walking
Jonathon Stalls spent 242 days walking from the coast of Delaware to the Pacific Ocean. He is also the founder of Walk2Connect - Mile High Ramblers Chapter, a decade-old Meetup group that h...
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42:19
Intentional Talking & Radical Listening
Ken Tucker, the “conversation and relationship expert,” is a Fortune 500 strategist, international speaker, and CEO of the management consulting firm KTA Solutions. As if that weren’t enough, Ken is also the best-selling author of six books on ...
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46:42
Using the Agile Approach at Work
John Cass is an innovator. 20 years ago, he was on the ground floor of blogging as a marketing tool. In 2001, when he got interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), few of his colleagues knew what he was talking about. A cutting-edge marke...
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38:45
Trust: the Crucial Community Ingredient with Seth Besmertnik
Seth Besmertnik is the CEO of Conductor, an organic marketing and SEO platform. As two CEOs of former WeWork companies, Seth and David sit down to discuss their lived experiences as CEOs working in similar conditions. Seth has developed a leade...
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43:24