Meet Victoria Cumberbatch, Founder & Principal of adventuresOFcommunity and community manager extraordinaire.
Victoria is a transformation leadership coach in Denver, USA. She helps people move from states of tension to states of intention. Her neuro-friendly and trauma-informed lens supports people through coaching, breathwork, and communal events.
At Swarm this year, Victoria will deliver one of our webinars on 14 August, with a presentation titled “Becoming an Authentic Leader at Home & at the Workplace”.
Tickets are on sale now – grab yours!
We recently interviewed Victoria to provide you with more insight into our Denver-based speaker and what makes her tick as a community manager.
Tell me about yourself and your community management history:
Within the past full year, I’ve pivoted from over a decade of serving in community building to coaching and facilitation. It took me nearly that entire decade to discern the golden thread that my form of contribution is through the lens of community building, management and design. I hadn’t realized that that was what I’d been ‘doing’ until the covid moment, where the community industry seemed to explode.
I got into community many moons ago, after graduating with a government degree and no job. I chose to do long term substitute teaching followed by long term backpacking, as a rotation, for many years in my 20s. When I would travel, I would typically do work exchanges, home stays or work at hostels and these environments are really where I began to gather people intentionally. Then with full time work, the titles morphed to ‘program coordinator’ or ‘program leader’ to inevitably, community manager or something more aligned with what I was actually doing.
My favorite role, albeit the most challenging as well, was leading a community of digital nomads around the world for a year with a co lead. We oversaw the experience and well being of about 50 adults for 12 months solid, including a few months of shadowing. Here’s what it was like!
What’s unique about working on your current community?
Currently, I am slowly building an in person community in Denver, where I now live, based around somatic work. I delved into embodiment work in the past few years of living here and became a breathwork facilitator, so I offer community breath experiences around town and I’m starting to attract regulars!
What community platforms do you personally hang out on? (either socially or professionally)
Very few, to be frank with you. Primarily, Slack, Heartbeat and Facebook Groups!
What is your favourite aspect about your community (either on you manage or one you’re a part of)?
One of the best aspects of a former community I managed was the permission to be creative with intrinsic level ‘perks.’ This allowed me to go wild with things like themed months, month long bingo activities, experimenting with different virtual ‘tea times’ and getting deep into discussion on dicier topics. That was fun to me and kept me motivated to keep envisioning new innovative ideas to keep people connected and returning.
How are you tackling the constantly changing social media space (i.e. The Twitter to X rebrand, Meta’s changing rules re: journalism, owned platforms vs social based communities)?
I’m not! With ADHD and working for myself, I truly can not handle the rate of change. So, I’ve decided to simply hang up perfectionism and do what I can when I have the energy for it. It’s something I preach heartily about now as well.
What are you reading/watching/listening to right now that all community professionals should read/watch/listen to?
I love to read April MacLean’s newsletters and body double with either of these apps: Groove or FLOWN.
What do you love most about Swarm?
I love how intentional Swarm is, whether it be with content, outreach, recognition of the land any team member might currently be on and so much more. This sort of thing, intentionality, gives me the perception that the people at Swarm care more about being in integrity than straight up capitalism.
Tickets are on sale now – grab yours!
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