I used to have an internet shop in Ukraine and needed marketing help. So I hired someone to help me out with search engine optimization (SEO). I wasn’t happy with the job they were doing. I wanted to do it myself and the first step was to check SEO forums. Fast forward: I got the help I needed, I spoke to experts in the forums, then I gathered them in real life, then I started the SEO Club UA community. That was 7 years ago. When the war broke out in Ukraine I couldn’t continue my usual community tasks, because many of the experts within my community lost their jobs. I started a new community that consists of members from my other communities to help and support each other through this time. I am still trying to help my members find jobs outside of Ukraine. We have so many experts in SEO, paid advertising, marketing, etc. Here is a list of all of those experts. If you have work that needs to be done and want to support Ukrainians, please take a look! I found some opportunities for the members of our communities, but I still needed an income. I reached out to David Spinks and thanks to his and Steve Garguilo’s help, I found my position as a community consultant for the Cultivators and CMX communities. Running my own community for so long gave me knowledge that I can share with the rest of the community world. I’ve practically made all mistakes that a community manager can do. And I also learned how to fix those mistakes. My experience doesn’t come from books. It comes from doing the job.