<\/p>\n
In episode 2 of Keep Connected<\/a>, David Siegel chats with Edward Zia, who runs large-scale business workshops and coaching sessions in Australia. You\u2019ll hear Edward\u2019s inspiring journey from homelessness to becoming an internationally respected business coach, as well as how he used Meetup to build his business, empower others, and even meet his wife! <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ranked as one of the top <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.feedspot.com\/ceo_podcasts\/\">25 CEO podcasts on <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.feedspot.com\/ceo_podcasts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Feedspot<\/a>, Keep Connected with Meetup CEO David Siegel is a podcast about the power of community. For more details on other episodes, visit Keep Connected on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/category\/keep-connected-podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Meetup Community Matters blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope you\u2019ll keep connected with us. Drop us a line at podcast@meetup.com. If you like the podcast, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/podcast\/id1545712240\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more about Keep Connected host David Siegel\u2019s experience as a leader and decision maker in his book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.decideandconquerbook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Decide & Conquer<\/em><\/a>. Pre-order your copy today!<\/p>\n\n\n<h2> <\/h2>\n<h2>Show notes<\/h2>\n<p><strong>We have <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.excellenceabove.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Ed Zia<\/u><\/strong><\/a><strong>, extraordinaire, possibly one of the most well-known Meetup organizers out there, certainly in the country of Australia and the wonderful city of Sydney. He’s someone who you will see loves Meetup more than I’ve ever met anyone who loves Meetup. He’s been talking about networking, marketing, inclusiveness, and the power of inclusiveness and community. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">—<\/p>\n<p><strong>Welcome, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.excellenceabove.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Ed Zia<\/u><\/strong><\/a><strong>, to the show. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m honored to be here. A big thank you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ed is an International Master Coach and an influencer. You may wonder what is an international master coach and influencer. We’re going to find out. He\u2019s a veteran. He’s someone who has been leading some of the most successful Meetup groups in Australia. He’s zany, he’s special, and we’re so lucky to have you here. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That’s such an incredible introduction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tell me about your story, your background, and how you became the Ed Zia that we all know and love. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are two answers to that. In short, I have a lot of motivation because I’m following my life’s purpose. Secondly, the bit that you’ll like, what has motivated me is Meetup and that helped me put my original vision of what I want to do into life. One of the reasons why I’m such a huge Meetup advocate and user myself is that it helps make my life’s vision come true. It enabled that success, except maybe for you. I say to people, \u201cThere is no one that loves Meetup more than me.\u201d You might challenge me for that title, but I’m sure no one else can.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You may even win it. Take us back to your early days, some struggles or challenges that you had back then, and walk us through that evolution. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was a homeless veteran for a while. I rebooted my life and started my business.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You don’t want to go too fast on that part if you don’t mind. You were a homeless veteran, is that right? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes. What happened was when I was 29 or 30, I made a few mistakes in my life. I had a lot of injuries, including PTSD from my military days, that catch up with me. I suppose my mental illness and a few bad decisions on my part all came together. I wound up becoming homeless after a few successful years. I fell on some rough times, partly due to things that happened to me, but also my bad decision-making. I made some big decisions to reboot my life. As part of that, I felt that I didn’t want to go back to what I was originally doing. I said, \u201cI want to be some coach and educator of some form.\u201d It was that which put me on the path to starting my business and getting involved in what I’m doing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you know you wanted to reboot your life? Unfortunately, there are tens and millions of people throughout the world who are homeless, hundreds of millions of people with mental illness. How did you have the awareness and strength to decide that you were going to do that reboot? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I’m a very spiritual guy. I think that’s a huge part of it. I’m a Christian and a big follower of Christ. I have full respect for all religions and all my different religious friends out there. I’ve always been quite a spiritual person who’s quite into God and the universe. When I ended up being homeless, I had no struggle or resistance against it. I saw it as a form of redemption. I saw it as my time of judgment. Even though I led a good life, I did make some mistakes in my life and I did do the wrong thing by some certain people in my life. I felt like I had it coming. I saw it as a form of punishment. I approach my homelessness enthusiastically if you fall in my spiritual and old logic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You use homelessness as the way in which you could get past your past, and move on to the next stage in your life as a beginning almost rather an end. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I saw it more as an experience of spiritual purity. That’s one of the huge distinctions. It depends on how you interpret experience because if you interpret homelessness as your failure, you’re a loser, or it’s the end, then that’s going to lead you to some dark places, which often manifests in things like suicide or addictions. I say this with respect for everyone. It was my spiritual perspective on the process that made me healthy with it. I felt I deserve this. I put myself here. I’ve also done some wrong things to certain people, which I’m very sorry for. There was no resistance for me. It wasn’t like, \u201cI’m homeless. This is terrible.\u201d I had this coming. I’m going to take my punishment, learn from it, and see what path the universe wants me to walk on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You took responsibility and then you moved on to the next stage of your life. Tell us about the vision for the business, about the business, and how the business relates to the community generally. We love to learn more.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>You get a lot of motivation when you\u2019re following your life\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I’ve always coached my whole life. When I was in the Army, I’d always be training people and looking after people. Whenever I had jobs, be it pre-Army or post-Army, it doesn’t matter what I was doing, I would always be supervising staff. People would always put stuff under me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It sounds like you’re a leader from a young age.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before I joined the Army, I used to work in a supermarket. They wouldn’t pay me any extra or the same as the manager but they\u2019re like, \u201cEddie, can you look after these three staff members? Show them how you do things. We’re still going to pay you $7 an hour. We love you, Eddie, go do it.\u201d It was quite funny.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Of course, you went for that. You didn’t push back and say, \u201cCould I get an extra buck?\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No, it was a job. What was interesting about it is I realized that you can turn coaching into a profession. That’s the path that I walked on. I decided that even if I could go back to my old life, I didn’t want it. I wanted to go in a whole new fresh direction based on what God and the universe is telling me. It wasn’t so much like, \u201cI want to do this because I’m able to and I’m awesome,\u201d because I’m not egotistical like that. That was more like, \u201cWhere does the grand design want to take me?\u201d I start following that. It wasn’t that I was being pushed. I was being pulled in that direction. I was letting the universe and God highlight the path for me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tell us about the business. Tell us about Meetup\u2019s role in the business and the community’s role. I’d love to learn more. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I started as a coach, I realized quickly that I need to go networking to meet customers to get my business off the ground. I started doing that. I did quite well. I originally got involved in a lot of business chambers that helped me take off my business and meet lots of people. In terms of community, I came across a few people who were doing Meetup somewhere else. I realized early on that Meetup can be the platform and the community that can help me build my own community. Instead of me going to chambers and feeding off everyone else’s community like a parasite, I can build my own community. Meetup is the ultimate means of doing that. Over a few years, I started testing a few different Meetups. Eventually, I started building my community and it helped me become a full-time $10,000-plus per month successful coach. It transformed my life. A very few people earn more than $10,000 a month and be, let alone coaches doing it for themselves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the name of your Meetup group? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It’s now called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/profitable-marketing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Profitable Marketing with Lassie and Edward Zia<\/u><\/a> because I then met a wonderful woman through Meetup who then married me. She’s now part of the business. It’s like a Bonnie and Clyde, husband and wife team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You met your wife through Meetup as well. You beat me there in terms of the impact that Meetup has on one’s life. You’re an expert in many areas but let’s talk about a couple. Let’s start with marketing, influencer marketing, and being an influencer. For those Meetup members and organizers, what advice would you give a Meetup organizer to be most effective in marketing their Meetup group? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first thing is to have a clear identity and purpose for a group. If it’s a networking group, you say it. If it’s a book club or a tech talk on a Microsoft product, you say it. You’ve got to be accurate in what the actual event is, so when you put that event out there, you attract the right people to it so people have the experience that they’re looking for.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Event description and naming convention are important. Don’t hide the most important. Don’t make people search to figure out what something is, just be right out there. Any other marketing advice you would give for community organizers? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Once you’ve got that clarity, the idea is always book at least three Meetup events in advance so people can see a schedule of what’s coming up, then you’ve got to market the heck out of it. There are quite a few ways of marketing, but I’ll tell you at least that we’ve done very successfully. Once you put an event on Meetup, you’ll get the link for that Meetup event. If you send that link to someone, they can book in for the sake of the audience. What you then do is share it everywhere. For example, I share my Meetup events every day on LinkedIn and Facebook. I also personally message people. If I’ve got an event coming up and I know someone will love it, I’ll say, \u201cDavid, I\u2019ve got a Meetup coming up in Melbourne or Sydney. Do you want to come? Book here.\u201d Part of our strategy is I send out at least 50 personal messages a day and it works well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are many things to talk about, but the other area that many of our readers could learn from you is around networking. You are not just an amazing marketer, and obviously, networking and marketing are related. Let’s talk about a couple of things. First, for people who may not be as outgoing as you, what could they do to be an effective networker, both during COVID and post-COVID? What advice would you have for people who have a little more challenges in networking than someone who is a little bit more natural like us? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Even lockdown is affecting us in border closures in Australia. I’ll give the COVID answer then the no-COVID answer. In the COVID scenario, you can use Meetup to heaps of Zooms from across the world. In Zoom, you don’t have to turn your webcam on. If you’re nervous, you might leave it on a black screen and just have your portrait and do audio-only. For example, using Meetup, we run networking Zooms every Thursday at 6:00 PM, Sydney time. Some people will sit there and look a few times. Two or three meetings, they sit there and listen without the webcam even on. They’ll not turn on their webcam. You can go to Zooms, look, get a feel for it, and slowly bring yourself into it when you feel comfortable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s great advice during this time for people to feel more comfortable sharing about themselves. Tell us about the post-COVID. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the post-COVID world, if you’re going to a face-to-face event, search your local area for Meetups. Find a good local Meetup that looks good, looks reputable, and visit it. Take it easy and see how you go. If it works for you, stick around. If not, move on. That’s a good thing to do. Let’s say if you’re in a small country town or a place where there is no Meetup group, you might consider starting your own. If you’re not ready for that, join or visit your local business chamber. See if there are any business networking events nearby that suit you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thank you. I knew you would have some gold for all of us to learn. You run an incredibly successful community and you have run many other communities in the past. What do you think is the number one most important ingredient to a successful community? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I’m going to give a David Siegel answer here. I’m going to rip you off here. I’m going to imitate David Siegel. It all starts with culture, the vibe you set, and the experience you put through to people around you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I definitely have said things similar. I appreciate that you mirrored something that I certainly believe, which is one sets a certain environment. If you set an environment of vulnerability, trust, safety, or respect, then you get the right types of people. Every other people hopefully learn from those people. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In our community, we’re all about inclusiveness. Over half of the people are people of color. They’re men, women, and LGBTQI+. They feel comfortable. They tell me straight up saying, \u201cWhat we love about your group is that everyone is welcome.\u201d To me, being inclusive and open to everyone is very important. What we’re about is, if you’re a nice person, you’re welcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That’s a good message for life. Trying to surround oneself in all aspects of life. If we\u2019re kind and nice people, it’s a good way to lead a kinder and nice life. Whether it’s Meetup, general community or life, that’s wonderful advice. Thank you. Let’s talk a little bit about something that you referenced in your personal life early on if you don’t mind. If you do, please don’t feel that you need to expound upon it. I don’t know whether homelessness is a major issue in Sydney as much as it is in New York City or the other major cities in America. Do you have thoughts on what the world can do, what we can do, what an individual can do related to what you happen to have gone through at that point of time in your life? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It’s funny you ask that because, in full disclosure, I’m a member of the Australian Liberal Party. I’ve been on panels talking about homelessness. I’m quite an active political activist on this issue. You’re talking to the right person. I was going to say this respectfully to anyone reading, when I’ve given commentary on homelessness, it’s a huge complex area. There is a whole range of contributors that wind up to homelessness. You can’t solve a complex problem with simple answers. It doesn’t work like that. You\u2019ve got to approach these situations respectfully. There are a lot of contributors to it. There are two sides to it. The government needs to do more but also the individual and personal responsibility need to step up. I’ve seen both fail and both of them need to come together to improve the situation of homelessness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You talk a lot about personal responsibility. This has been woven through this entire conversation. When it comes to personal responsibility, is it something that you have or don’t have? Are there any other paths besides the spiritual path towards taking on personal responsibility? As I’m hearing from you, it’s something that\u2019s critical to everyone’s life. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s especially key to leadership. Where success all begins, be it spiritual or financial success, looking at yourself, you’re an absolute global tech leader and you’re the embodiment of personal responsibility. It all starts with looking in the mirror and saying, \u201cHow can I change and what do I need to do?\u201d That’s where it all begins.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your leadership in community, coaching, and personal responsibility is something we could all learn from. I’d love to hear some examples of some people who have attended your Meetup groups. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a few Meetups, we’ve had a bunch of couples forming. I run more business networking Meetups and we’ve had all these awesome couples form. I’ve even had quite a few friends saying, \u201cI’ve met someone new.\u201d I’m like, \u201cCongratulations.\u201d It’s like, \u201cCan I tell you something?\u201d They\u2019re looking around like this and I go, \u201cYes.\u201d \u201cYou won’t tell anyone, right?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cIt’s my first gay relationship.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cGood for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>One of the things I’ve always believed about Meetup and community in general is it helps you to become the person you’ve always wanted to be. It helps you to figure out who you ultimately are. What you gave is a beautiful example of someone being able to figure out the life for themselves and who they want to be and who they want to be with. That’s awesome that that has come from Meetup groups. It’s amazing. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I run business networking events. I’m a business guy but I’ve helped a lot of people come out lately. I’m the guy to come out on which is funny. I’m all for it, whatever it is. At the end of the day, I’m in the lovers\u2019 love club. If you’re gay, straight, or bi, I don’t care. I’m all about love is love. I have a lot of that lately. In the experience of that, I’ve had several Meetup in our communities. We had people to help explore their relationship identity. From a business point of view, it’s also helped people connect in business to help them become clients of each other, form relationships and collaborations. We’ve also have been a platform for a lot of otherwise marginalized people, and that’s all enabled through the Meetup platform. How are you, David?<\/p>\n<p><strong>It’s definitely not power to me. It’s certainly much more power to our founder and our employees. Whenever you talk to me and you tell me about the goal is to be able to democratize, you’ve said this to me. Democratizing access to information. Democratizing learning and giving people the opportunity who don’t necessarily have the means to be able to go to university or to speak with highly educated or experienced individuals. It’s a great learning opportunity. If you could elaborate a little bit about that as well, that would be helpful. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I’ll give an example and I was thinking of it. There are two ways you’re going to run a meetup these days. You’re going to run it either using Zoom or you’re going to run it face-to-face, and I do both. There are pros and cons to both. The way it works face-to-face is that we do all our Meetups for free. We’re very big on that. What that allows you to do is because you run your meetups for free, you can approach venues. For example, one of our Australian sponsors is Novotel. The beautiful Accor French Hotels, they\u2019re one of our Australian sponsors. When you run free events, it allows you to approach a venue and say, \u201cWe’re running this event for free to support the community. Can you sponsor us?\u201d A lot of the time, they say yes. If you’re charging for a Meetup and you ask for a free venue, they’ll rightfully fold their arms and go, \u201cWhere’s our cut?\u201d If you’re doing it free as a service for the community, even the top hotels have no problem, provided you\u2019re reputable and you know what you’re doing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It brings people into the hotel which is a nice thing too. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That’s what we do with the Novotel. We run events at Novotels in Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, and people usually spend at least $30 to $40 per visit because they’ll start drinking and eat their meals. It’s good for Novotel. The point is that you make the events for free and it’s up to people whether they eat or drink or not. If someone got no money, they can sit there and drink water and have a good experience. If someone is loaded, they can sit there and get some Dom P\u00e9rignon and lobsters, and have a good time.<\/p>\n<p>The point is you’ve got a platform that’s democratic that allows access of everyone. What I found with Meetup is that you get two types of new people. You get people who are not from Australia that arrive in Sydney or you get a lot of people who come to Sydney that are not from Sydney originally. They don’t know anyone. You’re helping a lot of marginalized people find their place in society. You\u2019re also giving them the platform to meet people, learn new ideas, take off, and build success. At the same time, if you’re at the center of that, you become very famous too because you’re the person making that all happen which I certainly most am.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Where success all begins, be it spiritual or financial success, is looking at yourself.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>You are famous within Sydney. I do know that. Increasingly, within Australia and I am excited to see where you and the world take each other over the next months and years. Before I go into some rapid-fire questions that I’m going to hit you with, is there any message that we didn’t talk about yet that you wanted to share regarding keeping connected, learning community in general? Anything else that would be helpful for our audience to know from you? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I’ll say in terms of Meetup, what I encourage anyone to do, be it if you’re from a small country town or you’re in a big international city like me, or a medium-sized city by American standards, what’s important is to consider starting your own Meetup. It can be a group of you meeting for coffee and you can have meetups on almost any topic. What I say is if you’re into something, chances are there are other people into the same topics. It might be coffee and chat. It might be something quite small or you might be a bit of a big top of town player. You might try and put big parties together like I used to before the virus hits. Take action and start your own Meetup.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Take action. I love it. We did not suggest, Ed, to say that at all. This is someone who loves Meetup up there in the top of the world. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nobody loves Meetup more than me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We know that at this point in time. Here we go. Some rapid-fire questions for you, Ed. One time the community has helped you the most in your life? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I had no clients, the community helped me take off and build a massive business.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Number two, your favorite quote? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I love Elon Musk\u2019s quote where he says, \u201cDon’t listen to everyone, just keep innovating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>That definitely sounds something Elon Musk would say. I would agree. Tell me about your first job. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My first job was picking fruit on a farm with a lot of Vietnamese immigrants, I got horribly sunburned. I made little money because I could not pick as fast as my awesome Vietnamese friends.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you learn some Vietnamese? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No, I was terrible. I’m horrible at languages. They’re smart and I’m very silly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I believe that. If you could think about the hundreds of events that you’ve hosted and attended. We looked and you’ve attended over 1,000 Meetup events which is extraordinary. Is there one that stands out in your mind as a special event that was particularly impactful? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This inspires my own event. Big shout to Dennis De Silva. He doesn’t run them anymore but he used to run these big events about digital influence. He had quite a bit of money, but he’d get hundreds of people in a room. He’d get politicians to come and speak at it. He’d bring everyone together and give tips on digital marketing. He had a good community. That has a big impact to me. That inspired what I was doing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You sat there in the audience and said to yourself, \u201cI want to do what he\u2019s doing.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, he doesn’t run them anymore. He stopped running it. His model was awesome but it was so flash and big, it was unsustainable. It was a good model at its time but it didn’t last because it was too big, too cumbersome, and too expensive to pull off.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I’ll tell you, how many people would say that they’ve been to one of your events and that was the best event that they had, and they decided, \u201cI want to do what Ed does.\u201d Talking about paying it forward. It’s an awesome thing. Last rapid-fire question and maybe the firing isn\u2019t too rapid. When was the first time you saw yourself as a leader? Was it back in the supermarket days or even before that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4209\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4209\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4209\" src=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2KCMCaption2.jpg\" alt=\"KCM 2 | Meetup Community\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2KCMCaption2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2KCMCaption2-473x315.jpg 473w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4209\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meetup Community: A successful community starts with culture, the vibe you set, and the experience you put through to people around you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I’ll say post-homelessness is when I used to see myself as a leader. Probably when I started running my own Meetups, that’s when I felt like a community leader and I’m getting back on the stage. Now I’m a global community leader. I’ve got over 100,000 followers on LinkedIn. It’s that original feeling of leadership that Meetup gave me that has transcended into global success as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I’m intrigued to hear this, which is a final question. How does Ed Zia want to be remembered? God-willing, 100-plus years, looking back, what do you want the most be remembered by? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For me, I’ll live to 100-plus because I should be dead by now. I’ve clearly got an angel on my shoulder. My view is as long as I’m useful to the universe, I’ll be around to 100. The moment I stopped becoming useful, I’ll disappear. I want to be remembered as someone who\u2019s a community builder. If I died in the next ten minutes, I’ll still be remembered as that, so mission achieved.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You will be remembered for that. It’s going to be exciting to watch you and watch everything that you do. I enjoyed this conversation just like I enjoy every and any conversations with you anytime I get to watch your videos and be a part of your Meetup groups. You are someone who is an inspiration to many people who are going through challenges, who will go through challenges. Your sense of responsibility and your sense of helping people comes through in everything that you do. I wanted to thank you on behalf of Meetup, on behalf of our show. We’re very lucky to spend time with you. Thank you. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thank you and right back at you. Your leadership of Meetup through the COVID pandemic has been extraordinary. How you’ve turned Meetup from a face-to-face platform to a full-on global online platform is a stroke of genius. I’m not the only person saying that your leadership in these times has been tremendous. Your leadership has given us the better platform to achieve what we want to do. Power to you and it’s an absolute honor and privilege.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thank you so much. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">—<\/p>\n<p>Thanks, everyone. Every time I talked to him, I personally feel energized and excited. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who loves Meetup as much as this man loves Meetup. It’s quite special. His advice specifically around networking, his advice around marketing, his thoughtfulness around personal responsibility are something that I took away from this episode. I want to encourage you to reach out, subscribe and keep connected. You don’t want to miss an episode. By subscribing, we will make sure that you don’t. If you have a review on this episode, share it, give us five stars. We’ll take it. Remember, let’s keep connected because life is always better together.<\/p>\n<h3> Important Links:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.excellenceabove.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Ed Zia<\/u><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/profitable-marketing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Profitable Marketing with Lassie and Edward Zia<\/u><\/a> – Meetup<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>About Edward Zia<\/h3>\n<h3><span class=\"lt-line-clamp__raw-line\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4207\" src=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Edward-Zia-560x315.jpg\" alt=\"KCM 2 | Meetup Community\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Edward-Zia-560x315.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Edward-Zia-1120x630.jpg 1120w, https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Edward-Zia-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Edward-Zia-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Edward-Zia-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Edward-Zia-565x315.jpg 565w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"lt-line-clamp__raw-line\">Edward Zia loves Creating Master Persuaders & Influencers\u2122 “Let excellence be your brand…when you are excellent, you become unforgettable.” – Oprah Winfrey Ed’s a Marketing Mentor Certified Practising Marketer (CPM) & Master Coach and has mentored thousands of winners globally to help them get more clients, win top positions and become leading personal brands. As Master Grade Coach, Edward has exceeded the threshold of 10,000+ Personal Coaching Hours making him a leader in his field. He’s helped generate over $160 Million in his career and loves it. Prior to Edward starting his own company Excellence Above Coaching; he started his working career in the Australian Army as a Combat Engineer. He was grateful to be invited to work in the Federal Government on special projects in Drug Enforcement, fighting Organised Crime, and preventing Terrorism. Edward has lived many lives with incredible ups and downs from being at the bottom of society and doing it tough; walking the mean streets finding out information to protect the public, right through to managing teams of elite professionals, and helping thousands build bigger businesses. Edward works directly with key organizations such as Microsoft, Meetup, WeWork, LinkedIn, NSW Business Chamber, the Australian Government, and more to get the latest knowledge and support great people. This also includes his charitable works as a proud Christian, helping the global community thrive. You\u2019re very invited to connect with Edward on LinkedIn and get in touch with him at edward@excellenceabove.com.au \/ +61 458 310 670 (Phone & WhatsApp)<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-excerpt\"><p>“I want to be remembered as somebody who\u2019s a community builder.” \u2014Edward Zia<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":5731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Episode 2: Finding Yourself Through Community<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"International Master Coach and Marketing Mentor Edward Zia shares his inspiring journey of finding community in Meetup and building his business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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