Meet Our Team: Travis King, Community Management Specialist
- Kristin Brodie
- November 21, 2023
- read
In a land far far away (from most things), in a small town in Saskatchewan Canada, lives Travis King, our Community Management Specialist. Travis has worked with Envato in a variety of roles for over 15 years. This makes him one of Envato’s longest-serving members, and an expert on all things Envato Author Community!
You might have come across Travis before, if you’ve visited the Envato forums, where he goes by the name KingDog. On the forums, Travis has created over 3 thousand posts, and has read over 130 thousand posts! Travis also runs our moderator program, which recruits volunteers from all over the world to moderate our forums.
Throughout his time at Envato, Travis has cultivated great relationships with members of our community from all over the world. So, let’s hear from him…
We have Authors from all around the world and to have a glimpse into their lives, loves and struggles is such a wonderful thing.
Travis King Community Management Specialist, Envato
Background
Tell us a little bit about your background.
I come from the cold heart of Canada where I cut down trees and press wild flowers. Well not really. Mostly.
I do make the centre of Canada my home. But rather than flower pressing, I spend my time doing photography and videography, which I love. I’m also a certified travel bug: I love to travel and discover new and exciting destinations.
I live on a small acreage in the middle of the Canadian nowhere, which is great to get away from the hustle and noise of the city.
Living in the middle of nowhere makes it difficult to access an airport to travel from. Luckily I’m blessed with a very capable and experienced dog sled team.
How did you get started with Envato?
I found Envato (or Eden as it was known then) when I was researching how to become self-employed. At the time I didn’t realize that being self-employed could also be called becoming a freelancer, and that’s when I stumbled upon FreelanceSwitch.
The site was incredibly helpful in teaching me about establishing myself as a web designer. Before long, I became involved in the FreelanceSwitch community. I began writing for the site.
Naturally, that led me to ThemeForest. I began using it to purchase theme for my new web clients. Eventually, I started to pick up odd jobs for Envato as well.
I was impressed by Envato’s values of giving back and making it possible for people to earn a living no matter where they lived in the world. These made me strongly drawn to continue to work with Envato.
After collecting many odd jobs at Envato over the years, I was eventually asked if I wanted to join the team officially. I became part of the Community team, where I’ve been ever since—although the name and structure of the team has changed a few times!
Come to think of it, it’s possible that Envato’s billing department got tired of me sending in 30 little invoices a month. It would have made their lives easier if I was just part of one team!
What do you do day to day at Envato?
Officially, my role is ‘Community Management Specialist’ in the Author Engagement team.
Day to day usually finds me on the forums reading and responding to threads as well as helping the Moderation team do the incredible job they do. We definitely couldn’t do it without them.
I also help with Marketing initiatives like Free Files of the Month as well as help run community contests and make and monitor announcements to the community.
Working on the Author Engagement Team requires a lot of reading, researching and listening to our Author’s concerns. On top of that you need to serve as a go-between for the businesses’ concerns as well as the Authors.
I’ve always been proud that Envato is willing to listen to the community. With a community as big as Envato’s, it’s pretty much a guarantee that not every decision will satisfy everyone. However, I feel proud with how often the business is willing to make changes based on the feedback that our team brings forward.
Community Management
Tell us about the moderators!
Our Mods are incredible people who help keep the community running smoothly and safely. They live all around the world so they can give 24/7 coverage of everything that’s going on in the forums.
Many of them have been with us for many years and I’m under the assumption that I’ll be able to move in with them if I lose my job.
In your opinion, what are the factors that are most likely to make a community “successful”?
Community doesn’t depend on size or engagement alone. Our community has been through many things together and that makes for a shared interest and investment.
The killer of community is apathy, so I’d rather see our community vocal and upset about something than disinterested. That’s how I would measure an engaged community.
The killer of community is apathy…I’d rather see our community vocal and upset about something than disinterested.
Travis King Community Management Specialist, Envato
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen on the Envato forums?
We had a runaway meme thread that exploded with some of the most creative and bizarre posts I’ve ever seen. It happened organically and became one of our biggest threads. That was really fun.
I think the strangest thing I’ve ever seen is the occasional threat that the FBI are on their way to arrest me. Hopefully they have all their paperwork and warrants completed before they arrive at the Canadian border. I would hate to see them detained by the Mounties.
What’s your favorite thing about the Envato Author community?
The Authors and their stories are always number one for me. We have Authors from all around the world and to have a glimpse into their lives, loves and struggles is such a wonderful thing.
I never forget that our community is not made up of numbers and spreadsheets. It’s made up of real people with real families. We we rely on each other to make a success of this.
I usually finish these interviews by asking people what they would like to share with the Author community. You’re in a position where you share with the community often. So, instead: what do you wish the Author community listened to you about?
I know it’s a bit of a cliché to ask the community to trust us, particularly when we have to make big changes. The industry is moving so fast at the moment and it can feel like sometimes things don’t always benefit Authors and customers equally.
But I’ve been with this community for a long time and I care about it deeply. The community’s voice and needs are very important to us. So I’d like to assure the community that we really care and wherever they’re struggling to just reach out and let me know.
Also, reach out if you need a killer Old Fashioned recipe.
Did you enjoy getting to know Travis? Well, good news: we have plenty of Meet Our Team articles. Check them out below, and get to know more of the wonderful people at Envato!
If you’re a photo or video Author, you might like to Meet Javier, our Photo & Video Review Team Lead. Motion graphics wizards should check out our chat with Tyson Frantz, a motion graphics reviewer. If graphics are your thing, then check out our chat with Monie Arreola. If web and code is more your style, you’ll find our chat with Roberto Hernández super helpful!
