Deb Schell

130 Interviews, 19,000 Downloads: The Community Strategy Podcast

A long-running interview series that became my best writing classroom.

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The brief
I'd been hosting workshops inside an online community I ran, and members kept telling me the same thing: they wanted a version they could listen to on their own time. I had a journalism degree and years of interview experience, what I didn't have was a podcast. I decided the reporting was the part that mattered and the rest I could figure out.The approach
Every episode started the way every piece of journalism starts: with research on the guest, a working thesis for the conversation, and questions designed to get past the answers they'd already given on other shows.I wrote intake forms that made guests do useful prep work before we ever recorded. I wrote episode framings that told listeners why this person, why this topic, why now. The audio was the surface; the editorial work underneath was the reason people kept coming back.Over the run of the show I landed guests including the former CEO of Meetup, and I used the interview archive as source material for a book I later wrote, turning podcast conversations into quoted expertise, case studies, and chapter arcs.The work
130+ interview episodes, researched, scripted, and hostedGuest intake forms and pre-interview prep materialsEpisode descriptions, show notes, and promotional copyCross-channel distribution writing across email and socialInterview transcripts repurposed as source material for Creator to Community BuilderThe outcome
Nearly 19,000 downloads, a guest roster that included industry leaders, and an interview archive substantial enough to feed a published book.The skill I was most nervous about, being on the mic, turned out to matter less than the one I'd been training for a decade: asking the next question.

Case Study: Scaling an International Community from 6 Founders to 150+ Members

Cofounding the editorial operation for a global community of mission-driven practitioners.

The brief
Community Consultants Collective started as six founders with a shared conviction, that community-building as a practice deserved its own professional home, and very little else.No audience, no editorial voice, no publishing rhythm. We needed to grow it into an international membership organization, and the way we were going to get there was content. Every new member had to find us through writing before they ever found us through a conversation.The approach
As cofounder with full editorial ownership, I built the content operation from the first post onward. That meant deciding what the Collective sounded like before it sounded like anything, drafting a voice that could carry across six founding perspectives without flattening into consensus mush, and then holding that voice as we scaled internationally and the range of member contexts kept widening.The work ran on a consistent editorial calendar across website, email, blog, and social. I built reusable frameworks and templates so the voice could scale with the membership, not degrade under it, and maintained the CMS so the archive stayed accessible and coherent as it grew.The work
Editorial calendar across website, blog, email, and social — owned end to endBrand voice and editorial standards for a six-founder collective
Reusable content frameworks and templates supporting international expansionSEO-optimized blog and website content on a consistent publishing rhythm, including
Proposal Writing Tips for Consultants, Navigating Partnerships: A Consultant's Roadmap to Success with Platform ProvidersA look back at 2023: Community Highlights and Member Spotlights
Cross-functional editorial collaboration with founding leadershipThe outcome
Growth from 6 founders to 150+ international members, sustained by a voice and a publishing cadence that the organization could keep using after I stepped back from day-to-day operations.

Case Study: Reactivating 8K Dormant Members Through Strategic Community Redesign

A 60-day project combining user research, content reorganization, and engagement campaigns to revive a stagnant online community.

The brief
My client had an audience of nearly 8,000 members who had stopped showing up. The list wasn't dead, it was drifting. He wanted them re-engaged and moving toward paid programs, and he handed me the goal with the strategy and execution wide open.The approach
I started by reporting. I ran a survey across the community and his email list to hear, in members' own words, what they actually wanted from him, not what we assumed they wanted. The responses pointed clearly at one thing: consistent, low-friction daily touch points. Not another long-form course. Not another webinar. Something small, daily, and grounding.
That shaped the editorial decision. I built a 21-day meditation series, one short piece of writing per day, designed to rebuild the habit of opening his messages. Each day had to stand on its own while laddering into an arc that gave members a reason to come back tomorrow. I also reorganized the surrounding content so the new series landed inside a structure that made sense, rather than into the clutter that had caused the drift in the first place.The work
21 daily meditation pieces, written as a connected series with a narrative arcSurvey design, distribution, and synthesis into an editorial briefContent reorganization and information architecture across the member-facing library
Re-engagement email sequence introducing the series to dormant subscribersThe outcome
Significant lift in daily engagement and member reactivation, and a measurable increase in conversions from free audience to paid programs, driven by a piece of writing the audience had effectively told us to make.

Case Study: Launch Copy That Sold Out a Coaching Certification Pre-Launch ($20K+)

Email, onboarding, and community writing for an 8-week launch window.

The brief
A coaching certification program was heading into a pre-launch with a fragmented setup, courses living on one platform, community on another, and 8 weeks to pull it together. The client needed someone who could write the launch copy that sold the program and the member-facing content that would hold it together after enrollment. Two audiences, one voice, one deadline.The approach
I started with intake interviews to hear how the client talked about the program when she wasn't pitching it, the phrases she used, the transformations she described, the words her existing students used back to her. That became the voice foundation for everything downstream. From there I planned the writing in two tracks: the pre-launch copy aimed at prospects considering the certification, and the onboarding and community-guideline writing aimed at members once they enrolled.Both tracks had to sound like one person. I wrote them in parallel so the voice a reader met in a sales email was the same voice that welcomed them into the program on day one.The work
Pre-launch email sequence and program sales copy
Onboarding content for new certification members
Community guidelines and welcome writing
Course page copy and structural writing across migrated materialsThe outcome
The pre-launch sold out, generating $20K+ in revenue, and members entered a program whose voice was consistent from the first email they received to the last page of onboarding.

Case Study: Launch Content for a County-Wide Community Initiative

Writing across email, partner materials, and a 30-day launch campaign for a CARES Act-funded platform.

The brief
A county recreation board had CARES Act funding to launch a virtual hub connecting residents with local businesses and non-profits. They had the vision and the budget; they needed someone who could write for three very different audiences, county officials, small business owners, and residents, and make all three feel invited to the same table.The approach
I spent the early weeks interviewing stakeholders: what the county needed this to accomplish, what local businesses were nervous about, what would make a resident actually open an invitation email. Three audiences meant three registers, but one platform meant the registers had to harmonize, not clash. I wrote toward a voice that was civic without being stiff, warm without being folksy.
The January launch was built around a 30-day challenge, editorial content designed to give residents a reason to show up daily for a month, long enough for the habit of checking the hub to take hold.The work
Partner-facing presentation copy and outreach materials for businesses and non-profitsEmail invitations and launch sequence for residentsDemo video script showcasing the hubResource library writing and content curation30-day challenge content and supporting email notificationsThe outcome
The hub launched on time with partners onboarded and residents engaged from day one. The county had a functional digital commons, and a content framework they could keep using as new offerings rolled in.