Launch sooner, energize members, and build your next revenue stream. This practical workbook takes you through the process step by step.

You're not alone if you feel defeated as you build an online community. Most new community builders have big ideas but struggle to launch them.

Tech options are overwhelming, approaching your audience takes courage, and scaling a business doesn’t come easily. Meanwhile, you may be missing out on income you could earn by launching faster, growing sooner, and creating transformation for your members.

Hi, I’m Deb Schell. I started my community to solve a problem I once had. (Sound familiar?) For me, that problem was the anxiety and frustration I experienced when I launched my first community . . . to the silence of crickets. It felt like a failure.

Now, I consult with purpose-driven community builders. 

We find calm in building, launching, and growing their online communities. But my clients aren’t just here to turn a quick buck. They have a solution their people need and are committed to making a real difference in their lives. 

Bringing these leaders together is my mission, which evolved from my 20-year career as a writer, creator, and designer.

At Find Calm Here, we work with small business owners, community leaders, organizations, and non-profits who want to bring their clients, customers, or prospects together inside an online community.

Many clients we work with have a purpose-driven community concept and aim to provide value to these members with content, peer-to-peer support, resources, and the ability to share experiences that benefit the organization while empowering the members to share how their life has benefited from the content, programs, or education within the online community.

Why You Need It

The business owners, leaders, and teams I serve inspire me daily. As purpose-driven changemakers, they’re the last people who should be wasting time. Launching their first online community shouldn’t be guesswork, nor should yours.

If you’re like most of my clients, you’ve been dreaming of your community for a while. Maybe you’ve taken the first steps, then been overwhelmed by all the details.

But you know your people, and they keep coming to you. They’re seeking the knowledge and wisdom you’ve gained professionally and personally, often through experiencing some pain yourself.

You’ve been yearning to bring them together. You know deep down what a difference it could make--for them, for you, and for the powerful ideas running in your head.

Transformation doesn’t happen when we’re alone. It happens in the community.

• It’s time to unite your people to exchange ideas, encourage each other, and learn from you.
• It’s time to build a consistent income stream to keep your work going well into the future. And with consistency comes flexibility in how you spend your time and energy.
• It’s time to stop letting obstacles get in the way. It’s time to get started!

What This Book Is

I designed this guide to help you take action, launch sooner, and create an additional revenue stream for your business. Let it be your trusty companion over the coming days, weeks, and months as you move through the steps individually. Let it help you save time and--hopefully--find some calm, joy, and ease along the way.

• Its worksheets, templates, and resources provide a structure for organizing your many ideas with a process that’s as seamless as possible. Though your community will bring your unique solution to the world, you don’t have to reinvent the architecture of what makes an online community successful.

Use the book’s tools to build a strategy that invites your members to connect authentically, no matter where they live and work. Let it support you as you distill your creativity into a design that works for them. From live events to asynchronous discussions, the book will prompt you to design a format that meets their needs.

After all, the members who participate entirely keep coming back, ultimately becoming your biggest advocates.

What This Book Isn’t

If you’re looking for get-rich-quick advice, this book isn’t for you. Building a community isn’t easy, and it doesn’t happen overnight. But it can be one of the most rewarding ways to spend your precious time, and you can leverage it to exit the treadmill of working on someone else’s time frame.

Here's the Problem: The online community industry is still relatively new. Not only that, but it’s evolving in real time. New platforms are constantly emerging, and it can be tough to know where to start.

Business owners leaders and hear the buzzword community, but many don't know how a community could bring new and repeat business.

So many founders are stuck in the "shiny new thing" that they can't seem to move forward with developing a strategy for launching an online community.

The struggle for new community builders:

• Bombarded by platform options and tech details
• Feel overwhelmed by planning and promoting a launch
• Have no idea how to onboard and engage new members
• The question of whether the community will provide a return on investment
• Launch so quickly that strategy gets ignored

The Solution for Creators who want to build an online community

This book takes the guesswork out of community building by offering a strategic approach to developing it, from concept to growth.

Any online community must start with purpose. After getting clear on yours, you’ll validate your concept by inviting potential ideal members into a conversation. Using surveys and other tools, you will set the foundation of your community’s concept and structure.

Validating before building is key!

It provides valuable feedback that can save you thousands of dollars and months of wasted time on a model that needs tweaking.

• Many clients start by thinking they need tons of content.
• People need to connect, not only consume.
• This guide helps you think through the balance of content and engagement

Not only that, but you don’t have to spend hours and hours, locked in front of your computer creating “perfect” content. Instead, you can free yourself to consider new, curated ideas that save time and involve your community. Work through the exercises to find what works for you.

You can create curated content from interviews with community stakeholders, focus groups, and virtual surveys. Once it exists, you can save even more time by repurposing it! Use it to promote your community to clients, email subscribers, and social media followers.

And here’s a hint: There’s no such thing as perfect, anyway! According to the leaders in my own community, letting go of perfection is key to success. 

People don't collaborate with one another because they want or need perfect experiences. And they don’t join communities because of a shiny new tech gadget.

Instead, the guide will help you focus on building a safe space where your people feel seen, valued, and heard.