Turn Your Audience Into Loyal Customers
I help brands transform audiences into communities that create loyal customers and drive long-term business growth.
Build stronger customer relationships, increase retention, and create a business people choose to return to—not just follow.
AI informs. Community transforms.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The way businesses grow is changing.
For years, brands have focused on growing audiences—more followers, more subscribers, more email addresses.
Those channels still matter.
But they're no longer enough on their own.
As AI makes it easier to create content and automate communication, the businesses that stand out won't simply have the largest audiences.
They'll have the strongest relationships.
Community isn't about replacing email or social media.
It's about giving your audience a place to belong, participate, and return.
Because stronger relationships lead to stronger retention, advocacy, and long-term business growth.
The AI era is changing how businesses compete. Relationships are becoming the competitive advantage.
I’m Megan Smolen and I’ve turned my desire to create and build extraordinary communities into a thriving consulting practice.
I’ve worked on creating communities for over 17 years and I’m taking the knowledge, skills, and expertise I’ve gained in traditional work settings to help strategically advise on growing more unique and successful communities.
Over the years, I’ve grown multiple communities from a thousand members to a few million; including a career platform, an e-commerce business, and a digital media brand. The common threads between these diverse brands include active and engaged members to support the company’s visions and goals. Because when a community thrives, so does the business’s bottom line.
I’ve learned what it’s like to support the growth of a community and I’m excited to share useful tricks and tools within my consulting practice, doing work that I love and am proud of. Now, I’m excited to share what I’ve learned with you so that your community will successfully rise.
Rise Community Consulting is a one-stop resource to overcome the challenges of creating a unique, engaged community. This leads to enthusiastic customers, adding remarkable value to the product experience through acquisition, expansion, and retention. Because a successful community is a powerful way to build a business.
After spending nearly two decades helping organizations build communities, I've noticed three patterns.
Most businesses already have an audience
Very few have a place where relationships grow
Brands that intentionally invest in relationships consistently create more loyal customers
Megan Smolen
CEO & Founder
Community Creates Business Value
-
MARKETING
Build trust through authentic customer stories.
-
CUSTOMER SUCCESS
Create spaces where customers help one another succeed.
-
PRODUCT
Learn directly from the people you serve.
-
LEADERSHIP
Strengthen customer loyalty while creating long-term business value.
-
GROWTH
Increase retention, referrals, and advocacy.
“Megan's expertise and dedication were instrumental in bringing our women in tech platform from concept to reality. Her seamless navigation through the entire process, from discovery to launch, coupled with her insightful strategy and meticulous execution, truly made her an invaluable partner to our success. We have loved working with Megan and look forward to our continued growth with her."
Kayleigh Bateman
Content Director at SheCanCode
“I worked with Megan for years and she is truly one of the most enthusiastic and focused people I know. Megan is skilled at envisioning a plan and executing it to perfection. I watched her build an engaged and thoughtful community online that was bold enough to meet offline and in person on regular occasions.”
Emily Mercedes
Head Editor at Chive Media Group
Create a community that builds value back into your business.
RISE FRAMEWORK
Reach people.
Invite them in.
Strengthen relationships.
Expand business growth.
-
Starting A Community
No Community? No problem. To start, we’ll take a holistic view of the company’s values, challenges and goals to get a better sense of how to merge community with the results your business needs. From community idea to vision to execution to key results, we’ll collaborate on a custom community plan that’s exciting and manageable for you.
-
Improving Your Community
Want to improve your community? I’ll begin with a complete community analysis by evaluating existing details and data. From community programs and member surveys to content and engagement feedback –– the analysis is meant to capture the community’s full history and variables that relate in order to improve. This is a custom that’s unique and achievable to you.
-
Trusted Advisor Partnership
This is a longer-term service to grow and develop your community. This is not for you if you’re really looking for a community manager. This is for you if you feel your existing community could be bigger, more engaged, and profitable.