Members scaled in a free Facebook community
Community and Content Marketing Leader
Building community ecosystems that drive engagement, retention, advocacy, and growth.
For more than 16 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of communication, community, education, and experience, helping organizations turn audiences into engaged participants, loyal members, and vocal advocates.
At Darren Hardy LLC, I’ve worked across community strategy, member experience, marketing, advocacy, live events, executive communications, and cross-functional leadership, helping create experiences that reach and engage hundreds of thousands of professionals.
Impact at a glance
Community at scale.
Built for depth.
Members in the current paid Circle community
Increase in engagement depth
Community retention 90 days after program completion
Participants across large-scale virtual and live experiences
Top contributors selected annually as community Captains
Campaign revenue supported through integrated communications, events, and member engagement
Section 01 / Community strategy
From audience to ecosystem
The challenge
When I stepped into this work, there was no formal community ecosystem in place.
There was an audience, there were programs, and there was clear demand for deeper connection, but there was no unified strategy for how members would engage with one another, how that experience would evolve over time, or how community would contribute to retention and growth.
The work
I played a central role in developing the community ecosystem from the ground up, scaling a free Facebook community to 35,000 members before transitioning to a paid model.
I helped lead the Circle experience now serving 3,300+ members, shaping the member journey, programming, engagement, recognition, and long-term participation.
The goal wasn’t more activity. It was a community valuable enough that members chose to stay.
The result
35%increase in engagement depth
75%community retention 90 days after program completion
Community became an intentional part of the member experience rather than an add-on.
Strong communities are rarely built by the brand alone.
They are shaped by the members who consistently contribute, create momentum, and make the experience better simply by participating.
Section 02 / Advocacy + leadership
Turning contributors into champions
We wanted the members who shape the community to know they mattered.
I helped develop a gamified recognition and leadership system that identifies the strongest contributors in the community and gives them a more meaningful role to play.
Each year, 20 members are hand-selected as Captains.
Captains receive visible leadership status, special recognition, branded gear, greater access, and opportunities to model the kind of participation we want to cultivate throughout the broader community.
The program does more than reward activity. It gives our strongest champions a deeper sense of ownership in the community they help shape.
- 01Member
- 02Contributor
- 03Leader
- 04Advocate
Section 03 / Content + social proof
Turning member stories into brand advocacy
Events + public-facing leadership
Strategy behind the scenes.
Connection in the room.
I’ve conceptualized, produced, and hosted virtual and live experiences for 1,000–10,000+ participants, from executive masterclasses and workshops to large-scale events and community programming.
As a trusted public-facing representative of the brand, I translate expert ideas into experiences that engage professional audiences and create meaningful participation.
I understand both the architecture behind an experience and the human energy inside it.
How I work
Five principles behind the work
- 01
Participation matters more than presence.
A large audience means very little if people are only watching from the edges.
- 02
Retention begins with value.
People stay when the experience continues to earn their time and attention.
- 03
Recognition creates momentum.
The members who make a community better should feel seen, valued, and invested in.
- 04
Content and community belong together.
The best content is often hiding inside the questions, conversations, stories, and language of the people you serve.
- 05
Community should support the business.
Belonging and business outcomes are not opposites. The strongest ecosystems create value for both.
Leadership
Cross-functional by nature.
Community rarely belongs to one department.
My work has required close partnership across executive leadership, marketing, creative, content, video production, operations, contractors, and member-facing teams.
I’ve led a direct report, coordinated initiatives across a 17-person cross-functional environment, and helped translate strategic priorities into member experiences, content, events, and communication systems.
I bring both strategic altitude and operating range.
I can help define the direction, and I’m equally comfortable getting close enough to the work to understand what is actually happening.
About
A career that has always centered on people.
Before my work expanded into large-scale community, content, and communications leadership, I spent years working directly in health and wellness.
I founded and operated a wellness education and coaching business, worked within an integrative health organization, and earned a Master of Arts in Integrative Health Practices from Maryland University of Integrative Health.
That chapter of my career shaped how I think about behavior, trust, communication, education, and the experiences people need in order to engage meaningfully.
Those principles still influence the way I build community today.