Carrie Melissa Jones,
The CMJ Group
Language
English
Response Time
24 Hours
About
We are a world-class community consulting and training company helping organizations and creators build authentic, connected communities–without burning out.
Led by Carrie Melissa Jones, coauthor of the award-winning book Building Brand Communities, we ground all our work in developing solid relationships with customers and community members (first and always). Solid relationships create a strong foundation, and a strong foundation leads to powerful outcomes. When working with us, expect a combination of primary and secondary research, evidence-based recommendations, clear methodology, stellar project management, and coaching that builds your and your team’s confidence.
Services offered
Service packages
Meet with our founder, Carrie M. Jones, for a one-hour session to discuss your community challenges. This is perfect for those who aren’t sure where to begin, who need a thought partner, or who have a specific problem to solve. Start here!
Each session includes:
- A detailed onboarding questionnaire
- Quick review of your community (if desired)
- A structured session led by a community builder with over 10 years of experience
- Follow-up notes and next steps
Launching a community is challenging. Let a team who’s done it dozens of times carry you through the process. If you’re trying to handle this alone or with a VA, you will make preventable, costly mistakes in your setup and strategy. So skip the guesswork and partner with the experts.
This offering is also for migrations from other platforms and relaunches.
What’s Included:
Community and Content Strategy
- Community Compass™ creation and setting your strategic pillars
- Community persona creation and clarification
- Content and programming planning
- A Custom Community Playbook
- Consultation on pricing and tiers
Community Setup
- Set up of all spaces and space groups
- Design of cover images, banners, and lock pages
- Set up of member profile fields
- Set up of paywalls
- Onboarding setup
- Community guidelines template
- Guidance on welcome content setup
- Advise on tags, workflows and automation
- Setup of design theme and domain
Advisory & Accountability
- Experts by your side as a sounding board
- Access to a community of 100s of other community builders
- A community launch calendar template and guidance on how to kick off and launch the community
- Accountability every step of the way
What You Need to Bring
- A name and logo (we can provide feedback)
- A strong idea of who you want to serve
- 10+ members you want to invite to your founding member group (paid or free)
- A willingness to build with and embody community leadership principles
Do you have a community but are worried you may be leaving value on the table? We’ve examined thousands of communities, and we can assure you that there is untapped potential for revenue generation, engagement, and loyalty right in your own community. Let us walk you through our proprietary 21-point audit and show you exactly what to do to see better results.
What’s Included
Initial Audit
- Onboarding questionnaire to assess your strategic pillars and identify gaps
- In-depth review of your community
- Customized 21-point audit with clear recommendations on what to improve
- Delivery of audit in a personalized session with your team
Implementation (Optional)
- Take your audit to the next level with customized implementation services, including:
- A custom design uplift across your Circle community, including new banners, colors, iconography, and more
- Configuration of settings to align with audit recommendations
- Weekly check-ins to assess progress and refine our work together
- Advisory and accountability throughout
What You Need to Bring:
- An existing community (can be on Circle or another community platform if you are considering a move to Circle)
- A willingness to build and implement what you learn
Our custom programs quickly upskill or reskill executives, team representatives, or community managers to conquer specific community-building challenges. These are designed specifically to meet your needs and can be offered online, in-person, or both.
What’s Included
- Assessment of your goals and clear written learning objectives
- Custom curriculum development
- Initial baseline-setting survey
- Delivery of curriculum in live or recorded format
- Lively discussions with your team that further their learning
- Learning outcomes assessment
We offer high-touch consulting that includes expert strategic guidance, a brave space for honest conversations, and the technical expertise and tools to move with confidence. You’ll have the option to include quantitative member research surveys, qualitative member interviews, and/or netnographic research.
Perfect for those preparing to launch a community or needing support navigating community challenges that come with growth (or stagnation), including enterprise organizations, associations, government programs, educational institutions, non-profits, foundations, and training and development companies.
Each of our engagements is customized and may contain:
- Member research surveys
- Member research interviews
- Netnographic research
- Persona development
- Community Compass™ development
- Content and programming brainstorming
- Community Guidelines and moderation workflows
- Community Roadmap
- Journey Mapping and Empathy Mapping
- Advisory support and implementation services
Who I work with
Our ideal clients are mission-driven organizations of all sizes or creators who earn (or are on track to earn) six figures+.
Typically, our clients come to us struggling to make strategic decisions about their community’s future and require research, insights, and guidance to navigate a strategic path forward, or they/their team are experiencing a transformation or growing pains, and they need facilitative, educational support to upskill and thrive.
Our clients are at all phases of community development, including pre-launch, newly launched, maintaining, or declining. They understand the immense value community brings (or will bring) to their organization, and they seek a strategic partner that can take them to the next level with equanimity, equity, relationality, and candor.
Team and Experience
Carrie Melissa Jones, CEO and Founder (over 15 years of experience, advanced research degree)
Kelly Shetron, Director of Strategy (MFA, over 5 years of experience working with enterprise-level clients)
Wiley Gaby, Operations and Automations Specialist (Certified Notion and Zapier Consultant)
Meredith Rhylander, Executive Assistant
Case Studies
Community Launch for Conceive
- Conceive is a community and support platform that offers 24/7 text support from expert fertility nurses, peer coaches, and support groups for people trying to conceive who want to get pregnant faster. The community expeirence is integral to its value proposition, so getting it right at the beginning was crucial.
- We partnered with founder Lauren Berson to conceptualize the initial community offering for Conceive, consulting on everything from pricing to group setup to guidelines.
- Conceive launched in beta in 2021 and found success with its pilot: 54% of members became pregnant, 36% understood new diagnoses and 90% felt supported in their journey toward getting pregnant.
- Conceive went on to secure over $3.5M to fund its early growth and has helped hundreds of members feel supported.
Research and Strategy for Project Management Institute
- Community is at the heart of PMI, and the organization needed assistance in addressing a complex and fragmented community experience. This involved understanding and addressing the diverse needs of its members and achieving internal alignment during a period of organizational change.
- From 2022-2023, CMJ collaborated with PMI as researchers, workshop facilitators, and strategic advisors, leading a multi-phase initiative that deeply engaged both internal stakeholders and community members.
- To achieve the best outcomes, we began with a survey of over 1,500 respondents, supplemented by in-depth qualitative interviews with community members, regional leaders, and chief executives. We then presented data-backed insights to the team, brought stakeholders together for decision-making, and ultimately transformed the organization and member experience.
- Results included an organizational restructuring to unite siloed community efforts, refreshed onboarding that improved membership retention and growth, and clear insights to inform a multi-year community roadmap across the organization.
Find more case studies here: https://www.carriemelissajones.com/case-studies
Testimonials
Rebecca Eastwood
CMJ felt like a true extension of our team and working with them was a joy. I feel like I've put on a pair of glasses that have given me 20/20 vision into our community strategy. Thanks team CMJ for the deep learnings, the laser focus and the laughs
Kelly Nixon
I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to work directly with Carrie and the CMJ team. The level of expertise, care and attention that they brought to me personally, to our meetings, and to our community needs has been astounding. My project had to go on hiatus, and almost two years later the team rallied for me again and we picked things up as though no time had passed. I trust this team so much that I'm partnering with them for a second engagement!
Kyle Byron
Did a consult with CMJ and I once was lost but now have direction, hope, inspiration, IT advice, new software to try, and more. Can’t wait to implement the advice. And then I’ll go back for more. Very professional. Exceeded expectations. Highly recommend to anyone looking to build their online community.
Lynn Abate-Johnson
I feel so much more clear about who we are and who we are serving, with a focus on what is missing and how we can fill in gaps in community, connection, communication, and fulfillment.
Quan Campbell
Working with the CMJ Team gave us the tools and thought-process we needed in order to be fully prepared and confident in designing and launching the Blanchard Community. I would love to work with them again.
Kathryn Fink
I'm blown away by CMJ's mix of expertise while also guiding this project with humor and compassion.
See more testimonials by clicking here.