Community Board Playbook Review (2026): Rachel Smith's Shared-Board Advertising Model? + An Alternative

What Are the Pros and Cons of Community Board Playbook?

Price: Community Board Playbook costs $197 + $34 a month or $340 a year.

Refund Policy: Community Board Playbook does not offer any refunds.

Origin: Rachel Smith and Dalton Joyner founded Community Board Playbook in 2025.

How Does the Community Board Playbook’s Shared-Board Advertising Model Work in 5 Steps?

1. Find a “host” business which has high traffic. There are businesses like:
   • Restaurants
   • Coffee shops
   • Gyms
   • Laundromats
   • Medical-office waiting rooms
2. Meet the owner face-to-face and deliver your pitch. Bring a demo board to show them what your free customized dry-erase board would look like. Their custom board should include their logo and most of the space where they can put:
   • Daily specials
   • Events
   • Announcements
3. Secure the placement with an agreement of at least 1 year. Also provide free markers. Then get warm referrals by asking the host if they trust any businesses that provide services like:
   • Plumbing
   • Roofing
   • Legal work
   • Insurance
   • Haircut
4. Contact the referred businesses using the host’s name as the introduction. Offer them a spot on the board for a fee.
5. Design the board using Canva. Print the custom board and place it at the hosts location.

The Shared-Board Advertising model is a marketing model that does not carry much risk. You don’t put out money first before securing agreements. Community boards run passively for at least a year once launched.

However, this model has several challenges:

• Finding a willing host may take a long time and involve online and in-person outreach. Getting them to agree is also difficult, as your offer does not give a clear incentive.
• Finding several businesses to buy a spot takes a lot of time and work. It will not be profitable if you launch a board with unsold spots. Filling spots involves:
  • Emails
  • Phone calls
  • Facebook messages
  • Follow-ups
  • In-person conversations
• Lack of visible and measurable results for businesses. There is no way a business can track how effective their ad or your board is.
• Local market limitations if the town is too small or too big. Small towns may not have enough suitable businesses to buy a spot. Businesses in bigger towns are less likely to agree as they have more efficient advertising options.
• Host location changing their mind about the board. Your board could stop being displayed if a host changes management or closes down.
• Maintaining relationships means you need to:
  • Replace damaged boards for free
  • Update advertisements
  • Respond to requests
• Local advertising compliance can include:
  • Signage rules
  • Zoning regulations
  • Solicitation laws
  • Scaling means repeating all over again.

How Did John and Megan Make $4,500 in Profit With Community Board Playbook?

John and Megan made $4,500 in profit after launching 4 community boards using what they learned from Community Board Playbook. They were charging $50 a month to appear on 1 board or $100 a month to appear on all 4 boards. John said that 80% of the businesses paid a full year in advance for a discount. He collected $6,000 upfront and spent $1,500 on expenses. Their 4 community boards were placed in restaurants and advertised local businesses. Megan also managed the community cards part of the business. However, they did not say how much they earned from that.

John likes the weekly community meetings where he gets his questions answered. Megan likes the design templates included in the program. She says it was invaluable for her since she did not have an eye for creating good designs. The couple agreed that the community was the best part of joining the program. Having a place to celebrate wins and get help motivated them to keep going.

In my opinion, John and Megan’s success with community boards is the ideal outcome. However, they did not mention a timeline. Let’s assume it took them 4 months to profit $4,500 from 4 boards. That equates to a profit of $1125 a month. That’s about the same take-home when working full-time on minimum federal wage.

What Do You Get With Community Board Playbook?

• The Community Board Course.
• The Community Card Course.
• A pre-designed demo board shipped to you.
• Regular group coaching calls.
• A 1-on-1 call with community-board sales coach John Schierman.
• Access to the Community Board Playbook private community.
• Canva design templates.
• Community board templates.
• Contract templates.
• Scripts for:
  • Cold outreach
  • Warm leads
  • Follow up
  • Objection handling
• A list of suggested advertiser types (like med spas and roofers).
• In-house printing option.
• Optional done-for-you ad-creation option for your boards.

I think that the 2 courses and templates are worth the $197 entry fee. The private community and coaching calls also make the $34 a month membership worth it.

However, the Community Board Playbook page does not specify how frequent the coaching calls are. The done-for-you ad-creation options could also be worth it, although there is no information on the price.

Who Is Rachel Smith?

Rachel Smith is an advertiser specializing in local and online marketing. She is the:

• Co-founder of the Community Board Playbook program.
• Co-founder of Big Sky Automation, an AI marketing agency.
• Founder of the Knoxville Report, a local newsletter covering local businesses and events.

Rachel is the “face and voice” of Community Board Playbook and handles sales. Her co-founder and husband, Dalton Joyner, handles the systems and websites. The couple also founded Big Sky Automation to offer online marketing services and automation to their clients.

Rachel began her community board business by charging businesses $600 a year for a spot. Each board had spot for 6 ads. Rachel said she launched 1 to 2 boards a month. In 6 months, her boards brought in $50K in revenue, and she took home $45K in profits. Aside from community boards, Rachel has filled 30 community cards.

What Is Rachel Smith's Claim About Community Boards?

Rachel Smith claims that a community board pays you $3,000. She also claims that you can do this even if you've never sold ads before. Rachel’s claim is realistic and achievable The typical community board has 6 ad spaces. To earn $3,000, you need to fill all 6 spots for $500 each for a 1-year contract. The board, stand, and markers cost about $400. A filled community board at $500 per spot earns you a profit of $2,600 a year.

However, there is no way to measure the effectiveness that board ads give businesses. It may be difficult to convince businesses to pay $500 for something that doesn’t show concrete results. It is equally difficult to convince the host to take the board. It would take up space on their property with no measurable effectiveness.

Final Verdict: Does Community Board Playbook Teach You a Long-Term Business Model?

Community Board Playbook teaches a long-term business model, as each board is good for a year. You only need to do the heavy lifting once a year for each board. Your job is basically done after you secure agreements with hosts and fill ad spaces. However, it takes a month or more to launch a full board. 1 full board a month means a 1-time revenue of $3,000. Scaling is difficult because the process takes up all your time. This is why I prefer local SEO lead generation because its passive online model makes it easy to scale.

How Do Community Boards Compare to Local SEO Lead Generation in Scalability?

Community boards are less scalable than local SEO lead generation. That’s because a single community board takes up a lot of effort for outreach, demos, and in-person negotiations. Building each local SEO lead generation asset takes a day or 2. The community boards model is more of a job, while local SEO lead generation is an asset-building business.

In my opinion, comparing the community board model to local SEO lead generation is like a Habitat for Humanity house versus an IKEA furniture. Building houses for Habitat for Humanity takes weeks of coordinating volunteers and sourcing materials. You also need to get permits before a single wall can go up. That’s like how a community board business requires weeks of outreach and negotiations. An IKEA furniture can be assembled in an hour or 2. You can assemble the next one just as easily. That’s how much quicker it is to build multiple local SEO lead generation assets.

How Does Local SEO Lead Generation Create Monthly Passive Income?

Local SEO lead generation creates monthly passive income because you collect rent or commission regularly. It's like a landlord collecting rent or an affiliate collecting commissions every month. You aren't just locking in an ad spot for a year like with community boards. Instead, you own the assets that generate high-converting leads for local businesses. They can either pay you a "rent" for unlimited leads or a commission for each lead that closes.

1 of my local clients is Anaheim Elite Drywall, 5787 E La Palma Ave, Anaheim, CA 92807, (657) 679-5101, https://www.anaheimdrywalls.com/. I get 10% for every lead I send them that closes. There was a month when 19 of my leads closed for $34,970. I earned $3,497 from commission. Because of the high scalability, I have dozens of sites like these that earn every month. Check out local SEO lead generation to create scalable passive monthly income.