Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Schultheis.
Hi Michele, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always believed that business is really about people.
For more than 30 years, I built my career in hospitality and leadership, working in operations, managing teams, building relationships, solving problems, and learning firsthand what it takes to keep a business moving forward. Marketing was always woven into that work, but so were customer experience, community relationships, sales, operations, and the hundreds of little things business owners and leaders juggle every day.
Over time, I realized that many small businesses were struggling with the same thing. They did not necessarily need another vendor handling one small piece of their business. They needed someone who would listen, understand the bigger picture, connect the pieces, and genuinely care about whether they succeeded.
That idea eventually became Chele Social Content.
I founded Chele Social Content in December 2024, initially building it alongside my career. Then, in June 2025, after the hotel where I worked was sold, my position was eliminated. After more than three decades in hospitality, I suddenly found myself facing a completely different chapter of my life.
It was scary, but it also gave me the opportunity to ask myself what I really wanted the next chapter to look like.
I chose to build something of my own.
What started with social media and content has grown into a full service boutique marketing and business growth agency. Today, Chele Social Content helps businesses with social media, content, email marketing, SEO, CRM systems, automation, lead generation, strategy, and the many pieces that need to work together for sustainable growth. When something falls outside my own specialty, I have built relationships with trusted local professionals so clients can still have one point of contact and a cohesive strategy.
But the part I am most proud of is the heart behind the business.
I live and work in Central Pennsylvania, and community has always mattered deeply to me. I believe successful businesses can strengthen the communities around them, and I try to use Chele Social Content to shine a light on local organizations, nonprofits, volunteers, small businesses, and people doing good work that deserves to be seen.
I did not expect to be rebuilding my professional life at this stage of my career, but in many ways, everything I did before prepared me for what I am doing now. The leadership, hospitality, relationship building, problem solving, marketing, and community involvement all came together.
Chele Social Content is still growing, and so am I. I think that may be my favorite part of the story. I am proof that starting over does not have to mean starting from scratch. Sometimes it means finally getting the opportunity to take everything you have learned and build something that feels completely your own and that you love.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting a business has definitely not been a completely smooth road. One of my biggest challenges has actually been learning to step out from behind the scenes.
For most of my career, I have been much more comfortable helping other people succeed than being the person receiving the attention. I love promoting businesses, organizations, community members, and causes. I love connecting people, finding opportunities, and helping someone else get noticed. I have never needed to be the center of attention to feel like I was making an impact.
The challenge is that when you start your own business, people need to know who is behind the work.
There have been many times when people have seen the posts, campaigns, events, community involvement, or growth happening for a business or organization without realizing how much work was happening behind the scenes. What people see is often the finished post, the email, the event promotion, or the final campaign. They do not always see the strategy, research, planning, writing, coordination, follow up, analytics, conversations, and problem solving that happen before and after it.
A big part of my work is also telling someone else’s story, and that requires trust.
When a business owner allows me into their business, they are trusting me with something they have worked incredibly hard to build. I need to understand their voice, their values, their customers, and what makes them different. I do not want to simply create content that looks good. I want people to read it and feel like it genuinely represents the person or business behind it.
That trust takes time to build, especially in a market where people may not initially understand everything that goes into what I do.
I have also had to learn that talking about my own work is not the same as making everything about me. For years, if the organization or business looked good and the message reached the right people, I was happy staying behind the curtain. But if I want Chele Social Content to grow, I have to let people see the experience, strategy, care, and work happening behind that curtain too.
Another challenge has been balancing my instinct to give back with the realities of running a sustainable business. Helping people comes naturally to me. I will always want to connect, share, support, and find ways to make a difference. But I have also had to learn the value of my own time and expertise so I can continue doing this work for the long term.
I am still more comfortable shining the spotlight on someone else. The difference now is that I understand that sometimes people need to see who is holding the spotlight, too.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Chele Social Content, LLC is a full service boutique marketing and business growth agency built around one belief: every business has a story, and that story deserves to be told with care, strategy, and authenticity.
What sets us apart is that we do not believe in one size fits all marketing. No two clients are the same, so no two strategies should be the same either. We work with small businesses, nonprofits, community organizations, events, and entrepreneurs, and every plan is built around who they are, what they need, who they are trying to reach, and what makes them different.
Our work can include social media management, content creation, email marketing, SEO and online visibility, CRM systems and automation, lead generation, business strategy, community promotion, and ongoing marketing support. But the services themselves are only part of what we do.
At the center of Chele Social Content are heart, warmth, care, and trust.
When someone chooses us, they are trusting us with their business, their reputation, and often their story. We take that responsibility seriously. We believe in our clients, and when we take on a project, we give it 100 percent. We take the time to listen, understand their voice, and make sure what we create genuinely feels like them.
We are also very intentional about our own brand. Everything we do needs to reflect the same values we encourage our clients to build into theirs. Our brand is not simply a logo or a color palette. It is how we treat people, how we communicate, how we show up in the community, and how people feel after working with us.
One of the things I am most proud of is using Chele Social Content to shine a light on others. We regularly highlight local businesses, nonprofits, community events, volunteers, and people making a difference. Sometimes that means promoting an organization. Sometimes it means sharing useful marketing tips. Sometimes it simply means helping more people discover something wonderful happening right in their own community.
For me, success is not only measured by likes, followers, clicks, or leads. Those things matter, but so does helping a small business become more visible, helping a nonprofit reach the people who need them, helping an event succeed, or giving someone else a platform to tell their story.
Chele Social Content was built to be more than another marketing company. We want to be the trusted partner our clients can call, someone who understands the bigger picture, cares about the outcome, and helps bring all of the pieces together.
That is what I want people to know most about our brand: the strategy matters, the results matter, but the people behind them matter most.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
One thing I would really love readers to know is how much Central Pennsylvania means to me.
My connection to this area did not begin when I started Chele Social Content, or even when I moved into marketing. I grew up in Lebanon, and so many of the communities I now work in and promote are places that have been part of my life for years.
Palmyra, Hershey, Hummelstown, Middletown, Lebanon, Harrisburg, and the surrounding areas are not simply names on a service map to me. They are places tied to different chapters of my life.
As a teenager, I worked at Hersheypark. Later, when I lived in Middletown, I worked at the airport. Then I spent more than 30 years in hospitality, building relationships throughout the region with local businesses, organizations, visitors, residents, and community leaders.
Even now, I can be driving through one of these towns, stop somewhere local, discover a business doing something special, and immediately think, “More people need to know about this.” That instinct to share, promote, connect, and support people has always been there.
Hospitality taught me that people remember how you make them feel, and that lesson has carried into everything I do today. Moving from hospitality into marketing may look like a major career change from the outside, but to me there is a very natural connection. Both are about people. Both are about relationships. Both require listening, understanding what someone needs, earning trust, creating a positive experience, and making people feel valued.
That is also why giving back feels so natural to me.
I have been involved in the Hershey community through organizations like the Hershey Rotary Club and the Hershey Partnership, Hershey PA Chamber of Commerce. My work with the Hershey Rotary Club is completely volunteer, and that is one of the things I value most about it. It gives me the opportunity to do more than promote what is happening. I get to be out in the community, volunteer alongside others, support local organizations, and be part of the work itself.
I currently serve as President Elect and Public Image Chair for the Hershey Rotary Club, and next year I will have the honor of serving as club president. That means a great deal to me because Rotary is built around service, and service is something I believe in wholeheartedly.
One of the things I love most is being able to shine a light on people who quietly do so much good. That belief is also behind our Kindness Challenge and its message, ‘Shine Your Light and Make Your Community Brighter.’ It is a simple reminder that kindness, recognition, and even one small act can make a difference. There are volunteers, businesses, nonprofits, organizations, and community members giving their time, talent, and heart every day who may never ask for recognition. I love helping tell those stories.
One example is the Hershey Soup – Cook Off, which brings people together while supporting the Hershey Volunteer Fire Company. Events like that are about much more than what people see on the day of the event. They are powered by volunteers, local businesses, sponsors, organizations, and neighbors all coming together because they care about where they live.
That same sense of community became part of Chele Social Content from the beginning.
We intentionally use our platforms to spotlight local businesses, nonprofits, community organizations, volunteers, events, and people doing good things. Sometimes there is absolutely nothing in it for us, and that is perfectly fine. Sometimes someone simply deserves to be seen.
I also love connecting people. Maybe a nonprofit needs something and I know a business that can help. Maybe a small business is doing something wonderful and not enough people know about it. Maybe someone has a story that deserves a bigger audience. Sometimes one introduction, one post, one share, one stop into a local business, or one conversation can make a real difference.
Those moments mean a lot to me.
I want Chele Social Content to be successful, and I want our clients to grow, but I never want success to be measured only by revenue, followers, or the number of clients we have.
If we can help a business keep going, help a nonprofit reach more people, help an event succeed, recognize a volunteer who normally works quietly behind the scenes, or simply make someone feel seen and appreciated, that matters too.
Central Pennsylvania has been part of my story for most of my life. I grew up here, worked here, built relationships here, volunteered here, and now I have the opportunity to use Chele Social Content to help tell the stories of the people and businesses that make these communities special.
That feels incredibly full circle to me.
And that is the kind of business, and the kind of community member, I always want to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chelesocialcontent.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelesocialcontent/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chelesocialcontent/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chele-social-content-llc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CheleSocialContent
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/chele-social-content-hummelstown
- Other: https://share.google/3rG3EtlYE7gLyDwmC
