I woke up this morning to this: 8 ads running, and they look pretty good! Something else new also happened. For the first time since this community opened in August 2025, I've had NO new members all day. We'll see what the rest of the day brings, and I'll keep you updated! @Éva Raposa @Des Dreckett Here you go! 😉

The CLASSIFIEDS is now a paid community. 🤩 I've said since the beginning that community owners shouldn't make business decisions based on Growth Boost, and I strongly believe that to this day, but there were several reasons why optimizing for GB was in the best interest of this business. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order... 1. I have always kept this community free because I wanted it to be accessible, especially for new community builders. At only $2/month and a proven track record, I feel that is still true. 2. I have to keep GB on for this community because the Skool Network provides more than 50% of our members and Discovery is very important for our growth. 3. There were never any ads for this community. Increasing the percentage to 50 or even 70% didn't make a difference - it only resulted in my paying more of my profits to Skool. I've since learned that is because free and freemium communities are only rarely boosted. 4. The CLASSIFIEDS vacillates between a level 3 and a level 4 on Growth Boost, which would be ah-mazing except for the fact that being freemium gives us ZERO benefits. 5. I just learned that @Éva Raposa made a community a one time fee of $2 and got ads! 🤯 So, given all these factors, like I said, I believe it is the best interest for the long-term growth and prosperity of this group to go paid, but for a minimal fee. Let me know your thoughts below. I'll keep you updated with the progress (or lack thereof!). And, does this mean I have to put my picture on the thumbnail now??? 😩

What if you could live your dream life and have it pay for itself? That is not a fantasy. It is so doable. Meet @Éva Raposa She lives on two continents and travels easily between the two using travel hacks she has learned & developed. She uses Multiple Profit Centers to support her life doing things that are part of her and her family's life. Like playing with animals for fun and profit. She operates a petsittinbg business, and run a Skool Community teaching others how to do it. When she is Brazil, she has other ways of generating cashflow that are suitable to where she is. And she is spilling the beans tomorrow at 11 AM Eastern in the Self-Sustaing Life Lab While it is a paid community (currently at $5/yr) the event is open to all to attend, a Costco style sampling of the community. https://meet.google.com/urw-xtfz-ftm

When I started doing a little weekly post about events happening around Skool, I had absolutely no idea where it was going. That post became a PDF. The PDF grew. I started manually loading events into a calendar. We created templates. Then automations. Then Magic Buttons. And somehow, a few months later, I'm sitting here with an actual website. Which is slightly ridiculous when I think about it. But looking back, the interesting bit isn't really what we built. It's what I learnt while building it. 1. You don't need to know where something is going before you start. I couldn't have planned what SED is today because most of it hadn't even occurred to me yet. Sometimes you only get to see the next idea because you acted on the last one. 2. Listen when people DON'T do what you expect them to do. This one has been uncomfortable at times. 😂 It's very easy to think, “Well, I've told them what to do. Why aren't they bloody doing it?” But people not doing something is information. Maybe it's too complicated. Maybe it takes too long. Maybe they don't understand why it's worth doing. Instead of getting annoyed with people, I've learnt to get curious about why. 3. Your customers will help you build your business if you pay attention. Some of the best changes we've made haven't come from sitting around having brilliant ideas. They've come from watching what our members struggle with, what they ask for, what they don't use and what makes them say, “Oh, THAT'S easy.” That's gold. 4. Don't get too attached to something just because you spent bloody ages creating it. Ouch. 😂 I've created things that worked perfectly well... until they didn't. The temptation is to hang onto them because of the hours you've already put in. I've learnt that sometimes the smartest thing you can say is: “Well, that served its purpose. What's next?” 5. You are considerably more capable than you think you are. This might be the biggest one for me. There have been plenty of moments during this journey when I haven't known how to do something.

Next up we have two amazing communitied. First, I interview @Paulo Costa, The Roaster about his community Roast and Promote - a place to get valuable feedback from REAL humans and then @Mimi Klosterman and I talk all things alternative education. Mimi is helping people who are considering alternatives to the educational system for their children so that they can make informed decisions that support their families. Check out Mimi in Best School Options! They are both providing amazing value that is worth checking out! Want to know how you can talk about your community and be profiled? Come to a PERSONALs meetup!!! They happen twice a month, and the first one each month is similar to what you see here! The PERSONALS is for premium members only, so upgrade today for only $5! It's way less than the $8 matcha latte I'm currently drinking!