See you there?

It's that time of the week when I pull back the curtain and show you what's going on behind the scenes of the Classifieds. Why? Well, because the members asked and also because, why not? So, ummm... I think I might have accidentally deleted this post from last week, so I don't have the comparison numbers to report on change. 😬 Number of Members: 833 Number of Premium Members: 170 Percentage of members who are Premium : 20.4% About Page Conversion: 25.1% Discovery Ranking in Money: #28 Discovery Ranking Overall: #99 Highest Activity Day: 1949 Lowest Activity Day: 524 The Context: So, my apologies for not having comparison numbers this week. I will tell you that I am denying way more new members than I am accepting. I'm going to start tracking it in the new year because it's actually staggering. We discussed this at the last PERSONALS meeting, and I've decided that keeping the engagement in the community high-quality is too important to me to open up enrollment. The group is public so that anyone can see what's being posted inside, but only Skool group owners can post. Another thing that was pointed out to me today is that this group has a high percentage of members who are online at any one time. As I write this 128 of you are currently online!!! And everyone on the 30-Day Leaderboard has a flame!!! That means that this is a very active group, and that is very valuable to me. IMPORTANT REMINDERS: This group supports you as affiliates, so the work you do to promote the group and encourage your people to upgrade to premium directly affects your pocketbook. At the very least, you can get your membership for free! Also, don't forget that we have another round of the PERSONALS on Wednesday where you get to promote your group and what you do, I record it, and then it gets shared in the community for all to see. Don't miss out! Check the calendar for the time in your timezone! What's one win that you experienced this week that you would like to share with the group? Comment below!

The very first day I had the idea for this community, I thought that I would make it possible for people to purchase a pinned post. Then, I started running the community and became a pin hog and felt like I couldn't give up the premium real estate. I wanted everyone who was new to see the Start Here post, and I wanted everyone in the community to see important notifications and hashtag days. But more and more people have been asking for the ability to get their posts pinned to the top for a certain length of time. I also want to keep some of the pinned posts because I think they are important for setting the tone of the community and keeping you apprised of important information, but if I could open up one pinned post spot, what would it be worth to you to have that spot for 48 hours (if anything)? Just to be clear - you would write the post and I would pin it. It would not be coming directly from me. Also please note that if you give a masterclass in the community (as a premium member), I will create my own post promoting your masterclass. Please vote and then share your comments below:

You sit down with your notebook, your favourite pen, maybe a warm drink. Today’s the day you’re finally going to validate that course idea you’ve been thinking about for months. You start doing the searching, the market research. And then you see it... A course that looks a whole lot like what you’ve been planning. The title feels uncomfortably close to what’s in your Google Doc, the creator has a bigger audience, their branding looks polished, they have testimonials, case studies, maybe even a big ad campaign behind them. And very quickly, the story in your head shifts from: “I think this could really help people." to "Great. I’m too late. Someone already did it.” Most people stop right there. They close the tabs.They tell themselves they’re being “realistic.”They quietly downgrade the idea from “potential offer” to “never mind.” But here’s what I want you to sit with: Seeing someone else teaching what you want to teach is not, by itself, evidence that you shouldn’t create your course. It might actually be one of the strongest indicators that you’re onto something valuable. In this week’s episode of The ART of Online Course Creation, I’m digging into that moment: - What’s really going on when you find “your” course already out there - How to look at competitors without spiraling into self-doubt - The difference between “it already exists” and “there’s no room for me” - A behind-the-scenes story about how I navigated this when I saw a very big, very visible creator teaching something that looked a lot like what I do I’m also sharing why some of the popular “validation shortcuts” (like quizzes that tell you if your idea is profitable, or AI tools that promise to do all your market research for you) can leave you more confused, and what to do instead. If you have: - a course idea in your notebook - a half-finished outline in a Google Doc - or just a topic you can’t stop thinking about… …but you keep seeing other people doing something similar and using that as a reason to hesitate, this episode is for you.

We had a really great conversation in the PERSONALS yesterday, and some of us ended up chatting for more than 2 hours! Our next session will be on Wednesday but at a different time, so make sure to check your calendar and block off the date because we will be doing a recorded round-table where you will get to introduce your group, your expertise, and who your group is for. The recording will then be posted to the community as a whole, so you will want to make sure you are there for that! After the round-table, we will turn the recording off and open up for discussion for as long as people want to stay (within reason, I'm not sure I have the stamina for one of @Alexander Walter 's 5-hour marathons!!!! 😂). We discussed many things including how to plan for more members joining the Classifieds (our goal is 10,000 members 🤩). The discussion was around how to make sure that everyone still has the opportunity for visibility when there will be so many members posting. The feeling was that post people won't scroll past the first page. 💡 An idea was put forward to get rid of the General Discussion and Communities tabs (and possibly the Freebies tab) and instead have the categories be based on topics - tech, relationships, health and wellness, education, hobbies... I'm not sure how detailed or specific we would want to go - I guess that would be the next decision. I don't want to have too many categories, so that is something to consider as well... ‼️ I'm looking for feedback to see what the group thinks. For any decision I make, I always make it through the mission, vision, and values of the group, and for this group the simplified answer is this: mission - visibility for all through exposure and enhanced connections and collaborations; vision - 10,000 members interacting and supporting each other in their growth; values - high-quality everything so that there is a reason for people to join, to interact, and to keep coming back!