@Des Dreckett Welcome to Skoolology! 😊 So good to see you here! I remember you from U2U, and I’ve followed bits and pieces of your YouTube journey, too. You’ve been busy building and experimenting! I smiled when I saw your 30-day win... more traffic. Nice and specific. With everything you’ve already been testing around YouTube and community, I think there could be some really interesting conversations around that here. Skoolology is very much a place where we learn from one another, test things, share what we're seeing, and figure out what actually works. Really glad you found your way here, Des. We're looking forward to learning more about what you’re building and where you want to take it. 💙

"Rather be lucky than good any day," as my father-in-law would say. First Short Done! 900 views in 24 hours. Crazy! This is my first YouTube Short, and I appreciate the encouragement @Avinash Khatri to just try it - leveraging content from my writing. I was sharing the exchange with a good friend, and how I really needed to start creating videos for YouTube. Long story short, he invited me to his studio and we just talked. The video was captured in StreamYard, and then StreamYard created the Short. I was amazed! Again, really appreciate this community.

I just received my first-ever Skool Premium member—an annual membership for $99. I want to say thank you to @Todd Thornton. Your post in the Skoolers community was timely, and the suggested communities to review shifted my thinking about my community structure. In addition, you then followed up with a DM like a pro, and that really got me motivated.

Every month in the Research Lab, we explore a question together. This month's question is... How does value become revenue? Sure... Todd and I will share what we're learning. And we also want to discover answers with you. When we announced this month's research theme was monetization, a few of you probably thought... "Uh oh... they're going to make us talk about money." 😅 Well... yes. But probably not in the way you're imagining. Around here, we don't believe monetization starts with an offer. We believe it starts with creating value. And value looks different at every stage. Maybe you've welcomed your first paying member. Maybe your community has led to a consulting client, a partnership, or a speaking opportunity. Maybe you're discovering what your members truly value before you've ever asked anyone to buy. Maybe you've completely changed your strategy. Maybe you've tried something that completely flopped. (Honestly... those stories might save the rest of us a lot of time. 😂) That's why we're launching Behind the Build as part of our Monetization by Design research project. This isn't just a research project. It's a monetization strategy hiding in plain sight. Think about it. What if you built a resource with your community instead of for your community? Every conversation becomes a lesson. Every lesson becomes part of a growing classroom. Over time, you've created something genuinely valuable that can live in your classroom, become a member resource, be offered as a free lead magnet, or even grow into a paid product. You're not waiting until everything is perfect. You're creating value as you build. That's exactly what we're doing with Monetization by Design. Instead of disappearing for months to create a course, we're inviting our community to help shape it. Together, we're documenting real experiences, discovering patterns, and building a library of case studies that future community builders can learn from. And honestly... We hope you'll borrow this idea for your own community someday.

Every Community Builder Spotlight tells a story. This week, we're excited to introduce @Avinash Khatri founder of YouTube Business Club (YBC). If you've ever felt overwhelmed trying to grow on YouTube, you're not alone. Many business owners know they should be creating content. They just don't know how to turn that content into a consistent source of traffic, trust, and clients. That's where Avinash comes in. Rather than chasing the latest algorithm or posting more for the sake of posting more, Avinash helps creators build a simple, sustainable YouTube system that fits their business and their life. His mission is clear: "I want to help business owners stop chasing more content and instead build a simple YouTube system that consistently brings them traffic, trust, and clients." Inside Skoolology, Avinash has become known for more than his expertise. He asks thoughtful questions. He shares what he's learning. He encourages other community builders. And he consistently adds insights that help all of us think a little differently. In fact, if you want to see exactly what we mean, look at what he shared with us this week: a full, honest month of his own community-building experiments, the wins, the real numbers, and even the one thing he'd do differently. That's Avinash in a nutshell. He doesn't just talk about building. He tries things, learns out loud, and brings what he finds back to all of us. That kind of generous experimenting is the very heart of what we're doing here. Those are the qualities that make him this week's Community Builder Spotlight. If YouTube is part of your business strategy, or you want to build an audience without feeling overwhelmed, I encourage you to visit what Avinash is building. 👉 YouTube Business Club (not an affiliate link)