Good Morning, Skoolers! ☕ A place for hot takes, unpopular opinions, and the things you probably shouldn’t say out loud. Agree, disagree, argue your case, and try not to take any of it too seriously. We are going LIVE for The Skool Morning Show now. 🎥 👇 To Chat with us LIVE comment on this post and we'll pull up some of the comments.

My hot take on Skool free trials has changed. I used to think offering a 7 day free trial for a paid Skool community was a great idea if you could get the strategy right. I still technically believe this but my advice for most is different. After looking at more data, watching what successful Skool community owners are doing, and seeing how much actually goes into converting free trial members into paying members, I don’t think most Skool owners should offer one. Free trials sound simple. Turn on the 7 day free trial, let people experience your community, and hopefully they stay and become paying members. But you’ve actually created another job. You need strong onboarding, a clear path for those 7 days, quick wins, consistent follow up, a conversion strategy, and a plan for things like declined cards. You also need to track your free trial conversion rate so you know whether the trial is actually helping your community make more money. Meanwhile, newer Skool community owners are already trying to figure out their offer, pricing, traffic, content, sales, member results, and retention. My recommendation is to get your paid community working first. I’d personally want to be around $10K MRR before adding a free trial as something to test. And TEST is the important word. Turn it on with a strategy. Track what happens. If your free trial members aren’t converting into paying members, turn it off. Figure out what needs to change. Then test it again later if it makes sense. If you want to give potential members something for free, your CONTENT can be the free sample. Create more content outside of your Skool community. Get more people discovering you, learning from you, and understanding how you can help them. Let your paid community be where people invest to go further. More free access does not automatically mean more paying members. Before turning on a Skool free trial, ask yourself: Is my paid offer already selling? Do I know exactly what happens during someone's first 7 days?

The new ChatGPT model came out, and apparently ChatGPT Astra can actually control your computer and take actions for you. Including opening Skool and sending DMs. My Skool Morning Show cohost @Eric Howell tested GPT Astra 6 and told me to check my Skool DMs. I opened them to a message from HIS account that said: “Hello, this is ChatGPT.” And I am not sure how I feel about this. AI agents being able to use your computer opens up some really interesting possibilities. Eric already has ideas for how he could use the new ChatGPT Astra model to automate certain tasks, and I can absolutely see where that could be useful. But having AI actually communicating with people through your Skool account feels different to me. If I get a Skool DM from someone, am I talking to that person? Or could I be talking to their AI agent controlling their computer? That is the part that freaks me out a little. I recorded my reaction right after it happened because I genuinely want to know what other people think about this. Would you use ChatGPT Astra to send messages or take actions inside Skool? And where do you think the line should be between AI helping you and AI acting as you? ...Do you think Sam will find a way to block this?

Shout out to Mirtha Pena for kicking this off! 💪 If you're using Growth Boost, go find Mirtha's post in Skoolers and reply with your cover photo. If you see someone's ad while you're browsing online, take a screenshot and reply to their comment. Then others can do the same for you. 📸 This is actually useful beyond just seeing your own ad. The more screenshots you get, the more data points you have. You can start to see who is being shown your ads, where they're appearing, and how often they're coming up. That can help you understand how your campaign is being distributed and whether your ads are reaching a variety of people over time. Plus, it's just fun seeing your community help each other spot them. ❤️

This community helps you understand what Skool is, how the platform works, and stay up to date with platform changes that affect how people use it. Sometimes I will highlight Skool communities that are worth checking out. These are shared as real examples of how people are using the platform and what different types of communities can look like in practice. So What is Skool? Skool is a community platform where people can discover or create communities. People use Skool to run communities that include content, discussions, events, and memberships in one place. Inside the Classroom, you will find three main resources: Skool Basics This walks through what Skool is, what Skoolers is, and how the Skool Games work. Skool Build Template This is a practical starter kit you get free access to just by joining the community. The build template includes a checklist, a questionnaire to help you think through your idea, and Canva templates you can use to set things up visually. Skool Clarity Call Feedback Real responses from community members about their ideas and the clarity they gained from clarity calls. This is something I recommend community owners do for their own members when starting out, no matter what their community is about. You can see what others have to say by joining the community for free. What will the content in here look like? You will see: - Resources and templates you can use. - Our latest Skool videos and podcast episodes. - Highlighted communities that are worth checking out. - Posts about new Skool features and platform changes. - Breakdowns of how different Skool communities are structured and what is working.