YAY!!! We opened our new community, AI Essentials for Business, to the public yesterday, and we already have over 20 paying members! 🥳 (If you want to check it out, you'll find it through my bio.) And the funny thing is, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆! When I first joined Earn Your First $1 on Skool, I absolutely loved how @Joshua Guerrero increased the price from $1 to $2 to $3 as the community grew. So I'm now implementing a similar strategy! We started with free founding member spots, but people had to complete a challenge to secure their lifetime free access. Then we moved to $1/month, and now we're at $2/month, with just 7 spots left before the next increase. We also offer a heavily discounted yearly option ($14/year), and quite a few people are already choosing that! 𝗡𝗼𝘄, 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗗 𝘃𝘀. 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗨𝗠 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀. As some of you know, I also run a much bigger freemium community that's approaching 2,300 members. And I'm STILL utterly in love with the freemium model! But there are two situations where I believe starting with a paid community can make a lot of sense. 𝟭. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂. This is exactly what we're doing. All our initial members came from my existing big Skool community because that's where I first shared the new one. We're now starting to bring in traffic from other places too, and my co-founder Angelika is building our presence on TikTok and Instagram. Having an audience that already knows you, trusts you, and has seen what you do makes selling a paid membership MUCH easier. 𝟮. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿, 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗱. Ideally, you have BOTH. But a strong enough problem and promise can also work without an existing following. For our AI community, the problem is simple: CUT THE AI OVERWHELM! There are a million AI tools, tutorials, and communities out there. Most business owners don't need MORE tools. They need to know what their business actually needs right now and THEN find the right AI tools to make it happen.

Everyone help me give @Rayna Scott a warm welcome! 🙌🏽 And a big shoutout to @Lydia Wilmsen for helping make the connection! 💛 Rayna, glad you’re here! When you get a chance, introduce yourself below—and tell us: what’s one thing you’d most love to make feel easier right now? 👀 Your first stop is 🚀 #👋 Welcome to the First $1 Builder OS in the Classroom. That’s where you can activate and open your OS. It’ll help you get clear on what to focus on first and choose your next move without trying to solve everything at once. Make yourself at home! 😊

We’ve got another HUGE Builder Win to celebrate!! 🙌🏽🍀 @Lydia Wilmsen and her business partner Angelika just launched their new AI community, and they’ve already welcomed 20+ paying members in their FIRST DAY! 🤯🔥 And here’s what makes this one extra special… She took an early-member pricing strategy we used right here in this community, put her own spin on it, and came back to share what happened! I LOVE seeing builders take ideas, put them into action, and then come back to share what they’ve learned! 🙌🏽 And Lydia shared some really interesting insights about paid vs. freemium communities that I think a lot of us could learn from. 👉 GO READ HER FULL STORY AND CELEBRATE WITH HER! Congratulations to both of you!! What an incredible start! 🎉🔥🍀 🍀 And of course, we can’t celebrate a win around here without our First $1 badge! 😂🏆 You’ve already had success with your other community, but this is a brand-new journey and a brand-new milestone worth celebrating! Wear it proudly! 🙌🏽🔥

I made my first $1 on skool. Im so happy.. I sold one of my skool extensions.

After my first $1 sale, I felt a new responsibility to fulfill the community name. Someone had trusted me enough to pay. I wanted joining to mean something for them. That is why this week's welcome work matters. A clear first step helps a real person begin using what you promised. If you already have members, think about someone who recently joined. If you are preparing to launch, picture the person you hope to welcome. What do you want that person to be able to do because they joined?