There's so much more to the story, but I'm headed to an IRL meetup and need to come back to this to share the full scoop. I'm not even concerned about potentially paying commission to Skool that's not "correctly" attributed. I'm thinking way bigger than that. But for now... If you're seeing this post and have insights on it, share yours in the comments! (You don't have to love it, but I always appreciate staying respectful!! 😅 P.S. My traffic looks about the same for these couple days with it back on, but again... thinking bigger and longer here...!!! OH the mystery! 🫠🙂

If you're not familiar with the finer details of Growth Boost, this post will help. While I have kept Growth Boost on for THIS group, it's off for my main group: Focused Founders™ So here's what happened >> #1 / WE DISAPPEARED FROM DISCOVERY. - My group was #1 for "Focused". Now it's not there at all for that keyword. - My group was #1 for "Founders". Now it's not there at all for that keyword, either. - My group was also, of course, #1 for the name of the group "Focused Founders". Even that is hidden. - You previously could search my name and find my group. That also doesn't work. #2 / TRAFFIC WENT... UP. - It's slight. But this is funny. - Traffic went up the next day, not down! #3 / I'M RESPONSIBLE FOR MY GROWTH. - This means: no cold traffic from ads. - And: no cold traffic from Discovery. - But: no 30% lifetime tax for friends in my network who click my profile to join my group. - And: those who join are likely to come across my YouTube, LinkedIn, workshops, posts, comments, etc... so they have SOME kind of relationship when they join and are more likely to be kindred spirits. This feels good! OUR #1 SOURCE OF GROWTH? It's always been relationships. Showing up for members and friends, showing up in a thoughtful way, just... showing up and caring! I love my Skool network, and despite not aligning with the way this new program was released, turning OFF the Growth Boost helps me to feel good about remaining here. I felt an immediate relief on turning it off, funny enough. I don't even mind being hidden! 😅 Fun Fact: When I joined Skool in 2023, the Discovery didn't even exist! This doesn't really impact my world in any major way because I never have relied on Skool to hand me clients. I will be doubling down on what works, which is generally a great idea anyways! SKOOL GROUP OWNERS: What are you doing about this? Keeping it on? Turning it off? Watching and waiting? Or... something else?!

OK, Skoolers!! Are you sleeping on the affiliate program? IT'S SO GOOD! I've had lots of conversations about affiliates this week, and I want to start one right here and now. Because we're ALL community builders, I bet that what I'm about to describe matches many of YOUR personalities too?! PERSONALLY... my business model is built on relationships and collaborations. One of the cool parts about communities is that we get to grow *together*. All of my easiest successes have been built on the foundation of collaborations (guest post swaps, affiliate programs, co-hosted workshops, promoting friends offers, giveaways to gamify sharing and make it extra FUN). AND ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, WE WON THE SKOOL GAMES!!! But here is the crazy part that's super related to this conversation... when I did the numbers, it was super emotional and humbling and just freaking AMAZING to see it in black and white... 🎉🎉 WE WON FROM REFERRALS! 🎉🎉 The numbers PROVE IT = without referrals, we would *not* have won. Our sweet little group of only a few hundred members had 183 members join with affiliate links (I just looked it up). More than half! 🫶 I want to share some tips BUT ALSO if you are doing well with too, please don't hoard your good ideas. Share them with us!! ➡️ SOME TIPS TO GROW WITH AFFILIATES: (some of these might be obvious, just feels like they need to be said anyways) - RUN FUN AFFILIATE CONTESTS! We've done a couple merch contests for top affiliates, and this just feels FUN! I want to do something fun again soon but haven't quite decided if we'll switch it up. Our members did vote on wanting merch, so it was fun to just do the same thing a second time. (We do so love Skool!) - HAVE FUN, TIMELY EVENTS HAPPENING. This makes it easy for a member to say "hey, there's [xyz] happening tomorrow/next week/whenever!" - MAINTAIN TRULY SOLID RELATIONSHIPS. When friends and colleagues "know, like, and trust" you because they see you showing up with the goods day after day AND caring about them for real... it's a given that they will want to send friends your way. Just like you will do the same in their direction! This is nature! - HAVE A GREAT GROUP. You need to have a genuinely good group for this to work. It has to be fun, active, and generous! In my opinion, it's also super important to avoid engagement bait posts and instead keep the community focused on meaningful connection and growth for your chosen community topic. - ALLOW + ENCOURAGE AFFILIATE LINKS. We are promo-positive and affiliate-positive. The culture is wayyy too strong for it to get spammy, thank goodness. BUT basically... our policy is that if you are sharing about a group, affiliate links are ALWAYS OK. (It's the default anyways when you click the "Invite people" button in Skool.) - RELATED TO THIS, ENCOURAGE *SHARING* WITH THE LINK. I tell members often... when you share... I hope you will use your affiliate link because I want to be able to easily thank you!