Well, this makes me happy. ❤️ Welcome to Skoolology, @Kathryn Zabinski! Kathryn and I have known each other for a long time, so seeing her walk through this particular door feels pretty special. I’m really glad you’re here, my friend. Now I’m curious...what made you decide to come hang out with us over here? 😊

You are so generous with each other. Someone shares what they’re building, and you lean in. You ask questions. You offer ideas. You share something you’ve learned. You encourage someone who’s unsure. You celebrate the wins. And sometimes you simply say, “I get it.” You notice each other. You remember what someone was working on and come back to ask how it went. You see a question and think, “I might be able to help with that.” You share what worked for you without assuming it has to be the answer for someone else. And sometimes you ask the question that helps another builder see something they couldn’t quite see on their own. When you share what you’re learning, someone else learns, too. When you ask the question you’re afraid might be obvious, someone else is relieved you asked it. When you encourage another builder, you remind them they don’t have to figure all of this out alone. You make this room what it is. Not just by being here. By bringing what you know, what you’re wondering, what you’re trying, and what you’re learning. And by being willing to share some of it with each other. I hope you know how much that matters. And how much YOU matter here. 💜

I have permission to hype her, so obviously I’m going to. 😂❤️ Just over a week ago, @Lisa Vanderveen opened the doors to Kingdom Peace & Prosperity. If you’ve been following along, you know Lisa has been BUILDING. 😂 She’s been experimenting, changing things, following ideas, having conversations, and creating something that feels very much like HER. And today... SOMEONE PAID TO BE IN THE ROOM!!! 🎉🥳❤️ KPP officially has its first paying member. Lisa, I know you have BIG dreams for what you’re building, but I hope you stop and enjoy this one. Because there’s only ever ONE first paying member. ❤️ Someone saw what you’re creating and said... Yep. I want in. THAT deserves a celebration. Congratulations, Lisa!!! 🎉❤️🥳

I shared a shorter version of this somewhere else this morning, but I kept thinking about it. Because I realized something. Some of the most valuable things you’ve shared with us haven’t been polished wins. They’ve been things like... “I tried this. It didn’t work.” “I thought I wanted this, but now I’m not so sure.” “Here’s what my members are actually doing.” “Something feels off, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.” And occasionally... “I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing next.” 😂 I’m also grateful for the quieter people here, too. The ones reading. Watching. Thinking. Trying something in their own community. Taking what they need and leaving what they don’t. Maybe you rarely comment. Maybe we have no idea what you’re experimenting with behind the scenes. You’re part of this, too. ❤️ Participation doesn’t always look like posting. And the conversations we DO get to have have changed some of our thinking, too. There are things Todd and I were pretty sure about when we started Skoolology that we see differently now. Things we’ve changed. Things we’ve simplified. Things we thought mattered that turned out not to matter nearly as much as something else. And I’m quite sure there are still things we’re wrong about. 😂🤫🔬 Maybe that’s one of the things I love most about treating Skoolology as a research lab. We can have hypotheses. We can bring our experience. We can study what seems to work. But then real people enter the room. And we have to pay attention. Building WITH people doesn’t mean doing everything everyone asks. It means letting what we learn from people influence what we build next. That requires us to listen. To notice. To question our assumptions. And sometimes to say, “Well... apparently THAT wasn’t it.” 😂 So today I’m grateful for all of you. The people who share the messy middle. The people who ask the awkward questions. The people who challenge an idea or tell us when something isn’t working. The people who let us peek behind their builds.

We covered A LOT on @Sara Fredrick Sara’s Golden Ticket call. 😂 Free or paid. Public or private. Quiet members. Getting more eyes on a community. Starting another community. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I realized how often we were coming back to an answer that can be incredibly frustrating when you just want someone to tell you what to do: It depends. 😂 Not because we didn’t have ideas. Because the answer changed depending on what Sara was trying to accomplish. Take engagement. We talked about members who read but don’t necessarily comment. People who may not want to attend calls. Members who could be using what they’re learning without us ever seeing it. So how much engagement is enough? I asked Sara what a community that’s working looks like to her. She thought about it after our call and came back with: “People participating and enjoying the community. I think as long as I get some feedback (which I have), then I will be happy.” There it is. Not somebody else’s engagement benchmark. Sara’s. We ran into the same thing with monetization. Sara’s current community is free. She’s also thinking about starting another community and considering making that one paid from the beginning. Could both choices be right? Absolutely. We talked about public versus private communities, too. There are advantages and tradeoffs to both. Same with calls. Same with how we bring people into our communities. Same with a LOT of the decisions we make as builders. And maybe that’s why looking for THE answer can get us into trouble. Should I charge? Should I go public? Should I have calls? Should I post every day? Should I worry that people aren’t commenting? We can get an answer to every one of those questions. But without knowing what we’re trying to accomplish, it might not be the right answer for us. So maybe before asking: What should I do? There are a few other questions worth asking first. 🌿 What does a community that’s working actually look like to ME?