BOY OH BOY I've been thinking a lot about the conversation Martin started yesterday after our chat! BASICALLY, WE HAVE TWO OPTIONS: 1️⃣ FUNNEL-First Community = the community exists as a funnel, plain and simple 2️⃣ COMMUNITY-First Community = community is there for us to connect, even if it is also part of a business ecosystem which has paid offers. STAY WITH ME HERE on the incoming analogy... This got me thinking about how my daughter is 14, and now we have to teach her to be wary of boys. For some reason, when teenage boys' hormones get crazy, they're not always thinking of the girl and her brains and jokes and HER AS A PERSON. "NOTCH ON THE BELT" feels - honestly? GROSS - like there is the conquistador and then the conquest - as though one person is essentially there just to be used and tossed FUNNEL-FIRST COMMUNITIES = - feel much the same - like members are conquests - members are used like we're a cash machine to pull money out of And yeah, it's truly just like being another notch on the belt so the hustle bros* can brag about the $$$ from the launch. *QUICK NOTE about "hustle bros" --> I know this a gender-heavy marketing conversation. MEANWHILE... IN THIS ROOM, there are actual *GENTLEMEN*, so I want to take a moment to acknowledge that women can also show up as "hustle bros" and that men are often insanely thoughtful and gentlemanly in terms of the way they show up in life and business. This is not about man vs. woman. This is about the FEELING of being used or a conquest vs. the FEELING of being honored as a human. LET'S BRING THIS BABY HOME: In a community-first community where there are offers in place, there's no feeling of "notches on the belt" (which is obviously gross as a side note, but I make this analogy because I think we need to know that certain ways of showing up in relationships of ANY KIND feel genuinely... gross!). ➡️➡️➡️ YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS ONE?!

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! 🫠🙂

When you're in a community that you don't set the "rules", and someone responds with a straight up AI comment, how do you respond? (We're talking, no human to be found...) My personal challenge with this mix is that: 1/ it's crystal clear when it's AI 2/ I didn't start a conversation with ChatGPT 3/ there's a human who stuck the comment there 4/ I don't want to be rude to the human 5/ but it feels just really messed up that the human isn't there in the comment This is especially weird when I've seen the same human around, with actual human comments. I'm 🤖 navigating this 🤖 journey that's 🤖 unfolding while 🤖 cultivating real AF 🤖 lived experience and an 🤖 evolving tapestry with... Let's be honest here. I'm sitting here with almost zero patience for how weird AF it feels when the comments sound like that but worse because they weren't written by a human making fun of the ridiculousness that humanity is dealing with. They are shared by a human who didn't show up for the conversation, and yet I still want to be thoughtful toward the human... who is in there SOMEWHERE. [this was originally posted in Connect & Collab. With 172 comments, this conversation was LIT! 🔥]

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?!