🔥 15 weeks. 654 members. 43 new members every single week.

Henry Hunter

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23d • 🌐Directory Listings

🔥 15 weeks. 654 members. 43 new members every single week.

57 to 62% engagement rate. Consistently.

I didn’t believe those numbers were possible when I started this journey. Our members proved me wrong.

Here’s what’s actually happening inside Crust and Crumb Academy.

Our Saturday Bake-Alongs generate over 7,000 interactions in a single thread each week. Likes, comments, encouragement, troubleshooting, wins, fails, all of it. That kind of activity is what earned us our star on Skool.⭐

But the thing I look forward to most every week isn’t Saturday. It’s Sunday.

Every Sunday I write a recap of the bake-along the way ESPN recaps a game I missed. Play by play. All highlights and no commercials. Every member who showed up gets mentioned by name. It’s long. It’s funny. It’s informative. And when you read it you feel like you were there, at the game. When you participated you feel seen. Everyone wants to see their name in print and my job is to make sure the ones doing the work get the spotlight they deserve.

Last month I started a monthly roll call. Every member, new or veteran, re-introduces themselves. A paragraph that tells us what’s going on in their life. What they’re baking. We talk in passing every day in the chat but, we don’t really know each other that way. Oh your bread looks nice, beautiful score, nice oven spring. That’s not conversation. Turns out when you give people permission to open up they will.

654 members. Over 400 comments from members in that one introduction thread. That’s engagement.

We also reach out to every new member personally.

The application asks a question: what do you hope to learn or gain as a baker by joining the Academy? We use that answer to connect them with a specific classroom resource, a lesson, a recipe, something that speaks directly to what they came here for.

Members who had never said a word in the community reply to those DMs. Now they’re involved.

I’d love to take credit for what’s happening here but the truth is we’ve built an environment that encourages itself. Two principles drive everything.

The Ed Sullivan principle. Nobody tuned in to watch Ed Sullivan. Hunched shoulders, heavy accent, awkward as the day is long. They tuned in for the talent he put on that stage. My job is to find the talent and get out of the way.

The dirty bathroom principle. You walk into a spotless bathroom to wash your hands, you toss the paper towel and miss the trash can. If the bathroom is clean, you’re more likely to pick it up. If the bathroom is a mess, you’re less likely to bother.

Keep your community clean, and your members will help keep it that way. Shine the light on your community. Watch what happens.

I’m not the star of this show. I’m the host. My job is to make sure there’s food on the buffet, the music is right, the trash is emptied, and the air conditioning is set to a comfortable temperature.

The members are the show.

Whether you’re a serious bread baker or just a carbo-alcoholic who wants to understand why your loaves keep coming out flat, come see what all the fuss is about.

Crust and Crumb Academy.

Where bakers come not to get likes, but to get better.

👉 https://skoo.ly/s/crust-crumb-academy

Henry ⭐🔥

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