I’ve been in business for 30+ years, and launching a community made me feel like a beginner again. This past week, with help from @Brenda Rigney her amazing course, I finally launched my new offer. And I have to say, I’m glad I did. Building a community is very different from running two companies. I’m used to helping my clients figure out what to make and then getting it made for them. Building a community got me thinking about an entirely different question. How do I create a place where people feel comfortable sharing an idea they haven’t fully thought through yet? That’s something I appreciate about being here. There's room to bring a half-formed (half-baked was almost my choice of words!) idea into the conversation. Sometimes a good question from someone else helped me see what I’d been circling around on my own. It also changed how I think about what to offer. Fremium, Premium. VIP, High Ticket, Low Ticket... and so on. I am done with the rabbit hole following Skooler threads of "what works," and following Brenda's path that makes all of this easy. I’m one week into the launch and excited to see where this all goes. But after 30 years in business, it feels good to be the person in the room who gets to say, “I haven’t done this before.”

Today I've officially launched my Premium and VIP offers in my Skool community! (after spending FAR too much time with the cursor hovering over 'post'). I started my community back in April, so it's taken me a fair while to get to this point. And if you'd told me this time last year that I'd be running a Skool community, I'd have thought you were completely bonkers! One thing I'd say, which I've certainly heard from Brenda, is for those of you who haven't launched your communities yet, it's best to have a clear vision for your Premium offer before you even start. I think it would have helped me make some decisions much earlier on. I also want to give a big shout-out to Brenda and her 10K Launch Project for VIP members. It's been absolutely invaluable in getting me launch-ready. I know I've put together a much stronger offer because of it, and it's given me the reassurance I needed to actually press the button. Back to that rollercoaster analogy, which can be terrifying but how much better it feels when you're strapped in safe. Dare we even say, fun!? Being frank, I was probably my own biggest obstacle. There's only so much planning and perfecting you can do before you just have to go for it. So here we go! I've no idea how the ride will unfold, but I'm chuffed to have got to this point. 💚

I noticed two hours ago that this community got access to Level 3 ads for Growth Boost. I was always at Level 3 when ads rolled out a few weeks ago, but of course I couldn't upload anything. It was turned off for freemium communities. But then I was checking on the new discovery categories, and noticed I now have access to uploading 6 ads. So I crafted 6 ads similar to what you get in a paid community, and uploaded them!! Fingers crossed they stick. It's been two hours. Off to bed!!

What does your Skool community pay you each month right now? Vote in the poll below. No judgment. In March 2026, mine was $0. Then tell me in the comments: what's one thing you'd do with an extra $1,000 a month? 👇

Summits. Daily gems. Challenges. Lives. All free. Thousands of members. And $0 in recurring revenue. Here's what I got wrong: I thought free WAS the business. It's not. Free is the front door. It's where people get to know you, so that when you open the next door, they walk through it. When I finally opened that door, 39 people who'd joined free before I had anything to sell went on to become VIPs. What's your free group the front door to? Tell me below. 👇