@Donna Thornton suggested I bring this to the group for your weigh in... While still recovering from surgery, I'm getting ready to announce something I've been creating for my group, Get Your Merch Made. It's gonna get you SO ready for the upcoming holiday gifting season, it'll blow your mind. That said, I've been redoing some things which will play a larger picture in what's to come, and apparently, my new full-time job has become tweaking my thumbnail. In any case, am curious which you like and why? Thanks for your input.

At the start of this month, I told you about the goose. A couple owns a bird that lays one golden egg a day. One egg, every day, without fail. And somewhere along the way it stops feeling like enough, so they take a knife to her, and of course there is nothing inside, and now there are no more eggs either. We said back then that the fable leaves out the useful half. Somebody fed that bird. Somebody sheltered her through winters and kept her safe. The gold was never stored inside the goose. It came from the conditions around her. That is what the month was about, and I think you proved it. Nobody built a golden egg. Not one person came back with the big launch, the perfect offer, the thing that changes everything at once. That is what we all picture when we think about monetizing, and it is not what any of you did. Instead, you made first steps small enough that a person could not fail them. You took the homework out of a challenge and gave it more days to breathe. You made cue cards for a teacher you have not met yet. You wrote an about page for one specific woman instead of for everybody. You built rooms where nobody has to speak until they want to. Every one of those is unglamorous. None of them would make a good screenshot. And that is exactly the point, because the thing that keeps a community alive is not the moment somebody buys. It is the hundred ordinary days before that, when somebody felt seen, or got unstuck, or finished something small and thought, well, maybe I can do this after all. That is the feeding and the shelter. Nobody writes stories about it. It is the whole mechanism. But there is one more question, and it has been sitting underneath everything we did this month. The story never says what the couple wanted the gold for. Not once. They have an egg a day and no reason attached to any of it, and I think that is why the knife made sense to them. If you do not know what the gold is for, no amount of it will ever feel like enough.

Every month in the Research Lab, we explore a question together. This month's question is... How does value become revenue? Sure... Todd and I will share what we're learning. And we also want to discover answers with you. When we announced this month's research theme was monetization, a few of you probably thought... "Uh oh... they're going to make us talk about money." 😅 Well... yes. But probably not in the way you're imagining. Around here, we don't believe monetization starts with an offer. We believe it starts with creating value. And value looks different at every stage. Maybe you've welcomed your first paying member. Maybe your community has led to a consulting client, a partnership, or a speaking opportunity. Maybe you're discovering what your members truly value before you've ever asked anyone to buy. Maybe you've completely changed your strategy. Maybe you've tried something that completely flopped. (Honestly... those stories might save the rest of us a lot of time. 😂) That's why we're launching Behind the Build as part of our Monetization by Design research project. This isn't just a research project. It's a monetization strategy hiding in plain sight. Think about it. What if you built a resource with your community instead of for your community? Every conversation becomes a lesson. Every lesson becomes part of a growing classroom. Over time, you've created something genuinely valuable that can live in your classroom, become a member resource, be offered as a free lead magnet, or even grow into a paid product. You're not waiting until everything is perfect. You're creating value as you build. That's exactly what we're doing with Monetization by Design. Instead of disappearing for months to create a course, we're inviting our community to help shape it. Together, we're documenting real experiences, discovering patterns, and building a library of case studies that future community builders can learn from. And honestly... We hope you'll borrow this idea for your own community someday.

One of my favorite traditions in Skoolology has been celebrating the amazing people who are building communities with purpose, generosity, and heart. We'll continue sharing our Community Builder Spotlights in the Celebrations thread, just as we always have. But we wanted to do something more. We've created a permanent home for every spotlight inside the Classroom under Headliners, our growing library of community builders. Why? Because these stories deserve to be easy to find. Instead of disappearing into the feed over time, they'll now be searchable, organized, and available for both our members and future visitors to discover. That means the incredible people we celebrate can continue inspiring others long after their spotlight week has passed. Our first Headliners include: 🌟 Lynne Vella Helping people understand their health information with confidence. 🌟 Kelly S. Kelly Helping people create peace by letting go of what no longer serves them. 🌟 Avinash Khatri Helping business owners build simple YouTube systems that create trust and consistent growth. If you missed any of their stories, or you'd like to revisit them, head over to Headliners in the Classroom. You might discover a new idea for your own community... or simply be reminded of the incredible people we're fortunate to build alongside every day. And to @Lynne Vella @Kelly S. Kelly and @Avinash Khatri ... Thank you for allowing us to celebrate your stories. You have each made Skoolology a better place. 💙 Building better communities. One spotlight at a time.

A gentle one to start the week, and it's about your community, not this one. A lot of us carry a quiet belief that caring about people and earning a living from that care are somehow in tension, that the purest way to help is to do it for free. And that belief, however noble it feels, can quietly wear a builder down. Here's the reframe worth sitting with... A community that can't sustain the person running it eventually can't keep showing up for its members either. Taking care of yourself, including being paid fairly for real value, isn't the opposite of serving your people. Sometimes it's what lets you keep serving them at all. No agenda here, just something worth making peace with before it becomes a real challenge. Where might you be treating "serving people" and "sustaining yourself" as opposites, when they might actually need each other?