last case study i did, you liked it. here is one more. this time it's actually anti-case study: what i do not recommend doing. shout-out to @Des Dreckett - founder of the Content Revenue Lab - who brought this to my attention. let's meet Dee: - Dee has (had) Undeterred community on Skool - it used to be a free community, when i joined. and it had i think 800 or more members (can't remember) - he was trying to sell high ticket 1:1 or group to his members then, Dee went on a wild hunt 🏹 - he decided to remove all inactive members and got it down to 250 members or smth, cause he said he is not interested in lurkers and it should improve engagement and ranking of his community (that failed) - then, he decided to make his free community paid, and turned it into $75 /month - promising to kick ppl out shortly , if they don't want to pay. at this point i left. (that did not work either, apparently) - today, now, he decided to pause/close his community permanently i do not know exactly what was/is going on in Dee's head. i can only infer from what i see from the outside. ‼️ what we all can learn from this case study‼️ what i see, he was pretty consistent on Skool - posting, commenting, participating in other communities. he invested a lot of his time & energy on it. but i think here is where he went wrong: he thought he can sell high ticket right away and he expected different conversion numbers/ conversion time. and he did not have a clue how community plays a role in his business model/funnel when i observed Dee, i noticed too much agony, unrealistic expectations, and just lack of basic marketing and business strategy. sorry, Dee (he left my community btw). the bottom line: - he worked on tactical level, strategy piece was missing - the expectations were off base - nurturing takes time, long, long time - maybe the community vehicle is not the right vehicle for him and he needs to find a better one - final point is, he says he will do content instead. if he thinks content game today is easier - good luck!

my MAIN goal for everyone in this community is go through Hackathon lessons and - launch a free/freemium community - grow it to 100+ members - become ready to monetize i am personally interested in you reaching this goal because: - i love helping ppl (and i see too many stuck at this stage) - once you reach that goal, you are ready to join my paid community - Community Income Mastermind (this is how i plan to make money on Skool) - i want this group to grow and your success = this group's growth and success so, very SELFISHLY, i want as many of you as possible to GRADUATE - finish the Hackathon: launch and grow your Skool community to 100 members. everything i do is to help reach this goal: for you, for me, for us. i introduced bunch of free live events for July. so far pretty unsuccessful - just one person showed up: shout out to @Carin Chantel and our fun conversations. keep in mind that she is a member of my paid community as well. now, there might be many reasons for that. but i have zero patience and desire to continue things that do not work. so i need your help on how to help you best. please answer below + comment below, what would be MOST helpful for me to do to heal you & me to reach your goals ⬇️

full recording is in the Vault, as all previous news issues for your convenience. let's start with the good, shall we? being on Skool really helps make admin/accounting part easy. Skool folks reminded us, and it's totally true. being a Merchant of Record, they are taking a huge burden off your shoulders. you can research what "MoR" means - here is Stripe's version of it. either way, it helps. and the bigger you grow, the bigger is the benefit. more good things: "free trial locked content" and "freemium plans on sign-up" are coming up. two thumbs up. great features - hopefully, will help facilitate conversions from free to paid. now, the bad 😈 kinda tired of hearing about those who are making it. would be great to learn the full picture - charts, graphs, numbers. or maybe look at someone who is struggling and how they can do better. "Skool of the week" and all other outliers are not gonna help me, you, and the other block to improve. actually, i & some of my friends on Skool are seeing the trend of ppl turning their community PAID because of the Skool news. and the only thing they are gonna get is DISAPPOINTMENT. cause unless you have a massive audience outside Skool, starting a paid community is not gonna work. well, now the ugly 👿 new Skool games. it's gonna be an ongoing MRR competition. that's it. they've introduced new level - ☘️ $3k/mo. good. but overall, they still focus on MRR as the one and only truth in business. okay. got it. and then, you can only get to the "exclusives" club if you get $100k+ MRR. let me ask you - what percentage of community owners are going to get $100k+ MRR? let me answer - very small percentage. probably less than 1%. so, the reality is - forget it. forget about Skool games. work toward your goal, your strategy, and your plan. everything else is just the noise. p.s. no doubt, my next goal is to hit $10k/m. but i do not expect it to be just MRR and/or just from one community. but now, more than ever, the 🚀 emoji is less attractive to me.

yesterday, i just ran a monetization AMA (ask me anything) here, in Hackathon. you dropped questions. i answered each one with a personalized Loom video. missed it? here is the thread - defo worth going through it was one of the most valuable things i've done for my community and my business. here's why you should do the same. - you get to hear what people actually struggle with i got 7 questions from members at completely different stages. i didn't have to guess what my people need. they told me. that's market research disguised as a community event. - your answers become content, without extra work every video reply i recorded is now a reusable asset. i can turn them into a classroom lesson, a newsletter tipic, a recap post, a lead magnet, even a mini course. one AMA thread. dozens of content pieces. - it builds trust faster than any course lesson when someone asks a specific question and you show up with a thoughtful, detailed, personalized answer — that hits different than a pre-recorded lesson. just had 2 upgrades to Premium Level from this one post 🎉 - it gives you a reason to talk about your paid offers, naturally. "if you want help mapping this out — that's what we do on a clarity call" "this is exactly what we work on in the mastermind." "i'm building a mini course on this — stay tuned." when the advice is real and the offer is the logical next step, it doesn't feel like selling. because it isn't. - it generates social proof you didn't ask for one member commented that the thread was 🔥🔥🔥 another said the mindset reframe around being proud of your offers was exactly what she needed. i didn't ask for testimonials. the format created them. ==== now, when and how are you going to run your AMA? - pick a specific topic: "ask me anything" is too broad. "ask me anything about monetization" gives people permission to ask the thing they've been stuck on - commit to answering every question with depth. a one-line answer is a missed opportunity. a 3-5 minute video reply? that's a relationship builder. - then recap it (like this one). pin it. repurpose it. the value compounds.

last couple of days were brutal. - first, the news about "Growth Boost" function (do not get me started) - then, tomorrow's debate being on a brink of complete failure (it will happen, but it took some effort) - and now, i got this member 🤦🏻‍♀️ from "Skool network" - ALFA MALE IN 30 DAYS, really?! it was the last straw. can i just go and scream, like really, really loud?? to be back, a nice happy smiling Lidia after that ps this is your permission to vent. no judgement pss ppl like this, get banned right away, no explanation. you can do that too.