As we roll over to a new year and enter the comma club (in terms of members) it seems fitting that this is also a good time to introduce a new moderator! Please help me in welcoming @Faith Adebayo who will be joining @Mona Weathers as moderators for this group. Both have a wealth of experience leading groups, have been around the CLASSIFIEDS since the beginning, and I am so grateful that they have both agreed to help out with ensuring the CLASSIFIEDS is a positive, supportive place where you want to hang out. I think this is also a great time to clarify some of the guidelines that people get confused about: 1. Posts in the community are for free offers (paid Skool groups are fine). 2. Paid offers must be posted in the Classroom (you can link to the classroom from the community). You can do this by becoming a Premium member. 3. You can post once a day in any category, NOT once a day in each category. If you have more than one group, you still only get one post a day. This is to prevent the feed from getting clogged up. 4. You must promote yourself (and you must be the one doing the posting - not a VA, admin, etc). Affiliate links and shoutouts are reserved for the #FriendFriday thread. 5. Absolutely not promotional DMs or DMs inviting people to join your group - this is grounds for immediate removal from the group. The whole purpose of the group is to promote yourself, so please do it in the public feed. I'm so looking forward to seeing what everyone creates this year, how everyone collaborates, and most importantly getting to know you all more through our meet ups, which you can find on the calendar. Don't forget that you are able to earn affiliate commission by using your personalized invite link in the right panel. Let's do this, team!

Thank you all for rallying behind this incredible group. All your contributions, support, and positive energy have come together to make this an amazing place to be. I can't wait to see what we all create in 2026 together. It's going to be a great year. Now no one churn! 😂

In my post about online presence I went over several places where you can build your online presence in order to get audience and clients. I also went in detail on that live in a call that you can check at AI Storytellers. One item that is very underrated in that list is profiles at freelancing websites like Upwork or Fiverr. I personally love Fiverr, because unlike upwork, the clients go to me. ---> Here is a list of tips for those who want to go on this direction: 1. Understand the demand. Offer something people will want to buy. Look for profiles of sellers that look the most as yours, look at the most successfull ones and find out what they are doing right. 2.Niche down. In order to stand out you need to have specific skills that are demanded and offer a plus that not a lot of people offer. In my case, my niche is building and automating communities (not just on Skool, but other platforms like Circle and Mighty Networks), but I managed to stand out among hundreds of profiles that do exactly that and get a client, by saying I would help them make the right choice of tool according to their budget. A great way to niche down is also by language. If you speak more than one language, if english is not your native one, that can get you clients too. My last gig was someone from Brazil who selected me among hundreds of profiles because I'm one of the few brazilians on Fiverr that do what I do. 3.Create a portifolio and a vídeo presentation. People will buy from you if they can trust you. A big plus is if they can see your previous work. A huge plus is if they can see your face and know who they are dealing with in advance. Most people don't show themselves, so you stand out when you do. If you can add a video testimonial of a satisfied client also, that will work wonders. 4.Don't wait for the algorithm to work by itself. Show yourself up in every corner of the internet that you can to be usefull. Join communities, create your own (I can help you with that), asnwer questions on forums, create social media content, write blog articles, record vídeos showing what you do. Help people, build relationships, offer help to local businesses and friends. The more active you are, the more work opportunities, experience and confidence you get.

I had a chat with a massage therapist the other day. And she was giving me resistance on hiring a VA that I wanted to recommend to her. It wasn't cause she didn't have the money. She's booked out until March. It was because her stuff was messy. For some people, bringing in someone can be a little embarrassing because it's a moment in our business where we have to be brutally honest with ourselves. Most people don’t delay hiring a VA because of money. They delay because hiring forces transparency. When we bring someone in, we can’t keep pretending the chaos is temporary. We can’t blame the season, the launch, the algorithm, or the platform. A VA doesn’t just help. They witness. They see the half-built systems. The ideas living in notes apps. The SOPs that exist only in your head. The revenue that should feel easier by now. And a VA worth her keyboard is going to call all of it out. And that’s uncomfortable. So instead, people say: I’ll wait until I’m more consistent. I’ll hire once I clean things up. I’m not ready to manage someone yet. Translation: If I don’t hire, I don’t have to confront how I’m actually running this. You don’t hire a VA because you’re ready. You become ready because you hired one. Clarity comes after delegation. Systems get built when someone needs them. Consistency happens when you’re no longer doing everything yourself. Hiring a VA isn’t a reward for being organized. It’s the decision that forces organization. And if what’s really stopping you is fear of choosing wrong, overpaying, or hiring someone who can’t actually support you, that’s exactly why the Hire a VA Skool exists. It’s not a hype list. It’s not random freelancers. It’s verified, professional VAs who treat this like a business, because you should too. You’re not “not ready.” You’re just standing at the edge of the next version of how you run things.

Some of you heard about my stressful Santa situation in our last PERSONALS meet up. Well, the snow forecast has not gotten better, and the gifts are still at my parents, so we've made a last minute decision to split up. The kids and I will go tomorrow morning, and my husband will join us later in the day (kennel issues for the dog and roadworthy vehicles are another consideration...). That means that I am madly packing, wrapping, cleaning, and picking up after two kids who are tearing the house apart faster than I can put it together so that we can leave a day early. Long story not so short, Metrics Monday will be back in the new year. As we close in on 888 members, I am so thankful for each and every one of you, and I hope you all have a restful, peaceful, and fun holiday season with those you love. Some of us spoke quietly about a goal to reach 1000 members by the end of the year. It's not totally out of the question, and all your lovely referrals have been inching us closer and closer every day! I will be online over the holidays as family commitments permit, and I look forward to seeing what you share here. I have a few big things happening at the beginning of the year that you will want to watch out for. 😉 Talk soon!