Just a little something from me to you tonight. ❤️ If you're anything like me, there's always one more thing you could be doing. But maybe you've already done enough for today. A little over a minute of encouragement before you call it a day. Give yourself a listen. ❤️

Happy Wednesday, builders! ❤️🐼 Here’s what’s on my building table: My community is new. People join, but many stay quiet. When I post a question, the same few people answer. Try: this week I posted a 60-second video with one question at the end. It got 16 comments, and members started talking to each other, not just to me. My question for the builders here: what helped YOUR quiet members say their first word?

Tonight I’m running my first live workshop for my community. One hour on Zoom, free for members. I kept it simple: 3 stories, 1 question for each, and at the end one clear next step. For the builders who run live calls: what’s your best tip for getting people to talk on a live call, not just watch? 🙏

One of our members recently asked about scheduling tools, and I see how many different tools are popping up on Skool... Panda, Skooly, SkoolKit, and probably several others we haven't discovered yet. Todd and I use Panda, but I'm curious what everyone else is using! What are you using, and what's your favorite thing about it? If you're managing everything directly in Skool, we'd love to hear that, too! Let's compare notes! We might discover something that makes community building a little easier for each other. ❤️

@Jewels Sherriff shared a fun post about birth flowers in her community, and it got me thinking! October's birth flower is the marigold. And since Todd is an October baby, that makes it his birth flower! ❤️ But here's why I love marigolds so much. Years ago, when I was working in education, I came across an article called Find Your Marigold. It was written for teachers, but the message has stayed with me. Marigolds are often planted alongside other plants because they can help protect them from certain pests and create a healthier environment for growth. The article uses that idea as a beautiful analogy for the people we surround ourselves with. Marigolds are the people who help us grow. They're the ones who encourage us, share what they've learned, celebrate our wins, and remind us what we're capable of when we're having a hard day. And I've been thinking about how much that applies to building communities, too. We all need people who make the journey a little easier. People we can think out loud with, laugh with, learn from, and lean on when things get messy. And sometimes, we get to be that marigold for someone else. ❤️ Here's the article that started it all: Find Your Marigold 🌼 A little Common Ground fun for today! 🌸 🌷 What's your birth month, and do you know your birth flower? (I had to look some of them up!) 🌼 And who's been a marigold in your life? Someone who's helped you grow, encouraged you, or simply made life a little brighter? P.S. Thank you, Jewels, for the birth flower inspiration! I had no idea your post would bring me back to an article I've loved for years! 🥰