The CLASSIFIEDS is now a paid community. 🤩 I've said since the beginning that community owners shouldn't make business decisions based on Growth Boost, and I strongly believe that to this day, but there were several reasons why optimizing for GB was in the best interest of this business. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order... 1. I have always kept this community free because I wanted it to be accessible, especially for new community builders. At only $2/month and a proven track record, I feel that is still true. 2. I have to keep GB on for this community because the Skool Network provides more than 50% of our members and Discovery is very important for our growth. 3. There were never any ads for this community. Increasing the percentage to 50 or even 70% didn't make a difference - it only resulted in my paying more of my profits to Skool. I've since learned that is because free and freemium communities are only rarely boosted. 4. The CLASSIFIEDS vacillates between a level 3 and a level 4 on Growth Boost, which would be ah-mazing except for the fact that being freemium gives us ZERO benefits. 5. I just learned that @Éva Raposa made a community a one time fee of $2 and got ads! 🤯 So, given all these factors, like I said, I believe it is the best interest for the long-term growth and prosperity of this group to go paid, but for a minimal fee. Let me know your thoughts below. I'll keep you updated with the progress (or lack thereof!). And, does this mean I have to put my picture on the thumbnail now??? 😩

In the words of my friend @Mimi Ramsey today was totally epic!!! Thank you to everyone who participated in the 7-hour long (!) WATER COOLER drop in today. Based on the comments and feedback I have received, it was a total success with a lot of wonderful conversations and connections made. The most astounding thing - conversations were had for the ENTIRE 7 hours!!! Every single time I logged in to see how it was going (which was often!), there were between 3 and 9 people in the call. My hope is that as more and more people hear about the wonderful opportunity that this is, the larger and larger the conversations will get. My apologies to everyone for the mix up with the links at the beginning of the day. We tried something new, and it did not work as anticipated! And if anyone has feedback or suggestions for improvement, I'm all ears. Thanks so much for being a wonderful part of this amazing community - yes, I am talking to you! 😊 @Traci Poe @Jing Wang @Diana Frank @Sybil Hall @Kevin Gebert @Sondra Verva @Mimi Ramsey Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to contribute and share your skills in such a wonderful way!

On April 22, the VIP members of the CLASSIFIEDS will be hosting a series of drop-in coffee chats over the course of 7 hours!!! This event is open to EVERYONE! This is called the WATER COOLER, and you can think about it just like you would the water cooler at an office - drop in when you have a few spare minutes in your day, catch up with what everyone is chatting about, and then come back as many times as you want throughout the day. 🤗 Each hour will have a different theme chosen by the host. Fun, right??? 🎉 Check out the schedule below, mark it on your calendar, and then show up to make connections, have a great conversation, and maybe even start a new friendship. 😉 First Hour: @Traci Poe of the Public Speakers Growth Hub - "It's In The Bag" (show up and have some fun) Second Hour: @Jing Wang of Altus Millionaire Club - Myths vs. Mastery - Self-Directed Roth Third Hour: @Diana Frank of Unfair Advantage - Authority & Visibility Fourth Hour: @Sybil Hall of Income Without Burnout - Meet & Greet Collabing with Skool Owners Fifth Hour: @Kevin Gebert of Moolavie Trio - The 12 - Your Voice Board of Directors Sixth Hour: @Sondra Verva of Amplif-AI Your Business - AI Magic - coffee chat Seventh Hour: @Mimi Ramsey of The Backroom | Say The Thing! - Say the Thing... Voice and Visibility

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Referral Rush for the past month. Every single referral you make strengthens our community and helps us all grow. Even though the rush is over, please continue to refer Skoolers with active groups any chance you get. And if you meet someone in another group who you'd like to get to know more without having to skirt around the topic of what you do or fear getting deleted or banned, invite them over to the CLASSIFIEDS and get to know them in an authentic way! Without further ado, there were three clear winners and no ties! First place (with 14 accepted referrals) and a 72-hour pinned post is @Katya McEwen , the Queen of networking. Second place (with 11 accepted referrals) and a 48-hour pinned post is @Tim Adam , the king of organic traffic. Third place (with 10 accepted referrals) and a 24-hour pinned post is @Des Dreckett the ultimate Skooler (just check out their leaderboards!) Please help me in congratulating them! 🎉 Katya, Tim, and Des, please send me a DM to arrange for your pinned posts. And thanks again to everyone who has helped to spread the word and grow our community. 😊