"If you lose your cool, you lose control." (DOAC interview with DESMOND O’NEILL.) We all experience moments where we might say or do something we didn't mean. What are your tips and hacks that help you maintain your COOL and therefore maintain CONTROL? I'll share mine in the comments. Staying cool with you, Iris Built From Thought

MYTH: More content = more value. REALITY: More content often creates more confusion. I see course creators panic and respond the same way: They add another module, another bonus, another “just in case” lesson. It feels generous, but it also quietly breaks the learning experience. Here’s what actually happens when you overload a course: - Students can’t tell what matters most, so they do nothing first. - The “path” disappears, and the course becomes a content library. - Momentum drops because progress stops feeling measurable. - You get lower completion, fewer wins, and softer testimonials. Value isn’t measured in minutes of video.Value is measured in capability: what your student can confidently do after. If you want your course to feel premium and produce results, design for: - a clear sequence (this → then this → then this) - practice opportunities (not just explanations) - application (so students can make decisions without you) - tight scope (so “finished” is achievable) A high-quality course doesn’t say, “Here’s everything I know.”It says, “Here’s what you need to master, on purpose.” If you’re building (or rebuilding) a course right now, check out Your Best Course Experience inside of the Build Lab, it walks you through the exact process and frameworks you need to build with clarity, intention, and implementation so that you can stand out in your niche and scale exponentially.

First, people always try to reframe the word failure, so I would like to start by saying that to me, failure is nothing more than the best opportunity to learn from something that didn't go the way I wanted. Now that's out of the way... For years, I wanted to create my own course, but I had no idea what to create it about. I stumbled and fumbled around but didn't get much of anywhere. That's when I stopped and took a closer look at affiliate marketing. I thought you needed a huge list to make money as an affiliate, but I learned you don't. I thought you needed a bunch of expensive software and complicated tools, but you don't. What I learned is that you just need simplicity. (In my opinion, Skool is the answer) You may not have wanted to create a course as I did, but there's a good chance you wanted to create some kind of online business at some point. If that's you, then maybe affiliate marketing is for you. To learn more about affiliate marketing, the simple way, check out Affiliate Freedom Collective

Smell different things (especially food, yum!). Close one NOSTRIL,👃 smell whatever you choose to smell. Take notice of the different aroma notes and the intensity. SWITCH ↔️ nostrils and smell it the same way. Repeat and BE AMAZED 😃 at how each nostril can pick up different nuances of aroma notes and intensity. 👉👉👉THEN Share what you smelled and discovered here! Smelling with you, Iris (Built From Thought)

Welcome to Metrics Monday, that time in the week where we (upon request of the members) pull back the curtains and show you behind the scenes of the Classifieds. Number of Members: 803 (+45) Number of Premium Members: 166 (+9) Percentage of members who are Premium : 20.7% no change About Page Conversion: 28.1 (-1.3%) Churn = 9 in December Discovery Ranking in Money: #31 (-1) Discovery Ranking Overall: #101 (-5) Highest Activity Day: 1264 on Tuesday Lowest Activity Day: 533 on Sunday What it all means: So, most of you know that we rose 16 places in the money category in a matter of about 48 hours due to our Black Friday Free For All. I was expecting a bit of a correction, but what surprised me the most was how long it took for that correction to occur. We were vacillating between #27 and #28 for most of the week, but then a dip in activity made the star flicker last night and then go off this morning when we settled into 31st place. Our activity has always been the lowest on the weekend, which makes sense as many of us choose to prioritize our families at that time. Another interesting number is the percentage of members who are premium, which has remained unchanged. I'm very happy with almost 21% of the members choosing to be premium, so this is a great number. You'll notice a new metric I'm tracking, which is churn. It's only reported for the month, so it's a bit of a weird one to track, but people have been interested in it. I'm not sure how long I will continue to report on it because, personally, I don't look at it. I think it's a normal part of running a community, especially one like this - sometime members leave because they are no longer Skool group owners... Anyway, in the future I'll make more of an effort to put prompts for posts in the community as it seems like this really inspires people to post and encourages great interactions, engagement, and sign ups in your communities. This past week has been a bit of a doozy for me with pink eye (thanks daycare!), laryngitis, and a chest cold/cough - and family visiting!!!