Honestly, I’ve joined many Skool groups and they’ve all been disappointing. Common things I run into: - No one engaging with my posts/dms - Courses not meeting expectations - Low effort from community creator - Not much to do It’s a bit discouraging because the impression I’ve gotten from many groups is that it’s really not worth the money. I want my group to be different, but let’s be honest with ourselves. Would you buy, use, and benefit from your Skool community?

I’ve been thinking about my community value, self worth, and monetization. They’re separate things but they all tie in together. My group is free, and it will be for a while, but when I do monetize it, what will it be worth? And this is something you can ask yourself for your own community. I help filmmakers master their craft and monetize without trading time for money. For me that is the absolute dream. If I told my younger self that he could travel the world, create next level cinematic videos, and make money by learning and talking about filmmaking with likeminded people, he’d probably pay anything to get that. If I can get people there, that’s almost priceless. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Now back to the question that made you click on this. Is your community worth more than a cup of coffee? I mean honestly let’s think about it. A cold brew from Starbucks is $5.12. When we buy a cold brew we say thanks even though we spent the money. We got more perceived value than we spent. Now let’s say your community is $129/month. That’s $4 per day. Less than a cold brew. So do you think that value you give your members when they log on every single day is worth, at least, less than a medium cold brew coffee? When you think about it like that, yes, of course it is. If your offer really helps people reach their desired state then it’s absolutely worth far more than that. I’ve been surrounded by limiting beliefs my whole life and I still am. But thinking through this question has really made me rethink my pricing and what my offer is worth. And it’s making me 10X more driven to achieve my goal because I’ll make way more money than I thought. And if you’re struggling with charging for your community I think it’s helpful to remember that you’re good enough. What you know is unique and you can really help people. You deserve to have the life you want and it’s actually not that out of reach. You got this 🖤

Buying a Skool membership is like buying a video game. When you buy it, you have high expectations. You’ve seen the gameplay, read the back of the game, etc., and if the gameplay is not good, or if there’s not enough content in the game, it feels like a letdown. Don’t let this be your community. I've found that there needs to be a lot for the members to do. The course content needs to be appealing with captivating thumbnails. Also the courses should be things that unlock something in your member's journey. They should be the solution to their specific problems, which is why you have to know your members well. But beyond the courses, their should be things for the members to do daily. Weekly calls are good. Daily calls or multiple times per week are better. But beyond that, there should be "side quests" for your members. - Weekly challenges - Posting their goals for the day - Doing something specific and posting it to complete the challenge Obviously a highly engaged community will help, but if all there is to do is post/comment in the community, watch courses, and get on calls, it can get boring ): and this may lead to a high churn rate. That's why, by adding side missions and "tasks" for your members to complete, you'll make being in your community 10X more fun and rewarding because they are actually doing things in the real world. That's it. Just some observations I had while interacting with other communities. Hope it helps someone 🖤

Here’s what I’ve learned in the 3 months I’ve been on Skool. Maybe if you’re just starting out this will help you avoid the same mistakes. Slow growth > fast growth I grew my group to 50 people in around 90 days but they weren’t the right people. Most people weren’t even filmmakers and they came from Skool. I had to kick 40 of the video and start over with only the active members who are dedicated. Be extremely picky which who you let in. Number of members doesn’t really matter if they’re not actually using the group. The community is value when it’s tight-knit and focused. For example filmmakers who make cinematic videos on YouTube and want to monetize their passion without trading time for money. Wait to monetize (j-curve) When you start your group you’re not making money. It’s a loss because you’re paying $99/month and getting nothing in return. But I would argue that you should wait to make it paid until you’re 100% sure that you’re providing an excess of value to your members + your members are verifying this with organic testimonials in the group. Plus when you think in this mindset of “I need to make money from this because I’m paying for Skool” everything gets worse. Now you’re in a position of scarcity and urgency. When I was thinking like this my content got worse and I started to focus on money instead of the thing I actually want to focus on which is filmmaking. I want to be an amazing filmmaker. That’s the main thing. By posting my best work I will naturally bring in traffic to my community. It’s a slow process and that’s okay. There’s no rush. I’ll say it again. There’s no rush whatsoever. Enjoy the process of building and don’t stress. It’s supposed to be fun but we make it hard on ourselves. What people buy and what they need are two different things unfortunately. I want to sell “master your craft” but people only really buy from the eternal markets of health, wealth, and relationships. So by adding in the monetization piece it makes your offer more appealing. What people really need to do is focus on mastery because that leads to monetization. But you have to “sell” the outcome not the process. At least that’s what I’ve learned.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I don’t like the rounded corners on posts on the mobile app. I think it should go back to the old style. Who’s with me?