Rarely does anyone talk about this in the community-building world. But partnerships have been the single biggest growth lever in every community I've built or worked on in the last 6 years. Here's the approach. You can use it. The idea is simple. Find creators who serve the same audience as you — but aren't competing with you directly. If your community is for community builders, that might be: → A productivity creator whose audience includes people building online businesses → A marketing educator whose followers are thinking about monetisation → A platform creator who teaches Skool or Circle setup They're not teaching community building. But their audience wants to learn it. What do you offer them? The biggest mistake people make with partnerships is leading with "promote me." Instead, lead with value. "I'd love to write a free resource for your audience about [specific topic they care about]. No strings attached — just something useful for your people." Or: "I'll share your [course/community/newsletter] with my audience this week. If you find it valuable, I'd love to do something similar for you at some point." You go first. You give first. You make it easy to say yes. How do you reach out? Keep it short. No long pitch. No deck. No formal proposal. Something like: "Hey [name], I've been following your work on [specific thing] — really good. I run a community for community builders and I think there's a real overlap with your audience. Would you be open to a quick chat about something mutually useful?" That's it. No pressure. No ask. Just an open door. The honest reality check. Most outreach won't get a reply. That's normal. Out of every 10 partnership conversations, maybe 2–3 will turn into something real. But those 2–3 can each bring 20–50 warm, relevant new members to your community. That's the math that makes it worth doing. Start with the approach above. It works even with no audience and no reputation yet. What questions do you have about this? Drop them below. 👇

Quick question for everyone here What platform are you building your community on — or thinking about? - Skool - Circle - Discord - Whop - Telegram - Davinci Space - Something else - Still deciding No wrong answers. Just curious where everyone is and what's working (or not working) for you. Drop it in the comments and tell me one thing you love about it — or one thing you wish was different.

Most online communities fail before they make a single penny. Not because the idea was bad. Not because the platform was wrong. Here are the 3 real reasons — and what to do instead. 1. They build for size, not for value. Everyone focuses on getting more members. The communities that actually work focus on delivering enough value that the members they already have stay, pay, and tell others. Growth follows value. It rarely works the other way around. A community of 50 engaged, paying members is worth more than a community of 5,000 passive, free ones. 1. They pick a platform before they know what they're building. The platform is just the container. If you don't know what your community is for, who it's for, and how you plan to get paid — it doesn't matter whether you're on Skool, Circle, Davinci Space or anywhere else. You'll struggle on all of them. 1. They wait too long to introduce a paid offer. There's a common belief that you need a huge audience before you can charge anything. That's not true. You need a small, engaged audience and a clear, honest offer. That's it. The data backs this up — communities priced between £26–50/month have the highest engagement rates of any pricing tier. People who pay show up differently. If you're building a community right now — which of these feels most relevant to you? Drop it in the comments. And if you want to go deeper on all three — come join Community & Beyond.