5-6 years ago, the Vegan Gym started building communities on Facebook. Today they are running 8 separate communities on Skool, and they cap each one at 100 members. I recently talked with Daphne Bascom, their COO, and she shared how this academy model works and why they made the switch to Skool. It's pretty interesting. Why Cap at 100 Members? Most community builders think about scale as just adding more members to one community. The Vegan Gym does it differently. "We try and keep our communities around 100 clients so that our coach to client ratio is about one to 20, one to 25, so that we can maintain those close connections," Daphne explained. When a community reaches 100 members, they do not keep growing it. They launch a new one. That decision comes from what they have learned works. Daphne told me that "100 size is about a sweet spot that we've identified in terms of coaching, client, community closeness." This approach to community size management helps maintain engagement rates and member satisfaction while scaling operations. How the Academy Model Works Here's their community structure: • 1 parent community (Vegan Superhero Academy HQ) • 8 child communities with names like Avengers, Guardians, Legends, and Titans • About 100 members in each child community • 4-5 coaches per community • 16 total coaches across all communities Each community receives twice-weekly group calls, one-on-one coaching sessions with assigned coaches, and weekly masterclasses delivered by their coaching team. Daphne mentioned they practice what they call "unreasonable hospitality" in each community. The smaller community size makes that personalized approach possible. As she put it: "I feel like I know everyone in that community." This model represents horizontal scaling rather than vertical scaling—instead of growing one large community, they create multiple smaller communities as they expand. Why They Moved from Facebook to Skool The Vegan Gym transitioned their communities from Facebook to Skool after consistent feedback from their community members.

There is a lot of talk about challenges these days. Personally, I'm in the middle of building a free 7-day challenge for my other community Edit City. Anyone else doing this? Any tips?

In this week's episode with Koston Williams he talks about how he STOPPED using a VSL (video sales letter) on this About Page. The reason he did this was because his audience is plumbers who often have a sceptical view of online education. This is a market who might be nervous of wasting money on programs that don't work, or even getting scammed. Another way that Koston overcame this was by offering a 7-Day free trial (which I haven't seen many communities using, often because people are afraid of bots and scammers taking advantage of it). So my question to you is this: 👉 How sceptical is your market?

@Kat Kuczynska is building a research hub for parents with children diagnosed with autism, and she's using Skool to do it. 💪 In this interview Kat and I talk about: - Taking messy action - Communities as research hubs - Founding member feedback - Perfectionism - Bringing experts into your community - If you know someone with autism or you are curious about how to build a community around a true research project, this episode is for you. 👇

🎙️ Based on a podcast between William Renner and Matt Burns In the dynamic world of online community building, Matt Burns has emerged as an insightful voice on the Skool platform created by Sam Ovens and popularized by Alex Hormozi. After leaving his corporate job at Monday(dot)com, just 50 days before this conversation, Burns has quickly positioned himself as someone who deeply understands the psychology behind successful community building and what it takes to monetize effectively in today's digital landscape. I recently sat down with Burns to discuss the culture of Skool, the psychology of status in online communities, and the strategies that actually work for creating thriving digital spaces that generate sustainable income in an increasingly disconnected world. 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 When asked about the new affiliate features on Skool, Burns doesn't hesitate to identify the core human motivation at play. "What drives people, right? Let's take it out big picture. What drives humans to do anything? We have health, wealth... what do all those things really chunk up to? Status." This focus on status as the underlying driver of human behavior provides a powerful framework for understanding community dynamics. "You want status with the people you care about, status from your peers," Burns explains. "Health, wealth, money, all of those things chunk up to this." The affiliate program on Skool taps directly into this status economy, creating a system where members can increase their standing by bringing valuable new people into communities they believe in. It's a sophisticated approach that goes beyond simple referral mechanics. "When you think about having a group where somebody that you really respect or look up to or just wanna be closer to... what's a great way to get somebody's attention? You bring in great community members to that community," Burns points out. This creates powerful feedback loops that benefit everyone involved when implemented correctly.