How to Validate a Skool Community Idea (Before You Build Anything)
One of the biggest mistakes I made early on was building things nobody asked for.
Full courses. Lead magnets. Digital products. Sound like you yet?
All created in isolation. All launched with hope, and most of them quietly failed.
So when I had the idea for what eventually became Mindset Skool, I refused to repeat that mistake.
Instead of building the community firstโ€ฆ I validated the idea before it existed.
Hereโ€™s exactly what I did and how you can do the same thing.
๐“๐ก๐ž ๐’๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐’๐ค๐จ๐จ๐ฅ ๐•๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐’๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐ฒ ๐ˆ ๐”๐ฌ๐ž๐
Before Mindset Skool ever opened its doors, I used two things only:
โ€ข A waitlist
โ€ข Low-budget Facebook ads
That's it, nothing was built. Just a clear idea and a simple test.
The goal wasnโ€™t to โ€œlaunchโ€ anything.
The goal was to answer one question: Do real people actually want this and will they pay for it?
๐’๐ญ๐ž๐ฉ ๐Ÿ: ๐‚๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐š ๐–๐š๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ (๐๐จ๐ญ ๐š ๐‚๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ)
I built a basic landing page that said, in plain English:
โ€œIโ€™m thinking about building a Skool community around this problem.
Before I open it, I want to make sure people actually want it.โ€
If someone resonated, they joined the waitlist. No commitment, zero pressure, just raising their hand saying "I'm interested".
๐’๐ญ๐ž๐ฉ ๐Ÿ: ๐ƒ๐ซ๐ข๐ฏ๐ž ๐“๐ซ๐š๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ข๐œ ๐–๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐’๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐…๐š๐œ๐ž๐›๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐€๐๐ฌ
I ran a single ad that I shot on my phone in my house. Zero production.
Budget: $6 per day.
The ad didnโ€™t pitch a product. It described the problem:
Overthinking.
Imposter syndrome.
Fear of charging.
Getting stuck before you ever start.
If someone related, they joined the waitlist. Thatโ€™s validation.
๐’๐ญ๐ž๐ฉ ๐Ÿ‘: ๐‹๐ž๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Œ๐š๐ซ๐ค๐ž๐ญ ๐“๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐
This part matters more than people realize. Once people joined the waitlist, I asked them:
โ€œWhatโ€™s your number one roadblock right now?โ€
Their answers became:
โ€ข The content
โ€ข The positioning
โ€ข The first course
โ€ข The promise of the community
I didnโ€™t guess. They told me. I listened.
๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐‡๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ž๐ง๐ž๐ ๐๐ž๐ฑ๐ญ
When I finally opened Mindset Skoolโ€ฆ Not everyone from the waitlist joined.
Thatโ€™s normal. But enough people did to prove the idea was real.
From there:
โ€ข I ran ads to the community
โ€ข I used YouTube as my main traffic source
โ€ข I raised prices over time
โ€ข I built courses after members joined
Fast forward to todayโ€ฆ
Mindset Skool has hundreds of paid members, and the foundation was built before the community even existed.
๐“๐ก๐ž ๐‘๐ž๐š๐ฅ ๐‹๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง ๐‡๐ž๐ซ๐ž
Donโ€™t try to see the whole path.
You donโ€™t need:
โ€ข A perfect name
โ€ข A polished classroom
โ€ข A full curriculum
You need step one. โ€œI have an ideaโ€ฆbefore I build itโ€ฆdoes anyone actually want this?โ€
The waitlist + ads strategy answers that question fast. And it saves you months of wasted effort.
I just published a YouTube video where I walk through this step by step, including:
โ€ข The waitlist setup
โ€ข The ads
โ€ข The emails
โ€ข The mistakes I made
โ€ข What Iโ€™d do differently today
๐Ÿ‘‡ Watch it here
Question for you:
Do you already have a Skool idea you want to validate or are you still stuck deciding what it should be?
Drop it in the comments.
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Brian O'Neill
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How to Validate a Skool Community Idea (Before You Build Anything)
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