We covered A LOT on @Sara Fredrick Sara’s Golden Ticket call. 😂 Free or paid. Public or private. Quiet members. Getting more eyes on a community. Starting another community. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I realized how often we were coming back to an answer that can be incredibly frustrating when you just want someone to tell you what to do: It depends. 😂 Not because we didn’t have ideas. Because the answer changed depending on what Sara was trying to accomplish. Take engagement. We talked about members who read but don’t necessarily comment. People who may not want to attend calls. Members who could be using what they’re learning without us ever seeing it. So how much engagement is enough? I asked Sara what a community that’s working looks like to her. She thought about it after our call and came back with: “People participating and enjoying the community. I think as long as I get some feedback (which I have), then I will be happy.” There it is. Not somebody else’s engagement benchmark. Sara’s. We ran into the same thing with monetization. Sara’s current community is free. She’s also thinking about starting another community and considering making that one paid from the beginning. Could both choices be right? Absolutely. We talked about public versus private communities, too. There are advantages and tradeoffs to both. Same with calls. Same with how we bring people into our communities. Same with a LOT of the decisions we make as builders. And maybe that’s why looking for THE answer can get us into trouble. Should I charge? Should I go public? Should I have calls? Should I post every day? Should I worry that people aren’t commenting? We can get an answer to every one of those questions. But without knowing what we’re trying to accomplish, it might not be the right answer for us. So maybe before asking: What should I do? There are a few other questions worth asking first. 🌿 What does a community that’s working actually look like to ME?

I just realized it’s been 30 days since I welcomed the very first member into The Room to Breathe. It’s still tiny, I’m still figuring things out, and I’m still waiting for that glorious first paying member 😂 but I made it through month one without quitting, changing the whole idea, or burning it all down. So I’m calling that a win. Here’s to month two. 🥂

Normally, today would be our Build Room call. We're trying something different. Todd and I are around today if you need us. If there's something you're working through and you'd like another set of eyes, a question to help you think, or just someone to talk it through with, bring it here. And if another builder sees something they can help with, you're always welcome to jump in, too. There is absolutely nothing you need to post today. If you're heads down building, keep building. If you're taking the day off, take the day off. If everything is going just fine and you don't need us, that's pretty great, too. 😂 Later today, Todd and I will record a short Build Room conversation and add it to the Premium Classroom. It's there if and when the topic is useful to you. No appointment. No catching up. We're here when you need us. ❤️

Your community is quieter than you hoped right now. Maybe you made a change, and the room went still. Maybe you're just early, and the replies are thin. Either way, the quiet has started to whisper something cruel... "See? You chose wrong. This isn't working." I've heard that whisper, too, so let's look at it honestly. Here's the first thing I want you to notice, and it might surprise you. The quiet often gets loudest right after you've been brave. You made a change. You took a risk. You tried something new, or you started the thing at all. And the moment you step out of the safe, familiar groove into something unknown, it goes quiet, because you've moved somewhere new, and new is always still at first. So that silence you're reading as failure? A lot of the time, it's the sound of you having done something. The people who never hear the quiet are usually the ones who never changed anything. So quiet is not a verdict. It's the messy middle, after a move and before the new thing takes hold, and growth is rarely loud in the middle. It's fits and starts, still stretches, small moves, doubt, and then something shifts. So what if the silence isn't a judgment at all, but information? Not "you failed," but "something wants your attention." The quiet can be curious rather than cruel if you let it. It might be telling you to reach out, or try one small thing, rather than telling you to quit. Which brings me to the thing that actually helps, and it's something this room already does beautifully. You bring your questions here. Your doubts, your fears, the "am I doing this right?" moments. You don't hide them. You lay them out and ask. That's rarer than you know, and it's exactly the right instinct, so please, keep doing it. When the quiet creeps in, the worst move is to go quiet too and carry it alone. So do what you already do. Reach out, ask, answer someone else's question. Say "Hey, is anyone else feeling this?" It's that back and forth that works the doubt loose.

Thanks @Donna Thornton for letting me share this... Something small happened today that actually feels pretty big to me. 𝗜 𝗵𝗶𝘁 𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗧𝘂𝗯𝗲. And honestly, the number isn't what I'm most excited about. It's everything that happened before it. In August, the channel started picking up: 𝟭𝟰𝗞 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝟭𝟱𝗞 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝟭𝟲𝗞 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝟭𝟴𝗞 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 And VidIQ now has the channel in the 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝟮𝟱% 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝟬 𝘁𝗼 𝟭𝗞 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀. But when I look back, the biggest thing I learned wasn't about views. It was about 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆. Because when you're starting something new, your brain gives you a hundred reasons to wait. "𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵." "𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨." "𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩." "𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐'𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵." I had those thoughts too. But eventually you realize... 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁. You start. You learn. You improve. And confidence comes from seeing yourself make progress. I'm still at the beginning of this journey, but I'm documenting the process and sharing what I'm learning through YouTube. And now I'm curious about everyone here: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄? Maybe it's a YouTube channel. Maybe it's a business. Maybe it's a personal brand. Maybe it's something completely different. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻?