When I started doing a little weekly post about events happening around Skool, I had absolutely no idea where it was going. That post became a PDF. The PDF grew. I started manually loading events into a calendar. We created templates. Then automations. Then Magic Buttons. And somehow, a few months later, I'm sitting here with an actual website. Which is slightly ridiculous when I think about it. But looking back, the interesting bit isn't really what we built. It's what I learnt while building it. 1. You don't need to know where something is going before you start. I couldn't have planned what SED is today because most of it hadn't even occurred to me yet. Sometimes you only get to see the next idea because you acted on the last one. 2. Listen when people DON'T do what you expect them to do. This one has been uncomfortable at times. 😂 It's very easy to think, “Well, I've told them what to do. Why aren't they bloody doing it?” But people not doing something is information. Maybe it's too complicated. Maybe it takes too long. Maybe they don't understand why it's worth doing. Instead of getting annoyed with people, I've learnt to get curious about why. 3. Your customers will help you build your business if you pay attention. Some of the best changes we've made haven't come from sitting around having brilliant ideas. They've come from watching what our members struggle with, what they ask for, what they don't use and what makes them say, “Oh, THAT'S easy.” That's gold. 4. Don't get too attached to something just because you spent bloody ages creating it. Ouch. 😂 I've created things that worked perfectly well... until they didn't. The temptation is to hang onto them because of the hours you've already put in. I've learnt that sometimes the smartest thing you can say is: “Well, that served its purpose. What's next?” 5. You are considerably more capable than you think you are. This might be the biggest one for me. There have been plenty of moments during this journey when I haven't known how to do something.

Sorry not sorry for the title. I'm closing my Skool Monetization Lab community, and the reason is simple. I give away good content for free, and free members don't act on it the way my paying members do. I'm in my 50s, and I don't have time to waste like the younger "whippersnappers" (I have never written that word before 🤣). For me, time is currency, so I looked at this as return on time. In my paid communities, people have put money in, so they turn up and do the work. In SML, free content gets treated like a free sample. People take it and don't act on it 😏 That gives me a simple rule on pricing: 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰: a low-priced subscription is the better model, because paying filters for people who will act. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁: stay free. A price on an empty room only leaves you with an empty room. My own traffic comes from YouTube, and that's what keeps my paid communities full. Two more reasons. There are now a lot of free communities teaching the same thing, so it's hard to look different from the one next door. And the same hours in my other communities earn more. I use one test. If I'm not hearing at least one "KACHING" a week, the time and resources are being wasted. SML started as a test, and it worked at the beginning. Then Skool changed the rules. I'm not going to sit and cry about it. I've never been afraid to kill what isn't working, so I'm closing the doors. 𝗜'𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗔 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝘃𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿. Here's how to check yours this week: Add up the hours you spent on it last month, including posting, replying and prep. Then count the sales, bookings or paid sign-ups that came from it. Divide the hours by the sales and you have your number. If you can't point to at least one sale a week, ask yourself two questions. Do I bring my own traffic? Would the people in here pay for what I give them? If the answer to the first is no, the pivot may be as small as changing who you're bringing in.

One of my absolute favourite things about Plant Positive is that we get to talk about ALL the things that help us thrive. Strength. Habits. Consistency. Self-care. Mindset. Accountability. Living our values. And FOOD. Lots and lots of glorious plant-based FOOD. 😋🌱 This week has been a particularly delicious one. 🥦🫘💃 We kicked off my October One GREEN. One BEAN. One LEAN-Sexy-Sauce combos with: Charred broccolini + Arabian dense bean salad + hummus. Combo #2 is going LIVE today and I am VERY excited about this one. 😆 ✨ Our latest Vegan Recipe Glow-Up contender was a Loaded BLT Protein Hash Brown — which looks absolutely glorious and also presents a slight challenge for someone who has never been a “frier” and isn’t about to start! 🌯 And I’ve just discovered spiced roast pumpkin + herbed whipped tofu, which technically isn’t a wrap... however, I’m already imagining the whole lot stuffed into a giant collard leaf, so I’m counting it. 😆 The food is a BIG part of Plant Positive. Because I LOVE showing just how abundant, colourful, satisfying + seriously delicious healthy plant-based eating can be. However, this week we’ve also been talking about: 😩 How to stop negotiating with yourself and decide ONCE on the habits that matter. 😆 Turning Mini Sucks → Mini SUCCESSES and using tiny completed tasks as evidence that you’re someone who takes action. 💛 Finishing our 30-Day Self-Care Challenge and looking back at the practices worth carrying forward. 💬 Having a plan for when THE PLAN doesn’t happen. And 🎉 Thrive in 30 has officially started! Our October crew have chosen their ONE meaningful goal + THREE supporting habits and they are already checking in, taking action, encouraging each other and bringing the most fabulous energy. 💚💪 THAT is Plant Positive. ✅ Getting stronger + fitter. ✅ Eating food you genuinely look forward to. ✅ Building habits that support the person you want to be. ✅ Taking care of yourself so you have more to give to the things that matter. ✅ And doing it alongside a bunch of lovely humans who care about animals, our planet + thriving personally too. 🌱💚

YouTube used to be my main traffic source. Now the fastest and most targeted are online events and presentations 🤯 The best channel for a community changes over time, and mine did. I'd have missed the shift if I'd kept doing what had worked before. Here are all ten ways I use, with a closer look at the three behind that change. 1. Film one long video a week and cut everything else from it. 2. Say your community's name in the video, link it in the description and a pinned comment, and make your About page match the video's promise. 3. Leave one useful comment a day in communities where your people already are, with no link in it. 4. Give each video one small resource, and make joining the way to get it. 5. Write The Skool Classifieds posts with a story ahead of the offer. 6. Go to events in person. You get fewer people than online, but they've already spoken to you before they join. 7. Test every network, then double down. Give each one the same weekly effort for four to six weeks, ask every new member where they found you, and divide joins by hours spent. Look at more than the top number, because a video keeps working after you stop and a comment doesn't. 8. Run online events with a date on them. Put the outcome and the time zone in the title, such as "Fix your About page in 30 minutes: live workshop, Thu 7 pm UK", and list it where people from other communities can find it. A date gives people a reason to join today rather than eventually. 9. Present inside other people's communities. Their members already trust the host. Comment usefully and come to their events first, then offer a 30-minute session on one specific problem, and agree with the host beforehand on what you can mention at the end. 10. Write your About page for search. Skool has no keyword box in the dashboard, so I put my main keyword in the first few paragraphs, with related terms alongside it. The PDF goes deep on all ten: how to set each one up, word-for-word scripts, templates and the mistakes I'd avoid. 👇

Do you know what it is? It's... THIS GROUP here! The workshops. I'm just about to plot out my master plan for how I'll share workshops in here. Have you taught one or joined one in here yet?! RELATED >> We're focused on Collab Opportunities this month in Connect & Collab. If you love to grow your business sustainably and know that collaborations are a big help, c'mon in and join us!