I was writing my honest review on Skool and that's when it struck me - your community culture is heavily influenced by the moderation. Recently, the main Skool community cracked down on what they called "fluff posts" and started moderating heavily. While it can be argued that low-quality posts went down - it took away some of the fun away. Now it's become more like a product-feedback forum and less like a community. Nothing wrong about it as long as that's what their intent is. But if you're into making money, you need to make things a lot more fun and casual. There will definitely be bad apples which you can always ban, but do not sacrifice the possibility of engagement to strict moderation.

Cap'n Jack Sparrow was my childhood hero and is my adulthood mentor. So this leaderboard is for him! Which one is your favourite?

Having a shared interest alone won't make your community thrive. Your community is your Nation, you are the President and it better have a Constitution. This post is the summary of your constitution where people know what they can do and what they cannot. Always start with that's in it for them: - Free calls (coming soon ) - Free courses (coming soon) Having said that, you are NOT suppposed to: - Promote yourself like it’s Craiglist - Send random DMs to people - Act spammy and ruin the vibe for everyone. See what I did? I set the tone, laid out expectations, and ensured everyone knows how to operate. Make sure to be specific. Now lead them to action. This is where you can do one or both of these: - Have a fun way for them to introduce themselves. Here you can just comment with a GIF that represents your community. - Send them to an oboarding module in the Classroom so that they have a better understanding of how Skool works (if your members are new to Skool), how your community works and how you work. Ensure this section is also about them - meaning provide a ton of value while doing the above. (You can also do this in the DMs later on) So I'll start with my GIF:

A client asked me: Hey Arvind, is it correct that many members do not join a group for the classroom, and more so to connect 1-1 with the owner of the group and their posts? I've heard that spending a ton of time creating content for the classroom, can be a waste as most people don't even check it out, let alone complete it. What's your thoughts on this. My response: Like everything else - it depends on the audience, the niche and the community owner. I know some communities where the opposite is true - where people join for the classroom stuff. It also depends on our posting strategy. Where are we driving people using our posts? Are we trying to get more signups for the 1:1s/group calls or are we trying to get them to the classroom? My thoughts in our case: The classroom shouldn't be a bunch of "theoritical courses" - the kind of stuff we see everywhere. It should be tools people can actually use when they are executing. For example, if I want to set up a podcast – I’ll need to figure out the equipment, software, and editing process. And if I have no clue where to start, that’s a problem. Even if I know a bit about audio editing, maybe I’m overwhelmed by all the details or just procrastinating. It could be anything. Now, if there was a "do-it-along" video on setting up a podcast from start to finish, where I could pause and follow step-by-step – I’d love it, even if I’ve dabbled in podcasting before. And when we have 1-1s, people are going to come up with these pain points. So then we can drive them towards these tools which are action oriented. Overarching principle is the 7-4-11 principle. (a buyer needs 7 hours of interaction, across 11 touch points, in 4 separate locations before they make a purchase.) I'm sure you know it. So having a super action oriented course would ensure that they are interacting with you when you sleep and it acts as an extra touch point in an extra location. The 4 locations in Skool would be: - Classroom - Forum - Video Call - DMs