Diary of a Community Builder

We made it to Friday, and here's the last entry of our cleaning-house week: a story about trusting your gut. While organizing all that YouTube content, I realized I hadn't put a video out in a while, not for lack of recording (I've been recording constantly), I think I just got a little burnt out. So I sat down to record one on a brand-new Circle feature, and it felt forced. I never struggle to record my videos. Turns out my gut knew something my brain hadn't caught up to yet.

In this entry:

• Realizing I hadn't posted a video in a while, and the camera burnout behind it
• A PSA: do not install Circle's new getting-started checklist yet (as of recording, there are real issues)
• How I found out, reaching out to my contacts at Circle, and why I pulled the video
• Why I won't put my name on "go turn this on" when I know it's broken
• The real lesson: the recording felt forced because my gut already knew the feature wasn't working
• Something to noodle on: when did something feel off and you pushed through anyway?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, trusting your instincts, protecting trust, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

If you haven't caught the theme yet, we are cleaning house this week, and I am not done. Today's confession: for my one-on-one clients I have this really robust build-your-community checklist, and it needed updating because there are new features and new ways to do things. And you know me, I did not just update it. I noticed a lot of the tasks only applied depending on your pricing tier, so I did a little vibe coding and built a system that hands you a personalized launch list based on the plan you're on.

In this entry:

• The robust build-your-community checklist, and why it needed a refresh
• Keeping up when you're at the helm of a product like Circle
• Embedding it into the Membership Architect launch
• Vibe coding a system that personalizes your launch list by plan, plus predetermined paths (want to run a course? here's yours)
• Why it all comes back to meeting your customer where they are
• Something to noodle on: where are you handing people a one-size-fits-all thing that should meet them where they are?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, customer experience, launch systems, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

You've made it to Wednesday, and you can tell we've been busy. But the website and the Notion move aren't even all of it. We've also been building out our SOPs and designing internal skills using Claude. Our SOPs weren't all in one spot, and I finally wanted to build them out with a real framework. And because I cannot do the small version of anything, it became part of our Membership Architect launch: forty-nine bare-bones SOPs plus a builder that lets you create your own and store them.

In this entry:

• Finally getting our SOPs out of scattered docs and out of my head
• The forty-nine standard Circle SOPs and the builder, now part of the Membership Architect launch
• Storing all of ours inside Notion, and the peace of everything in one spot (thank you, Molli)
• What a custom skill is, in plain language
• The skills we've built for repeatable work: setting up events, writing event replays
• Something to noodle on: what process only works when you do it?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, SOPs and systems, AI skills, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

Yesterday I told you about the website glow up. Today, the other big thing happening behind the scenes: we moved to Notion. And I need to be honest, because it's a journey. I've dabbled before, I've wanted so badly to be a Notion girly, and the very first thing that happened when we switched? I felt overwhelmed. Because of course I did. But we didn't do it halfway, we migrated all ninety-four podcast episodes (we're about to hit one hundred!) and two hundred YouTube videos.

In this entry:

• Wanting to be a Notion girly, and the friends who made the leap possible (thank you, Cat and Molli)
• Why ClickUp stopped working, and the overwhelm that comes with any fresh start
• Migrating ninety-four podcast episodes, with episode one hundred landing October 20th
• Two hundred YouTube videos moved too
• The blog cleanup: a post for every episode, and finally getting the videos on the site (thank you, Maggie)
• Something to noodle on: what system do you limp along with because switching feels too hard?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, systems and tools, cleaning house, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

Happy Monday, friends, and oh, I have missed you. The Diary took a little week off, and I owe you the story, because it's a good one. I've been heads down on a website revamp, not just one site but two, Community by Design Co. and the Society, both getting the full glow up at the same time. Because apparently I don't know how to do things the small way.

In this entry:

• Why the Diary went quiet for a week (spoiler: it's a happy reason)
• Revamping two websites at once after a name change
• The friends who make it possible: Tonic, and the best templates around
• Why working hard and working from scratch are not the same thing
• Something to noodle on: what do you keep building from scratch when a gorgeous starting point already exists?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, working smarter, brand and website, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

A very relatable Friday confession: I had my annual doctor's appointment this morning. Raise your hand if something in you feels a little violated the second you step on that scale. And a little honest grumble, because I take care of myself and my body still does its own thing, which is the reality of an autoimmune situation. But then the good part, because this weekend I am over the moon: I'm going to see Ed Sheeran live in Detroit, tickets I bought a year ago, knowing this exact season was coming.

In this entry:

• The annual appointment, the scale, and not wanting to know the number

• An honest word on doing everything right while your body does its own thing

• The Ed Sheeran concert in Detroit, and the backstory that makes it sweeter

• Past-Rachel buying the tickets a year ago, knowing this season would need pure joy

• Something to noodle on: what actually fills your brain back up, and when's it next on the calendar?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, founder wellbeing, filling your own tank, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

Today is a cleanup day, all the calls and to-dos that piled up while I was off being live at a summit and feeling my feelings. Every week needs one. But there's one very un-boring thing happening today: I get to launch my dear friend Kristen Proby's reader community, a Circle Plus branded app built for the people who love her books. It has been so much fun to nerd out and build. And in between the cleanup, a thought about all the new client calls lately, and the fuzzy, I-want-something-but-can't-name-it feeling so many people are carrying right now.

In this entry:

• Cleanup day: picking up the pieces after a big week (glamour off the charts)

• Launching Kristen Proby's reader community, a Circle Plus branded app for her readers

• Why building for readers is special: they already know how to love something together

• The wave of new client calls, and people who want a digital business but can't name it yet

• Why "I don't know what I don't know" is the beginning, not a problem

• Something to noodle on: what are you circling right now that you can't quite name?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, client launches, reader communities, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

Last Wednesday was amazing, and I've been waiting all week to tell you about it: my session at the Circle Build Summit. Live, in front of over five hundred people in the room, noodling out loud on an idea I haven't even launched yet. I get nervous about these (you've heard me white-knuckle toward a few right here), but once I'm in it, there's nothing I love more. Give me a room and a half-formed idea and let me build it out loud, and I'm the happiest woman alive.

In this entry:

• The live Build Summit session, over five hundred people in the room

• Thinking out loud in public, and why it's the most alive this work ever feels

• The real idea I workshopped: The Growth Room, my high-ticket founders mastermind for the new year

• Working an offer live instead of presenting it polished and finished

• Why polished is over, and the building is where all the fun lives

• Something to noodle on: what would you build in front of people if you weren't waiting for perfect?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, building offers in public, big rooms, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

We built a client a learning management system, and it is chef's kiss (you've heard me mention this one, the beast, the big one). This week we brought in a fresh group of users to test it before it goes wide, which is my favorite unsexy part of this whole job. Because I cannot tell you how often I see people just launch. Open the doors, cross their fingers, and let their paying members find the kinks on day one. That's the most expensive place to find a problem.

In this entry:

• The beast project is real now, and it's beautiful

• Why launching with no test group means your members find the kinks on day one

• The most expensive place to find a problem (a member's first impression, which you don't get back)

• What good testers catch beyond broken buttons: the stuff that works but confuses

• "Looks done to me" and "works for a stranger" are two very different sentences

• Something to noodle on: what are you about to launch without a test round first?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, launching well, testing and member experience, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

I promised you the honest version of this season, and last Monday was it: my first Monday without Bella at home. Colton went to school, the house went quiet, and I felt it. I was running behind all day, mostly because I'd spent the whole weekend just feeling sad and things hadn't gotten done. And I let myself have those feelings, on purpose. But here's what surprised me: that same week turned out to be one of the best I've had in ages. Both things, one calendar. Again.

In this entry:

• The first Monday with an empty, quiet house

• Running behind because the weekend was for feeling sad, and letting that be okay

• Why feelings that don't get their day just reschedule themselves (at a worse time)

• The plot twist: the same week became one of the best in ages

• A rundown of what's coming all week

• Something to noodle on: when the heavy shows up, do you let it have its day, or turn it into a to-do list?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, founder life and family, holding grief and good news at once, and the honest, in-between moments, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.