Diary of a Community Builder

I forgot to tell you something, which, given the week it happened in, you'll forgive me for: Circle dropped a bunch of new features last week, on the very day we were moving Bella in. And yes, even mid-move, boxes in my arms, I was nerding out over them. I did a full breakdown on YouTube (one of my favorite videos I've ever recorded), but this is the diary, so you get my honest, unfiltered takes, including the one feature I'm calling the sleeper hit of the whole drop.

In this entry:

• New Circle features dropping on move-in day, because of course they did

• The full breakdown lives on YouTube; the honest takes live here

• The website builder page: kind of not my favorite, and why that's okay to say

• A real onboarding checklist (very excited, and waiting on the by-access-group version)

• The sleeper hit: workflows for people who were invited but haven't accepted, thank you, we've needed that forever

• Something to noodle on: how do you pick which shiny new things deserve your time?

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, new Circle features, honest platform takes, and the 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 I want to introduce you to someone very special: my new office chair. She's fancy, she's nice, she's beautiful, and she has lumbar support. But this is not actually an entry about a chair. It's about the ridiculous journey to get here: months of deciding, a whole bandaid chair purchased in the interim, and then a four-minute purchase that has me questioning why I didn't spend the money sooner.

In this entry:

• Meet the chair (I'm sitting in her right now, and I am a changed woman)

• Months of research, carts filled and emptied, and no trigger pulled

• The bandaid chair: literally paying for my own indecision

• Why the deciding cost more than the chair ever did

• Decisive for clients, a research committee for myself

• Something to noodle on: what's your office chair?

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 decisions, investing in yourself, 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's the day. As you're listening, it's Build Summit Day 2, my session, the hackathon. A real working session, live, in front of twelve thousand registered people. And the idea I'm bringing isn't a made-up example. It's a new offer I've been sitting with for a while, and since you read my diary, you get the name first: The Growth Room. It won't launch until the new year, and today it gets worked on in public, the strategy, the structure, and how I'd use Circle AI to bring it to life.

In this entry:

• Summit day: the hackathon, the nerves, and thinking out loud on purpose

• The diary gets it first: The Growth Room, the offer I've been sitting with

• What it's about: not launching your community, filling it

• Why it waits for the new year (some ideas earn the slow cook)

• Bringing the messy middle to twelve thousand people instead of a polished demo

• Something to noodle on: when's the last time you let anyone watch you think?

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, Circle AI, 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 are about to launch something crazy inside coCreator Society, and today I finally get to tell you about it. It's called The Community Architect. This project has been in the making for a while, and watching it come from my brain to life has been so cool. It's the framework I use with my actual clients, brought inside the Society as a process you do, not a course you watch, and you walk out with your blueprint.

In this entry:

• The Community Architect: my client framework (discover, design, build, launch, grow, thrive) as a step-by-step process inside the Society

• Not a course you watch, a process you do, and you leave with your community mapped and ready to build

• The rolling release: dropping stage by stage over the next several weeks, members build alongside the build

• The glow up treatment: structure and organization updates coming to the whole community

• Something to noodle on: what's the project that's been living in your brain for ages?

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 new products, the coCreator Society, 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.

As we all know, last week I moved my daughter into college and my son started his senior year on the very same day. But there's a piece of that story I left out. On my way home from dropping her off, heart in a million pieces, an email landed in my inbox: an invitation from Circle to join their Build Summit. Both things at once. Again. I'm starting to think that's just how life works now.

In this entry:

• The invitation that landed on the drive home from the biggest goodbye

• Not a panel: a real working session, a real idea from my business, worked through live

• Strategy, structure, and bringing it to life with Circle AI

• Over twelve thousand people signed up, and the summit kicks off tomorrow (I'm on Day 2, Wednesday, come find me, details in the event space)

• Something to noodle on: what would you bring to a live working session?

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, Circle AI, big opportunities, 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 little confession about this entry: I recorded it early. Because by the time you're hearing it, our family will have just had the biggest day we've had in a long time. Yesterday, we will have moved Bella into college. And the same exact morning, my son will have started his senior year of high school. Both things. One day. Thank you, God, for that scheduling. So I'm telling you what I know Friday will look like, and whatever actually happens, I'll tell you next week. Deal? Deal.

In this entry:

• Recording from the before: what I already know about the biggest day

• Senior year photos in the front yard, next to a car packed with his sister's entire life

• Two kids, two milestones, one mom trying to be present for both (the honest version)

• This is why community: days too big to carry alone, and the people who hold you through them

• We build this thing for other people, and this week it's holding me. It works.

• No big assignment, just this: send the "thinking of you today" text

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, family milestones, why community matters, 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.

You have a new host today. As you're listening to this, I am moving my eldest daughter into college, so before she left, Bella sat down at the microphone and recorded today's entry herself. She talks about her dream school, the mom who raised her solo and clapped first at everything, leaving behind two stinky boys (her words), and her four tips for every mom whose really cool daughter is heading to college. I'll be back tomorrow. Today belongs to her.

In this entry:

• A new host: Bella takes the mic on moving day

• Her dream school, journalism and political science, and maybe someday DC

• A tribute to the mom who's first to clap, first to cry, first to say "you did amazing"

• Bella's four tips for moms of college-bound daughters: the reels, the voice memos, the dog pictures, and the I-love-you texts

• "I will always be clapping you on, Mom"

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, the founder life behind the business, family, 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.

Tomorrow, we drive Bella to college. So today, a story I don't tell very often: two college experiences, hers and mine. Mine had no dorm room, I couldn't afford to live on campus. No shopping trip with my mom for throw pillows and string lights. Full-time work alongside a full course load, and student loans that followed me for years. And somewhere along the way I made a quiet promise, the kind you make to a kid who doesn't exist yet: she will not do it this way.

In this entry:

• My college story: commuting, working full time, and the rites of passage that weren't part of it

• Said with love: a mother who did what she could, grandparents who did even more

• The quiet promise, and Bella's version: campus, no loans, no job, and the shopping trip we finally got to take

• Why I choke on "I'm so grateful," and what I'm practicing saying instead

• The words founders (especially mothers) need to say out loud: I built that

• Something to noodle on: what has your business made possible that you've never taken credit for?

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, the founder life behind the business, what the work makes possible, 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.

Yesterday I left work early. Laptop closed, out the door, gone, to get my nails done with my girl, two days before she leaves for college. And since I promised you a feelings week: I'm not sleeping great, the three a.m. wake-ups run the packing list and the memories at the same time, and the strange part is nothing is wrong. Everything is going right. She's ready. This is the plan working. And my body is still treating it like an emergency.

In this entry:

• Leaving early for the nail appointment nobody schedules for you

• The three a.m. brain: did we get the mattress topper, and also, wasn't she just five?

• Excitement and grief holding hands, both true all day long

• Mother, friend, founder: why sharp is not the assignment this week, present is

• Something to noodle on: what's your version of the nail appointment?

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, big transitions, 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'm being honest right out of the gate: I'm recording this with a brain that is completely full. There is so much going on in the business, and the organizing itself has become a job. So I've been building ways to leverage AI to carry some of it, meeting notes, a daily brief, little systems that take things off my brain. But the real reason I want it all off my plate? It's a big week at our house. Maybe the biggest in a long time. Bella, my eldest, leaves for college this Thursday.

In this entry:

• When there's so much good stuff happening that getting organized hurts your brain

• The AI systems I've been building to carry the busywork (meeting notes, daily briefs, more soon)

• The real motivation: being present for the last few days before a very big goodbye

• A heads up: the diary gets personal this week, we're doing feelings, y'all

• Something to noodle on: what could a system carry so you can be present for what only you can be present for?

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, AI systems, founder life and family, 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.